Say It! /s/ Final Words — Spelling
Articulation · Grades K–3 · 10 cards
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Say the word, segment it, then build. Group by ending as you go: bus takes a single s; dress, grass, kiss and glass double after a short vowel; goose, horse, house, moose and mouse end in se after a long vowel or an r. That is a real pattern and it accounts for every word here except bus.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentAfter building each word, the student says it aloud. Wait 3 seconds.Log as correct
- Visual cuePoint to your mouth, or show the mouth picture for /s/, before the student tries again.Log as cued
- Verbal modelSay the word; the student says it right after you.Log as cued
- Placement cueTeeth close together, tongue tip just behind your top teeth without touching them, sides of the tongue against your top side teeth. Send a thin stream of air down the middle.Log as cued
Adjust it
Drop to syllables ('iss' and 'oss'), or use fewer cards.
Put each word in a short carrier phrase with no /s/ in it or mix in /s/ words from another position.
Matching IEP goal
Given word cards, Student will produce /s/ in the word-final position in single words in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than a visual cue.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
The ten final /s/ words — bus, dress, grass, kiss, glass, goose, horse, house, moose, mouse — as a spelling task. Derived from the flashcard deck, and the spellings are more varied than they look: the same final sound is written s, ss and se across these ten, and which one you use depends partly on the vowel before it.
What to listen for
Watch the doubling after short vowels, which is the same rule that governs ll, ff and zz at the end of a one-syllable word. Notice the se endings, where the e is silent and does not lengthen the vowel in horse — a student applying the silent-e rule will expect it to and be confused.
Carrying it home
Ask whether a word ends in ss or se. Grass against house is a clean pair, and the vowel before it points at the answer, which is a rule a child can check themselves.
What's in this activity
- bus
- dress
- grass
- kiss
- glass
- goose
- horse
- house
- moose
- mouse
Questions
- How does this differ from the flashcards?
- Same ten words, built from letters. Three spellings for one sound make this version worth doing with a student working on spelling as well as speech.
- Do I need an account?
- No, it plays free in the browser.
- When does the s double at the end of a word?
- After a short vowel in a one-syllable word — dress, grass, kiss, glass. It is the same rule that doubles l, f and z in words like ball, off and buzz.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.