Teachers can cut S’s out of polyethylene foam and prime the foam with white, non-toxic acrylic paint. The priming paint covers the foam to prevent bits of it from going everywhere and gives the students a good painting surface. The students are then provided with non-toxic paint and brushes to color the letters. One color per letter is probably wise for management and supervision purposes. The painted foam letters can be displayed around the classroom. Foam is not the only option for this exercise; teachers can use wood, sponges, or even rope glued to poster board. Play-dough letters will take paint if the play-dough is thoroughly dry first.
All you need for this one is white construction paper, wax crayons and non-toxic watercolors. Students write their S’s on paper with crayons, one or several as the teacher prefers. They can even turn their S's into snakes by adding a head with eyes and forked tongue – S for Snake. When the letters are finished, the kids can begin to apply paint. The wax letters will emerge from the paint, because the paint cannot adhere to wax. So it doesn’t matter how wild and crazy the painted designs – the crazier the better – the wax crayon letters will come through quite clearly.
Old roll-up blinds are great painting materials for preschoolers. They are a thin, coated fabric not unlike artist's canvas. Cut them into 2-foot by 2-foot squares and draw a letter S on each, using one-inch thick lines. Cover the S with one-inch masking tape, ensuring sharp, clean edges, and press down the edges to ensure good seals. Instruct the kids not to pick at the tape. Give them finger paints and let them go to town on the surface of the fabric. When their paintings dry, you can lift off the tape leaving clear white S’s with very colorful and interesting backgrounds. If you have stencils, you can trace on the stencil and fill the stencil space with masking tape.
This one is a combination activity. Wax crayon S’s create the basic painting surface; but instead of just painting over the wax impressions, the students apply the paint with strings (S for string), moving the String like a Snake, Squiggling the String, Stretching the String Straight or Slapping the String onto the Surface. This provides a very Sibilant phonics lesson with the painting activity.