Emergent Literacy

Elizabeth Manning

Emergent Literacy Design: Roaring like a Dinosaur with R

Rationale: This lesson will help children identify /r/, the phoneme represented by R.

Students will learn to recognize /r/ in spoken words by learning a sound analogy (roaring like a dinosaur) and the letter symbol R, practice finding /r/ in words, and apply phoneme awareness with /r/ in phonetic cue reading by distinguishing rhyming words from beginning letters.

Materials: Primary paper and pencil; chart with “Rod the rabbit ran rapidly"; drawing paper and crayons; My “r” bookby Jane Belk Mancure; word cards with RAKE, RACE, MOCK, RACK, CAIN.; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /r/ (URL below).

Procedures:e1. Say: Our written language is a secret code. The tricky part is learning what letters stand for—the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /r/. We spell /r/ with letter R. Rsounds like Dinosaur’s roaring at each other.

Let's pretend to roar like a dinosaur, /r/, /r/, /r/. [Pantomime roaring] Notice where your lips are? (puckered up). When we say /r/, we blow air between both our lips.
Let me show you how to find /r/ in the word bar. I'm going to stretch barout in super slow motion and listen for dinosaur roar. Bb-aa-rr. Slower: Bbb-aaa-rrr. There it was! I felt my lips pucker up and air come through them. Dinosaur roar /r/ isin bar.
Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. Rod the rabbit ran rapidly. He was trying to get away from something that was chasing him. He made it home safe and sound. Here’s our tickler: "Rod the rabbit ran rapidly." Everybody say it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /r/ at the beginning of the words. "Rrrrrrod the rrrrrrabbit rrrrrran rrrrrapidly." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/r/ od the /r/ abbit /r/ an /r/ apidly.
[Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter Rto spell /r/. Capital R looks like a dinosaur taking a step. Let's write the lowercase letter r. Start just below the rooftop. Start by making a line from the ceiling to the floor. Then come back up to the ceiling and draw half of a circle. I want to see everybody's r. After I put a smile on it, I want you to make nine more just like it.
Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /r/ in runor fun? fingeror toe? onor or? Liftor drop? Stiffor store? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /r/ in some words. Roar like a dinosaur if you hear /r/: The, rockstar, rocked, the, right, stage, and, rode, red, rockets.
Say: "Let's look at a “R” book. The story tells us about little R who finds a rabbit, a rhino, a reindeer, etc. and brings them along with him!” Read page 10, drawing out /r/. Ask children if they can think of other words with /r/. Ask them to make up a silly creature name like raggo-rago-rag. Then have each student write their silly name with invented spelling and draw a picture of their silly creature. Display their work.

Show RUG and model how to decide if it is rugor dug: The Rtells me to roar like a dinosaur, /r/, so this word is rrr-ug,rug. You try some: RAKE: rake or make? RACE: case or race? MOCK: rock or mock? RACK: stack or rack? RAIN: rain or cain?

For assessment, distribute the worksheet. Students color the pictures that begin with F. Call students individually to read the phonetic cue words from step #8.

http://communitize.co/editor/?

Assessment worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/phonics-beginningsounds/letterf_WFQQT.pdf?up=1466611200

Reference:

Molly Kubicki, Pop a Bubble with P

https://mollykubicki.wixsite.com/mysite-2/emergent-literacy-design

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