Article
Art by Leire Martín
Poetry Kit,

The Bossy R Farm

Bossy r comes after a vowel. It changes the way we say a vowel. With a bossy r, cat becomes cart. The bossy r is missing from the bold words in this poem! 

By Janice Behrens
From the March/April 2025 Issue

Learning Objective: Students read words with r-controlled vowels to comprehend a poem.

Common Core Standards
  • RF.1.2 Phonological/phonemic awareness RF.1.3 Decoding RL.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text RL.1.10 Read poetry SL.1.1 Participate in collaborative discussions with peers and adults SL.1.2 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud
TEKS Standards
  • English Language Arts
    (2) Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--beginning reading and writing. The student develops word structure knowledge through phonological awareness, print concepts, phonics, and morphology to communicate, decode, and spell. The student is expected to: (B) demonstrate and apply phonetic knowledge by: (iii) decoding words with closed syllables; open syllables; VCe syllables; vowel teams, including vowel digraphs and diphthongs; and r-controlled syllables. (9) Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts—genres. The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts. The student is expected to: (B) discuss rhyme, rhythm, repetition, and alliteration in a variety of poems.

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That Bossy R ran away.

It hopped over the fence.

Now nothing that we try to say

Makes a lick of sense:

The fam, you know, is not the same.

The con is getting brown.

The famer cannot spell his name.

He sits there with a frown.

The hed of cows is just not right.

In the ban they stay. 

Oh, Bossy R, come back tonight,

And fix the wods we say.

Go back to the bold words. Cross each one out and write the correct word above it.

Fam → farm

Read the poem again.

Activities (2)
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
Activities (2) Download All Quizzes and Activities
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)

More About the Article

English Language Arts Focus 

Poetry: Craft and Structure

Comprehension

Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

Implementation

  • Whole group

Pairings and Text Connections

  • From the Storyworks 1 archive: “Silly Story: Gert the Bird” (March/April 2023)
  • Suggested books: The Farm That Feeds Us: A Year in the Life of an Organic Farm by Nancy Castaldo

Suggested Reading Focus

Phonemic awareness/r-controlled vowels (20 minutes)

  • Prep students to read the poem and complete the activity by completing these phonemic awareness routines!
  • Vowel Substitution: Teachers will state the first word and students will repeat it. Direct students to change the vowel sound and then state the altered word.

cat → change /ă/ to /ar/ → cart

bid → change / ĭ / to /ir/ → bird

con → change /ŏ / to /or/ → corn

cad → change /ă/ to /ar/ → card

hut → change /ŭ/ to /ur/ → hurt

  • Rhyming: Students will listen to the stated words, repeat them, and determine if they are rhyming words or not. If the words rhyme, students should show a thumbs-up. If the words do not rhyme, students should show a thumbs-down.

girl/twirl

fern/first

storm/store

shirt/dirt

  • Sound Isolation: Students listen to a word, repeat it, and state the r-controlled vowel sound that's in the word.

fork - /or/

star - /ar/

barn - /ar/

horn - /or/

herd - /er/

germ - /er/

bird - /ir/

girl - /ir/

  • When you’re done with the phonemic awareness routines, read the poem aloud as written. Then have students correct the words in blue to give them r-controlled vowels. Finally, read the poem aloud again with the proper words!

After-Reading Skills Practice

  • Skills: phonological awareness, bossy r (15 minutes)

Text-to-Speech