Roar like a Rhino with the Letter R!
By: Caroline Douglas
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Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /r/, the phoneme represented by R. During this lesson, children will learn to recognize /r/ in spoken words through
a sound analogy, (roaring like a rhino) and the letter symbol R, practice finding /r/
in words. Children will apply phoneme awareness with /r/ in a phonetic cue reading by distinguishing words that rhyme from beginning letters.
Materials:
- Picture of a Rhino
- A chart with the tongue tickler: “Richard’s lawn rake rarely rakes really right”
- Primary Paper ( one piece for each student )
- Pencils
- Word cards: ROPE, RAT, ROSE, RAKE
- Assessment worksheet : Identifies words with R.
Procedures:
- Say: “Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning w
what letters stand for - the mouth moves as we make and say words. Today we are going to work on spotting the mouth move /r/. We spell /r/ with the letter R. The letter R looks like a circle with a line hanging off of it and /r/ sounds like a roaring rhino.
- Now let’s pretend to be a roaring rhino; /r/,/r/,/r/. (Pantomime a roaring rhino)
When you do this, you will notice that your mouth extends outward. When we pronounce /r/, it sounds like we are barking or making a rumbling noise.
- Let me show you how to find /r/ in word talk. I am going to stretch out this sentence and listen for the /r/. Rrr-ii-ch-a-r-d’s lawn rrr-a-k-e rrr-a-r-e-ly rrr-a-k-e-s rrr-i-g-h-t. There it is! I felt my tongue rolling and the tops of my teeth touching.
- Let’s try a tongue tickler (on chart). Richard has a lawn that he has to rake. When
he uses his rake, the rake rarely rakes right. Now everyone say this three times. “Richard’s lawn rake rarely rakes really right.” Now say it again, but this time stretch out the beginning of each word. Rrrrichard’s lawn rrrrake rrrrarely rrrrakes rrrreally rrrright.” Now let’s try it again, but this time break it off with the word:
/r/ichard’s lawn /r/ake /r/arely /r/akes /r/eally /r/ight.
- Have students take out primary paper and their pencil. We use the letter R to spell /r/. Capital R looks like a line with a circle at the top, with another line underneath the circle. Now let’s write lowercase r. Start at the top, make a straight
line, and then go back up the line, and make a half circle. I want to see everyone’s R’s and r’s.
- Show RAT and model how to decide if it is RAT or BAT. The R tells me that Richard is raking. /r/ , so this word is rrr-a-t. Now you try some. Rose or hose? Run or bun? Ran or man?
- Show the Rhino for Kids with Ronnie the Rhino video.
- For the assessment, hand out the worksheet. Student’s can color in the pictures and practice their handwriting for the letter R.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N490W799fZo&feature=emb_title
