Looking for a fun activity to help your child master those tricky words with r controlled vowels? Try this free game!
Now that my early reader has mastered CVC words, it’s time for the next step. I decided to move to the next phonics pattern that’s introduced in my free phonics books: words with r- controlled vowels.
These are just plain tricky! It can be hard for new readers to keep ar, ir, er, or, and ur straight.
The prep for this game is super simple. Print the “Is it real” game board and playing cards. Choose the r-controlled vowel you would like to work on. You can also print the free picture bookmark as a reference (stay tuned – that’s coming soon!).
Put the stack of cards face down on the board. Take turns drawing a card. Read it aloud. Is it a real word? If it is, move your playing piece up toward the gem. If it’s not a real word, stay where you are.
The first day of playing this game, we just played with the “ar” words. (After taking this picture I changed the color of the “ar” pattern to red to match the color in my phonics books.)
At first my son had a hard time with this pattern. For the word “cart,” for example, he read “crat.” But with lots and lots of patient practice, he had it by the end!
A few days later, we pulled the game out again. He still remembered the ar pattern – hurray! Now it was time to work on the others. We played a review game of ar, one with ir, and one with ur. After that he’d had enough for the day.
Why I love this game
- It’s low prep. Just print the game board and the cards you’d like to use. Cut apart the cards.
- It’s quick. A single game takes about ten minutes. New readers need quick games, as they tend to tire easily.
- It provides a lot of phonics practice. The tricky thing with r-controlled vowel words is that there aren’t that many real words to practice. For example, how many one-syllable er words do you know? Herd. Fern. Not too many more. When you mix it up with pretend words like perg and wert, you get in a lot more phonics practice. A few giggles, too!
- It’s a vocabulary builder. When your child has to think about whether a word is real or pretend, he has to think about the word’s meaning. When you play with your child, you can tell him the meanings of unfamiliar words. (Not too many new readers know the word mar, for example.) Of course, when kids are playing together, neither one might know that a particular word is actually real. No problem. As long as they’re getting practice pronouncing that tricky pattern!
Get your free games in color HERE.
Want to keep all those vowel patterns in black and white or just print a black and white game board?
Get your free games in black and white HERE.
Other free resources for learning words with r-controlled vowels
© 2015 – 2016, Anna G. All rights reserved.
Sigita says
May 7, 2015 at 7:09 amIncredible game! Thank you!
Anna Geiger says
May 7, 2015 at 5:24 pmYou’re very welcome!
Louise says
May 7, 2015 at 9:55 amThis is our first year homeschooling and my little guy has really hated reading and LA in general. Then I found you! I really cannot adequately say how your ideas and brilliant games have made our days so much more enjoyable. Now we can honestly say learning is fun! Thank you!
Anna Geiger says
May 7, 2015 at 5:23 pmYour comment really made my day, Louise! I’m thrilled to hear that my reading games have made language arts fun at your house. Hurray! Stay tuned because I have lots more in store. 🙂
Kylie says
May 8, 2015 at 6:57 amOh this fabulous! I’ll be printing and prepping this weekend ready for next week. Thank you.
Anna Geiger says
May 8, 2015 at 8:09 pmYou’re welcome, Kylie – I hope you enjoy it!
Wendy King says
May 8, 2015 at 8:05 pmThank you Anna. I am a teacher who works with all age children who have Learning Difficulties, and I cannot tell you what a great resource you are. With your word family books, you have filled a great need. I have found many children get overwhelmed; after teaching segmenting and blending for short vowels individually, then moving them onto decodable books, it can just be too big a hurdle to jump. With the word family books, this smooths their passage into decodable books and teaches important sight words as well. A wonderful resource! I am from New Zealand, and I am recommending your site to many of my teacher friends!!
Anna Geiger says
May 8, 2015 at 8:12 pmThank you so much for your kind words, Wendy! I agree that most decodable books move too quickly for some readers. Interestingly, my older two children jumped from CVC words to reading almost everything without any trouble. Their younger brother is moving at a more average speed – which is great because we can slow down and create fun resources for all the phonics patterns. I’m so glad it’s helpful for your students too! (And thanks so much for passing on my site!)
Kathi says
May 15, 2015 at 1:10 pmI just found your site. Wish I had know about this all year long. I teach second grade, and while not all of my kids need this, my lower or struggling students will benefit greatly from this. I also shared your site with our Kindergarten teachers and special Ed teachers. They are going to love you too.
Anna Geiger says
May 17, 2015 at 7:23 pmI’m so glad you found my site, Kathi! Hopefully you’ll be able to use some of the resources with incoming students in the fall. Thank you SO much for passing it on to your colleagues!
Patricia says
September 28, 2015 at 4:52 pmI included a link back on a blog that I have as this was a very clever game and although I would use it for speech sound production the game and the list of words would be the same. Thanks for your work.
Anna Geiger says
October 4, 2015 at 5:28 pmThank you for sharing, Patricia!
Judy Migliore says
October 19, 2015 at 8:20 pmI love your site and all the freebies! I am a teacher who does a pull out program for stuggling readers so I’ve used a lot of your activities and the students keep telling me how much fun they have in my class when I pull out your games. Their favorites are the clothes pin activities. With that in mind, I’d like to ask if you could do a clip it activity with bossy r words. The er, ir, and ur words are especially difficult for them to spell correctly. I’m working with students from grades K through 7 so many of them are decoding while others need to spell the words in addition to reading them. Thanks so much for this site!
Anna Geiger says
October 21, 2015 at 8:53 pmHi Judy! I’m not sure if I’ll have time to make this set (we’re getting ready for baby $6), but I’ll put it on my to do list and leave a comment here for you to see in case I get to it.
SO glad to hear that your students like my games!
Judy says
October 26, 2015 at 8:30 pmCongrats on number 6! I’ll be patient ?
Susan says
January 23, 2016 at 11:04 amI’ve tried several times to download your free game for r- controlled vowel words, but have had no success. Is there a problem there. I have no rouble downloading other games/materials from other websites.
Thanks.
Anna Geiger says
January 23, 2016 at 11:20 amNo, there is not a problem on my site. Please try the tips here: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/how-to-download-free-files/
senthilkumar says
June 2, 2017 at 11:28 pmHi mam,
Daily i used to browse your website. i could get more idea and following your game ideas and other printables i make it for other subjects also.
Really thankk you for your service.
Anna Geiger says
June 6, 2017 at 7:20 amYou’re welcome, Senthilkumar!
Rushina says
July 11, 2017 at 1:52 amHi Anna,
my son has just has started recognising cvc words and can write them if i pronounce it to him still in reading cvc words he gets stuck sometimes , so is this the time to introduce R controlled vowels or should i stick to making him go properly through cvc writing and reading both ?
Anna G says
August 12, 2017 at 9:21 pmI would wait until he’s reading CVC words automatically. The r-controlled vowel words are quite a bit tougher.
Kim says
October 26, 2017 at 10:36 amYou have amazing materials! Great job!!!
Anna G says
October 26, 2017 at 5:27 pmThank you so much, Kim!
Becky says
June 9, 2018 at 7:35 pmI had an experience the other day that taught me I need to be more careful about asking in a word is “real”- especially with those students whose home language isn’t English. I asked a chld if a word was real, expecting to hear the answer no as it was not an English word. The child answered yes and explained it was a word in their home language.
Anna G says
June 23, 2018 at 6:40 amGreat point! I wouldn’t recommend this game for English language learners.
Faye J Fulton says
January 12, 2019 at 10:49 amThank you, thank you, a thousand times thank you. My 72 year old adult literacy student was tested on a low third grade reading level. I can use your material as is, or it is easy to adapt (so it doesn’t seem so childish to her).
Anna G says
January 23, 2019 at 7:17 amYou’re very welcome, Faye!
Philicia Mollere says
March 10, 2019 at 3:49 pmThank you so much for these wonderful games for my students. I am going to share your name and logo on my blog.
Anna G says
March 17, 2019 at 7:08 amYou’re very welcome, Philicia! Thank you for recommending me!