Teaching R-Controlled Vowels

Bossy R words can be so fun! Are you teaching r-controlled vowels in your classroom? Keep reading for some fun bossy r teaching ideas!

Understanding r-controlled vowels can be tricky for little ones. The r-controlled vowel sounds is made by special vowel teams. The /ar/ sound is typically spelled ‘ar’ as in car, charge, and barn. The letter ‘r’ controls the vowel sound, making it sound different from the typical short or long /a/. Instead, the vowel sound is closer to a short /o/ sound. This spelling can be found in the beginning, middle, or end of a word.

R-controlled vowels with pirates

I love to teach the /ar/ sound with a pirate theme! This is because it helps my students remember the sound when we say it says ‘arrrr’ like a pirate. We do a themed week in the classroom and at the end of the week, I dress up like a pirate and we talk like pirates all day! My students make pirate headbands too! Here are some other fun activities we do during the week:

Students ‘walk the plank’ reading /ar/ words. This is something you could easily adapt for your classroom! Roll out a piece of brown bulletin board paper, and write /ar/ words on index cards. Students can read the word, spell the word, or repeat after you to read and spell. It’s fun to pretend that the area surrounding the paper is water. If your students get nervous reading or spelling in front of others, you could even have them work in pairs or groups!

Go on a treasure hunt! Place pictures of r-controlled vowel words around the room. Students must find them in the classroom and write down the name of the picture. My /ar/ vowel resource has these cards done for you with an additional activity where students must count the sounds in each word.

Play bingo! Give students bingo cards with r-controlled vowel words on them and call out /ar/ words. When a student has a bingo, they can say ‘arrrgh I have a bingo!’ in a pirate voice! This is a fun, low-pressure way to get students to practice reading /ar/ words.

Finish your /ar/ r-controlled vowel week with a pirate day! Students can talk like a pirate all day and dress like pirates with their headbands! They’ll decorate the headband with /ar/ words and add the eye patch to look like a pirate.

These activities and more can be found in my AR Pirate R-Controlled Vowel Activities!

Teaching other r-controlled vowel sounds

The /er/ sound can be spelled with ‘er,’ ‘ir,’ ‘ur,’ or even ‘ear.’ This sound is very tough for students because there is not a single rule that helps them know when to use which spelling. ‘Er’ as in fern or perk is the most common spelling likely because it is used to turn verbs into nouns (work becomes worker) and as a comparative suffix (faster, slower). The following rule can be helpful but doesn’t always work.

• ir – nature (bird, dirt), number (first, third), clothing (shirt, skirt), circular (twirl, circle)
• er – end of words (as in painter, teacher)
• ur – hurt words (burn nurse), days of the week

Unfortunately these guidelines are not always true. For example, the word ‘curl’ is frequently used as an example word for the ‘ur’ spelling. According to the guidelines above, it should be spelled with ‘ir’ if it’s something that is circular. This is because the ‘i’ after the ‘c’ would make it a soft c.

Another common way to teach r-controlled vowels is to display the following sentence.

Her first nurse works early.

Then when students ask which way to spell a word, refer back to this sentence. ‘Purse’ is spelled the same way as ‘nurse.’ Again, this is not foolproof because there are exceptions like ‘terse’ is spelled differently than ‘nurse’ or ‘fur’ is not spelled the same way as ‘her.’

In the past, I’ve also asked my students to write the word with the three common spellings (er, ir, and ur) and see which one looks like a word they’ve seen before. Many times, they can pick out the correct one!

The best way to teach these r-controlled vowels is to give students as much exposure to it as possible. Include practice reading, building, and sorting these words in small groups, in literacy centers, and in whole group work. Some examples are below.

Use activities that get students to practice matching names to pictures, sorting by spelling, and sounding out bossy r words. The more exposure that they get to these spellings, the better they will recognize it when they are reading!

Looking for more word work ideas for bossy r? Check out these activities!

Looking for more ideas to teach phonics in your classroom?