Free printable r-controlled — er phonics worksheets. Five practice activities: decodable passage, word sort, phrasing cards, rapid naming chart, and word search.
A free illustrated mini-book for R-Controlled — ER, plus the same story as a passage sheet for highlighting.
A full-color picture book your student reads on their own. Skill: R-Controlled — ER. Print, cut and staple.
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The sun was going down over the river. Sam's mother had told him to be home before the sun set. Sam had to get his herd of mules to the other side of the dam, and fast.
"Come on, mules!" Sam yelled. He ran after them, waving his hands. But the mules did not go to the dam. The mules ran up the hill. Then they all ran into the ferns. Then they all went into the water. Sam ran this way and that way until he had to stop and rest.
Liv sat on a big rock by the river. She never rushed. She did not yell, and she did not run. She just looked at the mules for a long, long time.
At last, Liv got up. "Sam, look at the little one with the bell," she said. "When she goes up the hill, they all go up the hill. When she stops, they stop. The whole herd goes where she goes."
Sam looked up. Liv was right! This time, he did not yell. He went up to the little mule and gave her a pat on the neck. Liv held out a bunch of green herbs. The little mule came over to sniff them. Step by step, Liv and Sam led her to the dam.
The other mules looked up. Then they ran right after her, clop, clop, clop, to the other side.
"Liv, you are super!" said Sam.
Liv grinned. "I just took my time," she said.
er, ir and ur all say the same sound, /er/, as in her, bird and fur.
Print it full size for the wall, or smaller for a phonics notebook.
The words this story set practices, in the two groups used by the word sort.
her, fern, herd, jerk, perk, term, perm, verb, herb, after
zer, jerm, verk, derb, ferp, slern
ER, IR and UR words to read, match and write, with pictures. Each PDF has its answer key on page 2.
The sheets above are free. The pack is every sheet for every Level 4 spelling in order: the long vowel teams with ei and eigh, oo, oe and ui, au, aw, ough and augh, ar, or, er, ir, ur, air, ear, eer and wor, oi and both sounds of ou, the silent letters and ch, a review set and all the answer keys, ready to print.
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4 ready-to-print PDFs for this story's r-controlled — er words. Each one opens as its own file.
Cut-apart word cards to sort: Real Words or Nonsense Words. Answer key on page 2.
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A new decodable story with the same r-controlled — er sounds — each comes with its own set of worksheets.
These free r-controlled (er) worksheets provide structured phonics practice for the ER r-controlled vowel. Activities include a decodable passage embedding target words in a fun story, a word sort activity to distinguish real and nonsense words, phrasing practice cards for fluency building, and a rapid naming (RAN) chart for automaticity. Each worksheet prints cleanly on standard US Letter paper.
For more early literacy resources, explore our sight word flashcards, tracing worksheets, handwriting worksheets, and coloring pages.
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