The /r/ sound. So tricky to teach! I know almost all of us have kids on our caseload who are working on the /r/ sound. This week, I’ve rounded up a few freebies that I have found to be engaging activities for working on /r/. Hope you like these too!
A special thank you to Motivational Speechie, Busy Bee Studio, Miss Katie’s Language Lunchbox, OTTeR Speech, Creative Speech Lab, and GoldieTalks Speech for creating and giving away these awesome activities! Give them some love by following their stores.
Cheers!
Grades 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th
Articulation Silly Stories: /r/
by Motivational Speechie
I used this freebie with a 4th grader during teletherapy. The author provides you with a key where a number is assigned a word. You roll for a number and plug the word into the text to make a silly story. I had my student come up with extra choices for verbs, nouns, and adjectives with the /r/ sound. Once we finished making our list, we plugged in the words. This resource works well for teletherapy and in-person sessions. You can practice /r/ in all word positions. I recommend using this resource for kids who are working on the /r/ at the phrase or sentence level. It’s also a nice carryover activity to send home.
Grades Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th
Articulation Puzzle /r/
by Busy Bee Studio
This freebie was great to use with my 1st grader. I used it at the beginning of the session as a warm-up. It targets initial /r/ with a total of 9 words. We used a dice to determine how many times the student had to say the word. This is a boomcard so it requires access to the internet. You can sign up for a free boomcard account here.
Not Grade Specific
Simon Says Articulation /r/
by Miss Katie's Language Lunchbox
This freebie is great for several age groups and can be used in-person or via teletherapy. During my teletherapy session, my student and I took turns reading the Simon Says prompts. He really enjoyed watching me act silly on camera. It took a little preparation ahead of time because I wanted to have some props handy to make it extra fun. To play in person, the author suggests cutting out the prompts and pulling them out of a hat. For teletherapy, I just shared my screen and used annotation tools to cross off the prompts that we had already used. This is a great activity for working on /r/ in all word positions at the structured phrase level.
Grades 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th
Locate! Discriminate! Articulate! /r/
by OTTeR Speech
This freebie was great for working on initial, medial and final /r/ with kids who are still learning to discriminate correct vs incorrect productions. It’s also good for students who need drill practice. For the drill portion of the activity, I used little playdoh balls and the student smashed them with each trial. If you’re using it during teletherapy, you could have the parent provide playdoh ahead of time but it’s totally optional. The author has provided checkmarks that you click on with each trial. To use this, you need a free boomcards account which you can get here.
Grades Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Build-a-Pet-R-Blends
by Creative Speech Lab
This is a fun freebie where students get to build a pet while practicing their words. It’s good for working on /r/ blends at the word or sentence level. There are a total of 18 words and 3 pets to build. I paired the activity with this funny YouTube book which offers a lot of opportunities to practice /fr/ in the word “frog.” You will need a free boomcards account to use this activity. You can create one here.
Not Grade Specific
Vocalic /r/ Tic-Tac-Toe Game
by GoldieTalks Speech
This free activity is a classic tic-tac-toe game but the author has provided 3 tic-tac-toe sheets that use a coarticulation strategy to elicit vocalic /r/. You can use the coarticulation sheets if this is something you want to try with your student. Otherwise, there are 3 more tic-tac-toe sheets that have words with vocalic /r/. I found this activity to be best for students who can read.
