Lesson Designs
Emergent Literacy Design
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.
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Primary Paper and pencil
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Chart with “Ron roars and runs rapidly”
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Drawing paper and crayons
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Dr. Suess’s ABC (Random House, 1963)
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Word cards with RUN, ROCK, LOT, RENT, TEST, and RAKE
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Assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /r/. (URL below)
Procedures.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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[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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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