- alphabet chart
- letter card “Rr”
- modeling clay
- pipe cleaners
- plastic straws (long and short pieces)
- curved
- lowercase
- straight
- uppercase
MA Standards:
Foundational Skills/RF.PK.MA.1.d: Recognize and name some uppercase letters of the alphabet and the lowercase letters in one’s own name.
Head Start Outcomes:
Literacy Knowledge/Alphabet Knowledge: Recognizes that the letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics that can be individually named.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 7: Develop familiarity with the forms of alphabet letters, awareness of print, and letter forms.
Letter Shaping (“Rr”)
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
Skill Focus: Fine Motor Skills, Letter Formation, Letter Recognition, Vocabulary
Hold up a straight pipe cleaner and trace it with your finger. Have children make the motion with their finger on their thigh.
- Remind children that a straight line looks like the straight pipe cleaner. Then bend the pipe cleaner into a horizontal “u” shape and trace it.
- Have children mimic your motion.
- Place the curved pipe cleaner next to the straight pipe cleaner and review with children the difference between the two.
Display the letter “Rr” card and help children use the materials to form the letters.
- First have them trace over both the lowercase and uppercase letters. Ask, Which part of the uppercase letter is a straight line? Which part is curved?
- Encourage them to describe how to use a straight line and a small curve to make the lowercase “r.”