Growl With R

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By Parker Van Durand

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Rationale: This lesson will help students know /r/, the phoneme represented by R. Students will be able to recognize /r/ in speech and be able to read it. When we practice how to say the letter R and work on decoding /r/ words, the students will master that sound. We will use the sound of a roaring animal to recognize the /r/ sound.

 

Materials:

• Pencil and paper,

• Chart with Robert’s robot runs with a rake.

• Dr. Seuss’s One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (Random House, 1960).

• Word cards with ROT, RUB, READ, PARK, FORK, AND RED.

• Assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /r/.

 

Procedures:

 1. Say: It is hard learning what letters stand for—the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /r/. We spell /r/ with letter R. R looks like P with an extra leg and sounds like an animal growling.

 

2. Let ‘s grrr like and animal. See how your lips have to purse to get that rolling /r/ sound?

 

3. Let me show you how to find /r/ in the word red. I'm going to stretch red out in super slow motion and listen for my growl. R-r-e-e-d. Slower:

 

4. I will tell you a tale! Robert was a boy who wanted a robot. While raking the leaves he imagined a robot appearing and they can play fun games like tag! Let's try a tongue tickler from that story. Robert’s robot runs with a rake. Say it three times together. Rrroberrt’s rrrobot rrruns with a rrrake. See you your mouth changes shape! Try it again and this time, break off the word /R/obert’s /r/obot /r/uns with a /r/ake

 

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter R to spell /r/. Let's write the lowercase letter r. Start just below the rooftop. Start to make a little c up in the air, and then straighten it out all the way down to the sidewalk. I want to see everyone’s r!

 

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /r/ in run or food? Rock or sun? Up or drop? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /r/ in some words. Grr like an animal if you hear /r/. Rug, fly, robot, dig, drink

 

7. Say: "Let’s look at this fun book about fish! Read the part about the red fish. Have students pick out colors with /r/ in them and write those letters on their paper. Students will also color fish pictures with their /r/ colors.

 

8. Show RED and model how to decide if it is red or bed: The R tells me to growl, /r/, so this word is rrrr-e-d. You try some: Rose: rose or nose? MEET: reef or meet? Rope: rope or nope? PORK: fork or pork? Rake: rake or make?

 

9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students circle the pictures that begin with R. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

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References: 

Assessment: http://twistynoodle.com/circle-the-words-that-start-with-the-letter-r-coloring-page/

Website: Virginia, O'Reilly. Rolling Like A Rollercoaster with R. https://oreillyvm.wixsite.com/lessondesignsoreilly/el-design

 

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