Growling with the letter R
Emergent Literacy
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Rationale:
This lesson will help children identify the phoneme /r/, represented by R. Students will be able to recognize /r/ in spoken words by being able to identify the phoneme in a meaningful representation (growling bears) and the letter R, practice finding /r/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /r/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
Materials:
Students will need paper and pencil; chart with “Ruth and Rachel ran after Richard's rabbit in the rain”; drawing paper and crayons; word cards with RIP, ROCK, MAKE, RENT, SEND, and ROPE; Dr. Suess’s ABC by Dr. Suess (Random House, 1963); assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /r/ (URL below)
Procedures:
1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for- the mouth moves as we say words. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move /r/. We spell /r/ with the letter R. R is the sound that bears make when they growl “rrrrr.”
2. Let’s all pretend to be bears and make a growling sound, /r/,/r/,/r/, [Make hand gestures like bear] Notice how your tongue pulls back in the mouth without touching the top? When we say /r/ we are pushing air out without using our lips.
3. Let me show you how to find /r/ in the word first. I’m going to stretch first out in super slow motion and listen for the growling R. Fff-i-i-irst. Slower: Fff-i-i-i-rrr-st. There it was! I felt my tongue pull to the back of my mouth without touching the top. Growling /r/is in first.
4. Now let’s try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Rachel and Ruth are sisters. Their friend Richard’s rabbit got out of its cage and they had to chase it in the rain. Here is our tickler: “Ruth and Rachel ran after Richard's rabbit in the rain.” Everybody say it tree times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /r/ at the beginning of the words. “Rrruth and Rrrachel rrran after Rrrichard’s rrrabbit in the rrrain.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word: “/r/ uth and /r/achel /r/an after /r/ichard’s /r/abbit in the /r/ain.”
5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter r to spell /r/. Lowercase r looks like a growling bears paws when he is angry. Let’s write the lowercase r. Start at the fence and draw a line straight down, then follow that line back to the fence and make a swoop like a sideways c. Now I want you to make nine more just like it.
6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /r/ in right or left? red or blue? drive or stop? curve or line? flower or bee? Let’s see if you can spot the mouth move /r/ in some words. Use your growling hands if you hear /r/: The, right, side, rode, rigid, in, the, rain.
7. Say: “Let’s look at an alphabetic book. In the book ABC, Dr. Suess tells us about a creature whose name starts with R. Let’s see what this creatures name is and let’s see what they are doing!” Read page 42, drawing out /r/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /r/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like Rosy Ruth or Reckless Robby. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.
8. Show RIP and model how to decide if it is rip or tip: The R tells me to growl like a bear, /r/, so this word is rrr-ip, rip. You try some: ROCK: rock or dock? MAKE: fake or make? RENT: lent or rent? SEND: send or mend? ROPE: rope or nope?
9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with R, say the words out loud, and then practice writing the letter R at the bottom of the page.
Reference: Miss Rachel’s Talk like a Pirate with Rrr, Lauren Lindsey’s Exploring Reading with Roarings “R”
Assessment worksheet: http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/learning-letters/r.htm
Dr. Suess’s ABC: https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Seusss-ABC-Amazing-Alphabet/dp/0679882812
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