This is Lesson 3. It assumes your child has met the letters from Lessons 1–2 (a, m). If not, start at Lesson 1 — each sheet takes only a few minutes.
Today your child meets the letter s and its sound /s/ — the hiss at the start of snake. As always, the sound is what reading uses; the name (“ess”) is just what we call the letter. With a, m and s your child can now read am and Sam.
Say “sss,” not “suh.” Let the hiss trail off to nothing — no “uh” on the end. That stray “uh” is the single biggest thing that makes blending hard later, because “suh-a-m” does not sound like Sam.
s — teeth almost closed, lips in a small smile, and let the air hiss out like a snake: sss.
Watch each other’s mouths in a mirror. Seeing what the mouth does makes the sound stick far better than hearing it alone.
Big first, small last. Sky-write it huge in the air, then finger-trace the big letters, then pick up a pencil. Always start at the red dot, and say “sss” each time a letter is finished, so hand and sound get glued together.
Backwards letters are completely normal at this age. Point at the start dot and try again — it fixes itself with practice.
Two kinds of dot. The red dot on the writing page is where the pencil starts. The dots under a word are its sounds — touch each one, say its sound, then slide along the arrow and say the word. Fuller instructions are on the words page itself.
1. Thumbs up. Say words one at a time; thumbs up if the word starts with /s/. Try: sun, sock, soup, sand — and some that do not: moon, apple, dog.
2. Robot talk. Say a word in two robot pieces, they snap it together: “I say c…at — you say cat!” No letters needed — this one works in the car.
Five minutes a day beats twenty on Saturday. Stop while it is still fun.
In the letter hunt, the other letters are a and m from the last two lessons, so the hunt doubles as review. On the picture page, name the pictures together first: the sun, the moon, a sock, an apple, a star, a tent.
Mouth check: say sss. Are your teeth almost closed? Can you feel the air hiss? Look in a mirror with your grown-up.
1. Trace the big letters with your finger.
2. Trace the dotted letters with a pencil. Start at the dot.
3. Now write it on your own. Start at each dot.
Circle every s. There are 9 to find.
Name each picture out loud with your grown-up first. Then circle the ones that start with /s/.
Touch each letter and say its sound — clean and clear.
Start with the letter row at the top: touch each letter and say its sound, cleanly — “mmm” not “muh”. Then go to the words.
The dots under each word are its sounds — one dot per sound. Your child touches each dot and says that sound, then slides a finger along the arrow and says the whole word.
The arrow matters as much as the dots. The dots show where the sounds are; the arrow says do not stop between them. Said with gaps, “/m/ … /a/ … /t/” does not sound like mat; stretched together, “mmmaaat” does.
If your child gets stuck, you slide and stretch it first and let them copy you.
Once you have read this, fold it back. Then the page holds nothing but the words.