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Emergent Literacy Design: Growling Dog with R

Lolly Zimmerman

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 (a growling dog) 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: Picture of a dog (https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjd7KbA7urkAhUineAKHZGeDKYQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fclipartmag.com%2Fgrowling-dog-clipart&psig=AOvVaw0gAUZk2xpAipXit9CI4rNW&ust=1569462748507906);  primary paper and pencil; chart with “Running Robot returns with red raisins”; drawing paper and crayons; ​Dr. Seuss’s ABC ​(Random House, 1963); word cards with RED, MAKE, RICE, ROCK, STOP; assessment worksheet identifying pictures with /r/ (URL below).

Procedures: 1. 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 the letter RR looks like a racetrack, and /r/ sounds like a growl.

2. Let's pretend to growl like a dog, /r/, /r/, /r/. [Pantomime growling like a dog] Notice where your tongue is, your teeth are, and the shape your lips are? When we say /r/, our tongues flick up and down, our teeth clench together and our lips pucker, like we’re ready to suck on a sucker. There’s also sound coming out, so that means our voice box is on.

3. Let me show you how to find /r/ in the word drop. I'm going to stretch drop out in super slow motion and listen for my growl. Dd-rrr-o-p. Slower: Ddd-rrrr-o-o-o-pp. There it was! I felt my tongue flick to the roof of my mouth, my teeth clench, and my lips pucker. Growl /r/ is in drop.

4. Let's try a tongue tickler [on chart]. “Running robot returns with red raisins.” Everybody say it together three times. Now we’re going to say it again, but this time stretch the /r/ at the beginning of the words. When you stretch the /r/, I want you to growl slowly like you see another dog. “Rrrunning rrrobot rrreturns with rrred rrraisins.” Try it again, and this time break it off the word, growling quickly like you see another dog coming closer. “/R/ unning /r/ obot /r/ an with /r/ ed /r/ aisins.”

5. [Have students take out primary paper and pencil]. We use letter R to spell /r/. Capital R looks like a racetrack with a loop. We’re going to learn how to write the lowercase letter ​r.​ Start at the fence and draw a line all the way down to the sidewalk. Then, go back to the sidewalk and draw a curve, like a wave crashing over, on the right side where the line meets the fence. After I come check your ​r​ and put a star on your paper, I want you to make 10 more ​r​’s that look just like it.

6. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /r/ in car or sunright or leftstar or andrip or dripStiff or rough? Say: Let's see if you can spot the mouth move /r/ in some words. Growl if you hear /r/:The, rough, robin, took, route, far, from, the, tall, tree.

7. Say:  Say: “Let’s look at an alphabetic book. Dr. Seuss tells us about a little girl named Rosy who has a pet rhinoceros. Read pages 42 and 43, stretching out /r/. Now ask the students to come up with their own pet names that start with /r/​. Have the students write their pet names with invented spelling and color a drawing of their newly named pet. Next, ask them to come up with different items that start with ​R t​o put inside the red rhinoceros’s room. Once they are finished, display their artwork in the classroom.

8. Show RED and model how to decide if it is red or ted: The R tells me to growl like a dog, /r/, so this word is rrr-ed, red. You try some: ROCK: rock or sock? MAKE: rake or make? RICE: rice or nice? STOP: stop or drop? 

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


Reference: Assessment worksheet: ​https://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/r-begins2.htm

Dr. Bruce Murray; ​The Reading Genie.​ ​http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

Ashley Anglin, Ride a Race Car with R

https://ashleyanglim.wixsite.com/msanglimslessons/emergent-literacy-design

Emergent Literacy Design (EL): Welcome
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