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The Rowdy Tiger Roars with /R/

Emergent Literacy Lesson Design

by Alexa Kirchharr

 

Rationale:

This lesson will help students identify /r/ the phoneme represented by R. Students will learn to recognize /r/ in spoken words by using the representation of a tiger’s growl/roar and the letter symbol R, practice finding /r/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /r/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing between similar words.

 

Materials:

  • White board and expo marker

  • primary paper

  • pencil

  • Horton Hears a Who (Random House, 1954)

  • chart with “Rusty’s red rabbit runs really rad railroads”

  • word cards

  • crayons

  • assessment worksheet—one per student (URL below)

 

Procedures:

1. Say:  Every letter in our alphabet makes its own sound. It can be tough figuring out which letters make what sound. Today we are going to spend time learning what sound goes with the letter R, which looks like this [show how to write the letter R on the whiteboard]. R makes a sound like a roaring tiger. Try rrrrrroarrrrrring like a tiger with me!

 

2. Can you give me your best scary tiger roar? Now, do you feel how your mouth moves when you make the /r/ sound? Your tongue curls up and your lips purse.

 

3. Now we’re going to find the /r/ sound in some words. I’m going to show you how I find /r/ in the word cross. I’m going to say the word very slowly so I can hear all of the sounds and figure out which one is my tiger roar. C-r-o-ss. Ccccc-rrrrrrr-o-ssss. There it is! Did you hear it? My tongue is curled and my lips are pursed for the /r/ in cross.

 

4. It’s time for a tongue twister. [Teacher points to each word on the chart as she recites the tongue twister] “Rusty’s red rabbit runs really rad railroads.” Now, let’s say it together! This time, let’s stretch out the /r/ sound: “Rrrrrusty’s rrrrrred rrrrrabbit rrrrruns rrrrreally rrrrad rrrrrailrrrrroads.” Try it again, but this time break the /r/ sound off of the words: “/R/ usty’s  /r/ ed  /r/ abbit  /r/ uns  /r/ eally  /r/ ad  /r/ ail /r/ oads.”

 

5. [Distribute primary paper and pencils] Next we are going to practice writing the letter R. To write a capital R we start at the rooftop, go all the way down to the sidewalk, pick up and go around the fence, and then slant down. If you know how to make a P, R is like a P with another leg. For a lowercase r, start at the fence, drop down to the sidewalk, go back up to the fence, and then curve over. I want to see everyone make an r! If I give you a smiley face, then I want you to finish out a whole row of r’s.

 

6. Okay, I want everyone to give me a nice big roar. Now, [call on students for each question] do you hear /r/ in boy or girl? Bunny or rabbit? Arm or leg? I’m going to say a sentence and I want you to roar if you hear /r/: Sara, loved, her, mother’s, pretty, flower, garden.

 

7. [Teacher holds up RED card] This word begins with a roaring /r/, so I know that it is red and not bed. Now I want you to try some. RAT: cat or rat? RAKE: rake or make? REEF: reef or beef?

 

8. Now that you know a little bit more about /r/, I’m going to read you the story Horton Hears a Who about an elephant named Horton who finds a bunch of new friends on a teeny tiny speck of dust! No one believes poor Horton, and he has to work very hard to make sure that his new friends are safe and sound. He believes that a person is a person, no matter how small. Do you hear the /r/ sound in Horton’s name? I want you to give me a nice roar whenever you hear someone in the story whose name has an /r/ sound in it!

 

9. For assessment, students will complete a worksheet requiring them to color the pictures that begin with R and write out the letter in both lowercase and uppercase.

 

 

References:

Seuss (1954). Horton hears a who.

Worksheet from http://letterbuddies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Letter-Buddies-Initial-Sounds-R.jpg

Hollifield, T. "The angry lion says r." http://www.auburn.edu/~veh0002/hollifieldel.htm

Extra R teaching tips: Playing With Words 365. http://www.playingwithwords365.com/2011/10/my-tricks-to-teaching-the-r-sound/

 

 

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