Master R-Controlled Vowels with This Multi-Purpose Resource

Differentiating between the various r-controlled vowels can be difficult for younger students. It can be hard to know when to use ‘ar’, ‘er’, ‘ir’, ‘or’ and ‘ur’. Immersing our students in these digraphs and seeing them used in the context of real words will help!

This resource has been created as both a digital and non-digital version to enable you to select the method of delivery that best suits your students and classroom. Choose between:

• Printable cards: Cut apart the cards, then place a sticker behind the correct answer on the back of the card. Provide students with clothes pegs to use when selecting their answers. Students self-check when finished by looking at the backs of the cards.
• Digital cards: Assign the interactive peg cards to your students in Google Classroom. Students will need to open the file in Edit mode, not Presentation mode. They will move the marbles on each card to cover the correct answers, then type each complete word in the text box.

Tips for Differentiation + Scaffolding 

A team of dedicated, experienced educators created this resource to support your phonics program. It can be used in whole-class or small-group setting, or as an individual activity for more-capable, independent learners.

We suggest the following differentiation strategies to support the diverse needs of your learners:

🆘 Support Struggling Students

• Encourage students to refer to a classroom sound display to help them identify which r-controlled vowel team is needed to complete each word.
• Encourage students to write down the words on a mini whiteboard or sheet of paper before making their selection.

➕ Challenge Fast Finishers

• Encourage fast finishers to identify and spell other words that contain an r-controlled vowel.
• Have students write sentences or stories using the images and words shown in the resource.

🧑‍ Group Learning

• Project the slides onto a screen and work through them as a class by having students record their answers in their notebooks or on mini whiteboards.

Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the PDF or Google Slides version of this resource. The print version is available in both colour and black and white.

Explore r-controlled vowels further with our Phoneme Spotter Stories!

teaching resource

Phoneme Spotter Story – 'or' Sound

A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the ‘or’ sound.

teaching resource

Phoneme Spotter Story – 'er' Sound

A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the ‘er’ sound.

teaching resource

Phoneme Spotter Story – 'ar' Sound

A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the 'ar' sound.