- chart paper
- highlighter marker
- index cards
- pictures of words with "Rr"
MA Standards:
Foundational Skills/RF.PK.MA.2.c: Identify the initial sound of a spoken word and, with guidance and support, generate several other words that have the same initial sound.
Head Start Outcomes:
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
Literacy Knowledge/Phonological Awareness: Identifies and discriminates between sounds and phonemes in language, such as attention to beginning and ending sounds of words and recognition that different words begin or end with the same sound.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 8: Listen to, identify, and manipulate language sounds to develop auditory discrimination and phonemic awareness.
Word Play: “Ryan Reads”
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Letter Recognition, Phonological Awareness, Speaking and Listening, Vocabulary
Educator’s Prep: Copy the “Ryan Reads” poem onto chart paper. Prepare word cards that name things in the poem and include the letter "Rr." Write the word on an index card and draw or tape a picture of the object on the card.
Tell children you are going to introduce them to a new poem to help them recognize the letter "Rr."
Give each child a word card picture card and have them read the word on the card. Encourage them to use the picture to help them "read" the word. Encourage them to point to the "Rr" in the word after they read the word.
Then draw children’s attention to the “Ryan Reads” poem chart. Say, Many of the words in this poem are the "Rr" words on your word cards. When I read your word, hold your card up high. Read the poem slowly once as you track the words with your finger.
Read the poem a second time and pause after each line and say, Who has the word "rabbit" on their card? Have the child holding that word(s) come up and highlight the "Rr" in the word on the chart.
- Repeat until all "Rr" are highlighted in the poem. Depending on the size of your group, you may need to do two or three rounds. Pass out cards to each verse one at a time.
Ryan Reads
Ryan reads about rabbits.
Raisins, radishes, and rings.
Refrigerators and rainbows,
Roosters, and rockets and things.
Ryan reads about rhinos,
Ribbons, raspberries, and rain.
Reindeer, raccoons, and robots,
Then reads about rabbits again!
Ryan really likes to read,
It’s his favorite thing to do,
And Robbie and Ronda, his rabbits,
Like it when Ryan reads, too!
Adaptation: For groups with children of varying ages, have older children make Ryan Reads books, choosing an "Rr" word to draw on each page from those mentioned in the rhyme.
Adaptation: To help younger children, in addition to reading the words of the poem, display word cards with objects of "Rr" words in the poem.
Educator Tip: You may want to take this opportunity to have children listen to the /r/ sound that the letter "R" makes as you read each word in the poem.
Educator Tip: Guided and independent letter, sound, and word practice continues to take place in center activities. It is helpful to set up the literacy center immediately after the direct instruction and repeat instruction before children work in the literacy center identifying letters.