Ryan, the Rottweiler's, Raging Growl.
Rationale: This lesson will aid children identify the phoneme, /r/, represented by the letter R through meaningful representation (growl sound), practice finding /r/ in words as well as apply phoneme awareness with /s/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.
*Primary paper and pencil
*White computer paper
*Chart with Tongue Tickler "Ruth and Rachel took a risky ride through the rainforest" with the r's written in red marker.
*Laminated large size primary paper
*Vis A vis Marker
*Zoophabets by Robert Tallon
*Index cards with the following words written on them: RIP, FROG, RAKE, RUN, RED
*Assessment sheet (URL at bottom)
1.Say: Have you ever heard a dog growl at a stranger or when someone takes their toy? Well when they make their snarly growls they use the sound /r/. When we write that sound in words, we use the letter R.
2.Say: I know a dog, named Ryan who is a big Rottweiler and he growls all the time (show snarly dog growl face). Let's pretend to growl like Ryan, /rrrrrrr/ (making a growling dog face). Where is your tongue when you growl? Is it in the air or is it laying down? [Have students guess while practicing the sound . Say: When we say /r/, we curl our tongue up to the top of the roof of our mouth.. Try it again and see if you can tell that your tongue curls. Good! Now I'm going to show you how to find /r/ in the word brush. I will just stretch out the word very slowly and I want you to listen to the growl. Bb-rrr-uu-sshhh. Now you try it with me. Bbb-rrr-uuu-sshhhh. Great job!! Did you feel yourself growl like Ryan?
3.Say: Now let's try a tongue tickler (located on chart). "Ruth and Rachel took a risky ride through the rainforest." What do you notice about the sentence? Yes, there are a lot of R's and they are all written in red. Everybody say it three times together after I read it aloud. Now say it again, and this time, stretch out the /r/ at the beginning of the word. "Rrruth and Rrrachel took a rrrisky rrride through the rrrainforest." Now lets say it again and when we get to the /r/ sound lets make a snarly growl face. Great job!!
4.Say: Now lets try practicing writing the letter R since that is the letter that makes the sound /r/. Everyone get a piece of paper and a pencil. Now watch me as I draw on this poster (laminated primary poster) how to write a lowercase r. You start at the fence, go straight down to the sidewalk, go back up the same line but before you get back to the fence make a small curve. Now, you try a whole row of r's on your paper. Now lets try writing a capital R. Start at the rooftop and draw a line all the way to the sidewalk. Then take your pencil back up to the rooftop and make a round bell and bring your pencil to the fence. Then, from the fence, make a straight and diagonal line down to the sidewalk. Practice your capitol R's and write a row of them on your paper.
5.Say: Since we have practiced saying the sound /r/ and writing the letter R, do you think you all would be able to hear the sound in words. Let's see. Raise your hand if you can tell me if you hear Ryan's growl in rake or bake? Stop or run? Bear or lion? Earring or necklace? Lift or Drop? Now I'm going to call out some words, if you hear /r/ in the word make your snarly growl face: The, fuzzy, rabbit, ran, really, fast, until, he, lost, his, breath.
6.Get Zoophabets by Robert Tallon. Say: "In this book, Mr. Tallon creates silly creatures whose name starts with each letter of the alphabet and describes where they live and what they eat. Let's read the page for R and listen to the growls."Read page of R. Say: If you could have written this book, what make believe animal would you have starting with the letter R? what would they eat? Where would they live? Here is a sheet of paper, pencils, and crayons. Draw your animal and write down its name, what two things they eat, and where they live. Remember their name, things they eat and where they live have to start with an R like they did in the book. Have students present their animals to the class and display works in classroom.
7.Show RIP and model how to decide if it is rip or dip. Say: The R tells me to growl, /r/, so this word is rrr-iii-ppp. You try. Display flash cards with the word FROG. Say: Does this say the word Frog or Log. Display the flash card with the word RAKE. Say: Does this say the word make or rake. Display the flash card with RUN. Say: Does this say the word fun or run? Display the flash card with the word RED. Say: Does this say the word red or fed?
Assessment: Distribute worksheet where students are to complete the partial spellings and color the pictures that begin with R. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #7.
Brooke Erickson, "Roaring with letter R" http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/projects/ericksonel.html
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