Designed by Chris
R-controlled vowels, colloquially known as the “bossy r”, are vowels whose sound is controlled by the ‘r’ directly following the vowel. Common words in this set include: short, car, river, and nurse.
On this page, I’ve provided all of my r-controlled vowel worksheet sets that I use in my classroom. This includes sets for each vowel (ar, er, ir, or, ur) and four pages with a mixture of vowels (great for tests of mastery). Feel free to download all of them and use them with your own students!
We commonly teach the bossy r in Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Grade 1.
All the worksheets are designed to be printed onto US Letter size (your common printer size in the USA). Make sure you select the “shrink to fit” option when printing to avoid any cut-offs on your print.
License and Terms of Use: All printables are provided for non-commercial personal and classroom use only, not for resale or distribution. All rights reserved.
Common Core© Aligned Learning Outcomes
These worksheets partially or fully address the following Common Core© learning outcomes:
Grade 1
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3: “Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.”
R-Controlled Vowels Worksheets
Designed by Chris
Difficulty: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
See the image, sound out its name, identify the r-controlled vowel (using the two options provided), then complete the word under the image.
Designed by Chris
Difficulty: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
See the image, sound out its name, identify the r-controlled vowel, enter it in the missing slot to complete the spelling.
Designed by Chris
Difficulty: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
See the image, spell out the word, identify the vowel, and color it in!
Designed by Chris
Difficulty: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Practice writing the words containing r-controlled vowels. The words are: nurse, skirt, over, bark, store, shark, shirt.
Individual Bossy R Vowel Sets
‘ar’ Words
Designed by Chris
(11 Pages)
‘er’ Words
Designed by Chris
(11 Pages)
‘ir’ Words
Designed by Chris
(11 Pages)
‘or’ Words
Designed by Chris
(11 Pages)
‘ur’ Words
Designed by Chris
(11 Pages)