Teachers, save “Phonics: er · ir · ur” to assign it to your class.

Teacher Notes (not visible to students)

This activity uses a short phonics chant video to teach the r-controlled vowel sound /ər/ spelled er, ir, and ur. Students first listen and then practice recognizing which letter combinations produce the same sound. Use the Think About It page to gather informal oral responses. The Solve It pages provide auto-graded checks of decoding skills. The Show It and Think About It pages let students respond with recordings or drawings for a formative check. Before the lesson, prepare a whiteboard or chart with example words (her, bird, fur, shirt, turn). Play the video once for enjoyment and a second time for listening practice. For each open-ended prompt, high-quality answers show a student naming or showing a word with the /ər/ sound and correctly identifying or demonstrating the spelling (er, ir, ur). Good responses include clear pronunciation (audible /ər/), at least one correct example word, and a short explanation or question. When students draw, a clear label of the word counts as high quality. Teachers should mark open responses correct if the student demonstrates accurate identification or reasonable effort with correct examples; otherwise mark incorrect.