Er, Ir and Ur Words

Ask your child to say each word slowly and listen for the vowel and r together. For er, ir and ur, keep the sorted lists and have your child add a new word to each. Check every page with the answer key.

Write er, ir or ur in picture names, sort words by r spelling and fix sentences. An r-controlled vowel is a vowel followed by r. The letters er, ir and ur all make the same sound, as in her, bird and fur. The directions on the page read: Read the rule and the example. Then, do parts A, B and C. The page opens with a worked example, and the answer key shows every answer.

Yes, both. We made it for 3rd Grade spelling, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with r-controlled vowels. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

It is a vowel followed by r, where the r changes the vowel sound. The a in car does not sound like the a in cat. Ar, or, er, ir and ur are the common ones.

All three make the same sound, as in her, bird and fur, so you cannot hear which one to write. Students sort words like person, birthday and purple to learn each spelling by sight.

At the end of a word the sound is often spelled ore, as in more, before and explore. In the middle it is usually or, as in storm and corner.

Yes. All four sheets have an answer key that shows every spelling, so a parent or teacher can check the work in a minute.

3rd graders spell long vowels and vowel teams (rain, team, boat), r-controlled vowels (star, fork, bird), common homophones, and words with endings, where the rules for dropping a silent e, doubling a consonant and changing y to i come in (CCSS L.3.2.E and L.3.2.F). Silent letters in words like knee and write round out the year.

Double the last consonant when a one-syllable word ends in one short vowel and one consonant: hop becomes hopping and sit becomes sitting. Words with two vowels or a final e do not double: rain becomes raining and hope becomes hoping. The adding endings pages practice all three rules.

Start with long vowels and vowel teams, since they are the most common patterns, then r-controlled vowels. Move to adding endings once those feel easy, and use the homophone and silent letter pages as review. Each subtopic on this page holds four sheets.