Omar rides in a car to the farm. Listen to car. The a does not say its short sound. The r is bossy. It changes the vowel's sound.
ar in starcornor in corn
Ar and or
Ar says the sound in car, star and park. Or says the sound in corn, fork and horse. At the farm, Omar sees a horse eating corn.
hererbirdirfurur
Er, ir and ur
Er, ir and ur all make the same sound. You hear it in her, bird and fur. Omar sees a bird with soft fur on its chest.
hurturshirtir
Same sound, different spelling
Er, ir and ur sound alike, so spelling can be tricky. Shirt uses ir. Turn uses ur. Hurt and shirt rhyme, but look how they are spelled. Learn each word by how it looks.
barnarbornor
Try this
Change the ar in barn to or. What do you get? Born. Now find the odd one out: fur, girl, park. Park has ar. The others sound the same.
For parents
Goal: Your child learns how r changes a vowel's sound in ar, or, er, ir and ur.
Say: when r comes after a vowel, the r is the boss and changes the sound.
Remind your child that er, ir and ur sound the same, so they need to remember how each word looks.
Away from the screen: Hunt around the house for r words: fork, jar, shirt, purse, corner. Sort them into an ar pile, an or pile and an er, ir, ur pile.