top of page

Emergent Literacy Design

beargif.gif

R Growls Like a Bear

 

Rationale. This lesson will help children identify the letter /r/, the phoneme represented by R. Children will be able to recognize /r/ by making a roar sound and putting their hands like claws by their face. Then they will be able to apply phoneme awareness with /r/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words with beginning letters.

 

Materials.

  • Primary Paper and pencil

  • Chart with “Ron roars and runs rapidly”

  • Drawing paper and crayons

  • Dr. Suess’s ABC (Random House, 1963)

  • Word cards with RUN, ROCK, LOT, RENT, TEST, and RAKE

  • Assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /r/. (URL below)

 

Procedures.

  1. Say: Words are like a secret code, and there are many different letters to learn. Today we are going to learn all about the letter “R”! The letter “R” makes the /r/ sound, which sounds kind of like a growl of a bear.

  2. Let’s pretend to roar like a bear. [Pantomime growling with hands in claw-like form by face] Do you feel how your mouth is shaped when saying /r/? Your lips are slightly puckered, and you can see your top teeth. Kind of like the sharp teeth of a bear when they growl!

  3. Now we are going to look for the /r/ sound in the word tree. I am going to stretch out the word slowly and listen for the growling sound like a bear makes. T-rrr- ee. Now slower, t-rrrrrr-ee. There you go! I heard the R sound like a bear growling and my lips were puckered.

  4. Now let’s try a tongue tickler [see chart]. “Ron roars and runs rapidly”. Now let’s put our bear claws up when we hear the /r/ sound in the sentence. I will read it again. “Ron roars and runs rapidly”. Now again slowly, “Rrrrron rrrrroars and rrrrruns rrrrrapidly”. Now we will say it together and break off the /r/ on the words. “/R/on /r/oars and /r/uns /r/apidly.

  5.  [Have students take out primary paper and pencil] Great job everyone! Now we are going to practice writing the letter that makes the growling /r/ sound. We us R to spell /r/. Let’s write the lowercase letter r. Start at the fence and draw straight down to the sidewalk. Then draw back up towards the fence and create a little curve down just below the fence. Now we are going to practice writing an uppercase R. Start by drawing a straight line from the roof to the sidewalk. Then give the top of your line a little head by drawing half a circle from the roof to the fence. Then draw a slanted leg from the corner on the fence down to the sidewalk. Great job! Now I am going to walk around and look at your lowercase r and uppercase R. If I give you a sticker on your paper, go ahead a practice writing five more of each letter just like it.

  6. Now I going to ask you if you hear the bear growl /r/ sound in a few words [call on different students when asking each word]. Do you hear /r/ in back or barn? Cart or call? Right or left? Now put your bear claws up every time you hear the growl /r/ sound in this sentence: The, red, rabbit, likes, to, run, fast, and, race, rats.

  7. Say: Let’s look at the ABC book by Dr. Suess. Read page 42 drawing out /r/. Ask your students to draw and color an animal that starts with r and write the name of it. Display their work.

  8. Now show them the word card that says RUN and model how it is run or fun. The word is run because you hear the growling /r/ sound telling me to put up my bear claws. You try some: ROCK: rock or lock? LOT: lot or rot? RENT: rent or tent? TEST: test or rest? RAKE: rake or bake?

  9. For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Have your students color the pictures that start with R. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

 

References.

 

Worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letter-r_WFNFZ.pdf

 

Samantha O'Neill, "Z Zips Up the Alphabet!"

https://slo0013.wixsite.com/readingdesigns/emergent-literacy

bottom of page