Miss Sydney Hall

We begin by saying: Our language can be a little tricky! Sort of like using a “secret code”, we must solve the code by learning what letters stand for. These are called phonemes – each of the mouth movements we make as we say words. Today we’re going to work on spotting the mouth movement that we make as we say words with /r/. We spell /r/ with the letter R. R kind of looks a little bit like a rainbow [draw picture of R on board and how it curves around like a rainbow] and /r/ sounds a little bit like rowing through water! [Make an /r/ sound while demonstrating rowing.]

Say: Let’s pretend we each our rowing our own boat down a river. Put your hands together and move them in a rowing motion on each side of yourself and make the /r/ sound as you go! Each time we row, think about the mouth movement that we make as we say words with /r/. Our mouth shapes like an O and our tongue curls in the middle, touching the roof of our mouth and closing off the back of our mouth.

Say: Now I will show you how to find /r/ in the word river. I’m going to stretch river out slowly and listen for the rowing sound. Rr-iii-v-err. Slower: Rrrr [There’s one!] –iiiiii-vvv-errrrrr. There’s another one! I felt my tongue curl in the middle of my mouth both at the beginning and the end of the word river.

[Get out musical instrument now if you have one. The chords for “Row Row Row Your Boat” are C and G.] Say: Now, I’m sure you all know the song “Row Row Row Your Boat”! Let’s sing this song and st-rrrrrr-etch out the /r/s that we hear as we sing while we make our rowing motion! [Play song at a semi-regular speed first, then repeat slower, stretching out the /r/ sounds for a longer period of time.]

[Get out Iza Trapani’s Row Row Row Your Boat.] Say: Great job! Now, we’re going to read the book Row Row Row Your Boat. This story is about a family of bears that go on an adventure down a river in a boat! As I read the book aloud, every time you hear me make /r/ I want you to make the rowing motion that we practiced! [Read book, accenting all /r/ sounds.]

[Have students take out a pencil and a sheet of primary paper.] Say: We use the letter R to spell /r/. Like I showed you earlier, capital R kind of looks like a rainbow. Let’s write a capital R. Start at the rooftop and continue all the way down until you hit the sidewalk. Then, connect your rainbow from the rooftop to the fence. Now draw a little leg out, like rain falling from the rainbow! You’ve written a capital R! I would like to take a quick look at everyone’s and if they are correct, I will give you a smiley face. Once you see the smiley face, write nine more Rs just like it. [Check students’ work.] Say: Now I’m going to teach you how to write a lowercase r! Start at the fence and draw a straight line down to the sidewalk. Then, bounce your pencil up and over like a half rainbow and you’ve written a lowercase r. I’d like to peek at your letters again, and just like before, once I give you a smiley face, write nine more lowercase rs just like it!

[Pass out Rainbow R worksheets, bowls of fruit loops, glue, blue markers, and cotton balls.] Say: Now we are going to decorate a rainbow R ourselves! [Show previously made example.] We’re going to use the Fruitloops as the different colors of the rainbow! You can pick three colors to be in your rainbow and glue each different color of Fruitloops on one of your rainbow’s lines. [Wait for students to choose and glue Fruitloops. Walk around and help students as needed.] Now, we’re going to keep our glue out and glue cotton balls onto the clouds! [Help students glue cotton balls.] Finally, we want to get out our blue markers and draw the rain falling from the clouds to make the legs of the letter R. [Walk around to be sure all students are drawing the rain in the correct places.]

For an assessment, handout the letter R worksheet. Students are to color the four pictures that begin with the letter R and trace the uppercase R and the lowercase r.​