Teaching R Blends? Fun Books to Read!

Teaching R Blends? Here are some super fun books to read to practice each sound!

 

These are awesome books kids enjoy that feature each blend in a natural way. I think the best way to introduce a phonics sound is to show them a word they already know that is using the sound…. especially if it’s a favorite book character or an animal or theme they know, that is definitely a wonderful way to make an instant connection for them!

 

I’m so excited about this book list! I’ll provide affiliate links (which means I earn commission for purchases made through the links) to books that I adore ORGANIZED BY EACH BLEND so you can easily pull out books from your library, or buy if you prefer, for when you teach each blend… woohoo!

 

BR

First up, BR blends! A favorite book character is an awesome way to instantly connect kids to a sound…

BR has the perfect character for that… Bruce! This book, Santa Bruce, is on My Favorite Christmas Books list so I thought I’d use this one as the example. This whole series is so cute! If you do a quick search for any of the Bruce books, they’re all so funny and you can’t help but love grumpy Bruce… like I said, I love this series.

 

 

Room on the Broom is one of the most popular Halloween books I see people constantly talking about loving and it’s one of my favorites too. It’s all about what the witch can fit on her broom so the BR-oom theme is throughout and perfect! Plus, I love her cat 🙂 This is on My Favorite Halloween Books list!

 

 

There are a ton of non-seasonal books for BR, too, but I thought I’d share those since they’re such popular ones. More BR themes you can read about: Being brave, breakfast, bridges, brontosauruses (if your kids love dinosaurs!), and there are a surprising amount of children’s books with a broccoli theme 🙂

 

CR

Any book about crabs is perfect! There are tons of crabs books and this cute book about a clumsy crab is great if you’ve already learned L blends so you can review CL right next to CR. If you haven’t taught L blends yet, then any other book starring a crab will do 🙂

 

 

 

The Very Cranky Bear is a great way to practice the word cranky! You can tell by looking at the cover for 2 seconds that he’s pretty cranky, right? It’s actually an AWESOME book for learning, introducing, and practicing Adjectives so it’s in my Fun Books for Grammar Organized by Grammar Skill list.

 

 

 

Another CR word that’s an adjective describing an animal is The Selfish Crocodile! This book is from the “Sharing” books section of my Best Behavior Books Organized by Behavior list, which is probably one of my favorite lists I’ve ever made! It’s a great book to teach the importance of sharing… and a CRocodile has a CR blend, of course! 🙂

 

 

You can also read any of the popular crayons books! If you have any bugs books that include crickets, that’s perfect too. Also, if any of your books feature ice cream as a theme, that’s an easily recognized CR word.

 

DR

I LOVE all the Do Not Bring Your Dragon books because they’re so fun for teaching etiquette for how to behave in a certain setting. This one, Do Not Bring Your Dragon to the Library, is a great one for teaching how to properly act in a library. The entire series is great! Do Not Bring Your Dragon to Recess is definitely another favorite of mine – perfect for teaching playground etiquette! I love the field trip one too…. did I mention I love the series?? 🙂 It’s just great when you can find a SILLY book with great illustrations that teaches a lesson without kids realizing it. Those are just pure gold in my opinion so I love to scoop them all up!

 

 

There are TONS of not-scary kids’ books starring dragon characters that are perfect for DR. A few of them are on my Halloween book list like Me and My Dragon if you want some more quick suggestions.

 

More DR themes are dragonflies, drills (construction themed books), drawing, dresses, driving (transportation books), and dreams.

 

FR

 

Freddy the Frogcaster is the cutest little weather loving frog! I absolutely LOVE this little character for teaching about weather. There is this book then also more books that each focus on specific weather topics like this next book…

 

 

 

Freddy the Frogcaster and the Big Blizzard is an example of cute little Freddy teaching about a specific weather topic. I love how adorably it introduces a science concept and teaches it with such a cute character within an actual story. If you’re teaching L blends too, blizzard is a great BL blend!

 

 

 

There are SO many frogs books so you could pack your teaching area with nonfiction frogs books with real pictures. There are also a lot of books with frog main characters for a lot more FR practice. Do a quick search for Froggy children’s books and you can see so many from the series for so many themes. I’ll show one of them in the next section 🙂

 

Being Frank isn’t on my behavior books list (my most popular book list) but it probably should be! It’s about a little boy named Frank who is… well, frank 🙂 He’s blunt and this book is awesome for teaching kids how to tell the truth but NOT in a way that may hurt someone’s feelings. This book is a great conversation starter for how to develop that filter.

 

 

More FR practice: Any book about friends and friendship (so many!), fruit, or fries. There are also tons of book characters with FR names.

 

GR

I think this is one of the very first books I thought of when I decided I wanted to make a book list for R blends. I LOVE this book and this character. If you don’t already have any of The Gruffalo books, then I think you should add this one to your collection right away! It’s such a great book! 🙂 If you like it, there are more in the series.

 

 

 

Just like there are many cranky and crabby animals books, there are a lot of GRUMPY ones too! Grumpy Monkey is an awesome character for teaching the GR blend! I mean, how cute is that grumpy face he makes?? As someone who sometimes gets anxious right before social events, I also really appreciate Grumpy Monkey Party Time! I especially like the message it has about how you should be yourself and say how you feel, rather than trying to impress everyone else by pretending to be someone you’re not.

 

 

 

Grumpy Groundhog is another darling book about a grumpy animal. The groundhog is grumpy and doesn’t want to come out of his hole on Groundhog Day. Love this one!

 

 

 

 

If your child / students love trucks, you could read Three Grumpy Trucks instead. Like I said, there are TONS of books with lovable, grumpy characters. I like reading books about grumpiness / crankiness because they’re great conversational moments you can have about how it’s okay to feel upset and how to deal with it when you do. Each book will handle it in a new way with a new theme so I honestly don’t think a teacher can have enough books to help kids develop their emotional skills. 🙂

 

 

As promised, a Froggy book! Froggy Goes to Grandma’s is great because it practices FR and GR at the same time.

 

 

 

 

There are a lot of grandparent themed books but I think the How to Babysit a Grandma and How to Babysit a Grandpa books are some of the most popular! They’re so cute and I love How to Get Your Teacher Ready too. If you need a book series to introduce How To writing, these are great! I love any role reversal type stories and kids think they’re so silly 🙂

 

 

 

Little Green Donkey is such an adorable story about a donkey who is picky about what he eats and only wants to eat GReen GRass. Until he realized it’s turning him green! Lots of great GR practice!

 

Plus, if you have a little donkey that’s picky about what they eat… this is a great book to encourage kids to expand the variety of foods they’re willing to eat.

 

 

More GR books: Any books with a greediness theme, green, a growing theme, grubs, grasshoppers, grizzly bears, groundhogs, graduation, grain, growling animals… so many options!

 

PR

 

I already had a lot of GR books so I saved Grace for President for the PR list! This is one of my favorite books. It’s about a little girl who realizes there’s never been a girl president and decides she will be the first.

 

 

 

 

Never Let A Princess Paint with Her Unicorn! is another book in the silly series that kids love. I love how this one addresses perfectionism because, as a kid, I remember always feeling stressed if my art wasn’t “perfect” so I love the message. There are a lot of prince and princess themed books you can read to practice PR.

 

 

 

More great PR book themes: any insect books that include a praying mantis, pretzels, books starring a principal, books about being proud of yourself, and any books about presidents.

 

TR

I already shared a truck themed book so I’ll share a TRAINS book instead! There are tons of trucks and trains books, but I chose the classic The Goodnight Train for this list because I love all the adorable rhyming bedtime books in this series. You can read them in a classroom or in the middle of the day too 🙂 If you go to get it, make sure you look at the type. I prefer it as paperback rather than a board book. If your kids are really young, you may want the board version. If you love this, there’s also The Goodnight Train Rolls On! and the incredibly cute Santa and the Goodnight Train.

 

There are also a lot of tractor themed books! If you’re teaching about farms and farm animals, Duck on a Tractor is fun! If your kids love Duck on a Bike then this an obvious sequel to reading that. There are a lot of different tractor books – from nonfiction with real pictures of tractors to tractors as characters to saying goodnight to tractors at bedtime.

 

 

 

Anything trick or treating is great for TR because both words include the blend! Another favorite book from my Favorite Halloween Books list I keep mentioning is T. Rex Trick-or-Treats! I guess there are just so many blends books for October… I didn’t even mention the Frankie books which I love during the FR blends. So many great blends books to choose from in October!

 

 

There are also so many books about trees that are wonderful! You can read so many nonfiction books about trees when learning about the seasons. You can also read super sweet stories like The Wish Tree that focus on a tree. If you can’t tell by now, my favorite books are the ones that have a great message. A great book to read in the winter time (the main character encounters different winter animals) to teach about how it’s important to give and help others, as well as believing in yourself and persevering – there’s so many lessons in this one book. I also love the illustrations! You’ve probably also noticed by my recommendations that great illustrations are also important to me. 🙂

 

More TR ideas: Fun triceratops books or dinosaur books that include them. Treasure in pirates books, trash in books that encourage recycling, elephant trunks, telling the truth, going on trips and traveling, triangles, trying your best… to name a few! With trains, trucks, and tractors, there’s really not a shortage of TR words in books 🙂

 

WR

 

 

Rocket Writes a Story is about an endearing little dog named Rocket who wants to write a story. This is a great book for young little writers and how to collect words to make a great story.

 

 

 

You can also read about wrens (birds), wrestling, wrenches (construction books), wrapping presents, wrecking balls, and any more books about writing.

 

I hope you loved this list of my favorite fun books to read when you’re teaching R blends! I truly do think that having a book that focuses on a specific phonics sound makes it SO much easier to introduce and teach it. Especially with blends, the words can be hard to say, so having a favorite character or animal or word with that blend can make all the difference in helping a child hear and practice how to say it. If you loved this list and want to see more, let me know in the comments! 🙂 Thanks so much for reading!! You can check out my AWESOME LISTS page for more lists like this!

 

If you want to SAVE this to refer to later, here’s an image you can pin! (You can hover over it to bring up the little pinning button so you can save it onto one of your boards.)

 

If you want more recommendations on what to read, let me know! I have SO many fun children’s books I love for teaching R blends and, really, for teaching anything so don’t hesitate to ask!

 

If you want teaching resources to use while teaching R blends, I recommend:

R Blends Worksheets {NO PREP Pack} (Over 70 worksheets to practice & they’re cute!)

R Blends Reading Comprehension Passages (by Blend)

Reading Fluency PUZZLES for Each R Blend

Big Bundle of Picture Word Cards for R Blends Words

Secret Words Centers – R Blends

Hope you love those recommendations too! 🙂