5-in-a-Row Phonics ir Words Game – Learning R Controlled Vowels

As your grade 1 students learns phonics they will run into r-controlled vowels.  The concept of the bossy r can be tricky and take some time for 1st graders to master. To master these phonics ir words, we created a fun phonics game to make practicing fun. Simply print the ir phonics words to play 5-in-a-row Phonics game to play and learn!

Phonics ir Words

This low prep ir game is a great way to get children reading r-controlled vowels. I don’t know who decided this, but I wish those that wrote out the English language would have made it a little easier for our little readers. Why do we have to have so many ways of spelling the same sound?

Sometimes it is easy. If you hear the /oy/ sound in the middle of the word, you use /oi/. If it is at the end of a word or syllable, we use /oy/. But then we have these pesky r-controlled vowels.  Without any rules to help our little readers, you have three ways of making the /er/ sound.

We can use /er/ to make words like in fern or helper. But did you know we can also use /ur/ to make the exact same sound. Yep, you can use that /ur/ to create words like blur or scurry. And we can not leave out the /ir/. It also makes the /er/ sound. Words like bird, whirl, and confirm use the /ir/ to make the exact same sound.

With all these different ways of spelling /er/, we have to give our little ones lots of opportunities to see how these words are spelled and read them. And that is what this ir game is all about.

ir phonics words

Start by scrolling to the bottom of the post, under the terms of use, and click on the text link that says >> _____ <<. The r controlled vowel words pdf file will open in a new window for you to save the freebie and print the many apple worksheet preschool.  

ir Phonics sound

This game is super simple to prepare. Simply print off the pages, and grab two Do-A-Dot Markers. If you wish to re-use the game, laminate the pages for durabilityand use two maniuplitives that are two different colors.

R-controlled vowel

There are five game boards to choose from. The first game board has simple /ir/ words. Most of them are three to five letters, and all of them are one-syllable words.

The last game board moves into two-syllable words, to give your kiddos more of a challenge.

The game is easy to play.

1. Player one choose a place to go, reads the word, and then places their manipultive or dots it with a do-a dot-marker.
2. Player two does the same thing. Decides where they want to go, reads the word, and then covers it up.
3. The players take turns reading and dotting trying to get five dots in a row. They can be up and down, across, or even horizontal. And it may be important to remind our little ones, that they can block their opponets to keep them from getting that five dots in a row.
4. The frist person that succeeds in having make that row or column of five wins the game.

Bossy r

It’s that simple. Our kiddos get to read /ir/ words while playing a game. And in the process, begin to develop a schema for when to use /ir/ when spelling that pesky /er/ sound.

 

Looking for more fun, creative ways you can begin your free homeschool? We have over 1,000,000 pages of FREE Printable Worksheets including resources for: pre k worksheets, kindergarten worksheets, 1st grade worksheets, 2nd grade worksheets, 3rd grade worksheets, 4th grade worksheets, 5th grade worksheets, 6th grade worksheets, and more. Plus see our history lessons for kids, printable math games, language arts worksheets, sight word worksheets, free alphabet printables, and cvc word activities for kids of all ages!