R Controlled Vowels worksheet for practicing spelling with missing vowel sounds.

Let me work through this R-controlled vowels worksheet step by step.

The task is to fill in the middle sound for each R-controlled vowel word using: ir, ar, er, or, ur

Let me go through each word:

Row 1:
- d__t → dirt (ir) - wait, could also be dart (ar). Let me think... "dirt" uses ir, "dart" uses ar. Both are valid words. Let me look at context clues from other words.
- cl__k → clock? No, that's not r-controlled. clerk! That uses er.
- st__t → start (ar) or street? Street doesn't have r-controlled vowel in middle. "start" uses ar. Or "sturt"? No. It's "start" with ar.


- f__n → fern (er) or fan? Fan isn't r-controlled. Fern works with er.
- feath__ → feather (er)
- fing__ → finger (er)
- st__ → stir (ir) or star (ar)? Both work, but I need to check what makes sense with the pattern.
- fl__t → flirt (ir) or fleet? Fleet isn't r-controlled. Flirt uses ir.
- t__f → turf (ur)
- d__t → This appears again. Could be dirt (ir) or dart (ar). Looking at the full set, I'm seeing a mix of patterns emerging.
- sh__t → shirt (ir) or short (or)? Both are valid r-controlled words.
- t__ch → torch (or) or teach? Teach isn't r-controlled. Torch uses or.
- h__l → hurl (ur) or hall? Hall isn't r-controlled. Hurl works with ur.
- t__nip → turnip (ur)
- h__t → hurt (ur) or hart? Hart is archaic. Hurt uses ur.
- Th__sday → Thursday (ur)
- j__ky → jerky (er) or jorky? Jerky uses er.
- ch__ch → church (ur) or chore? Church uses ur.

Now I'm checking if I've used all the vowel patterns and looking for any duplicates or inconsistencies in my answers. I'm realizing there might be multiple valid answers for some of these blanks—like "d__t" could be either "dirt" or "dart," and "st__t" could be "start" or "sturt." Since this is a worksheet designed to practice different r-controlled vowel patterns, I should pick one answer per blank and make sure I'm covering a good variety of the ir, ar, er, or, and ur sounds across all the words. I'm working through the remaining blanks systematically. For "st__", both "stir" and "star" fit, but "stir" with the ir pattern seems more common. Then I'm filling in the rest: "fl__t" becomes "flirt" (ir), "t__f" is "turf" (ur), and I'm reconsidering whether the second "d__t" should be "dart" (ar) instead of repeating "dirt". For "sh__t", I'm leaning toward "shirt" (ir) over "short" (or), and "t__ch" is clearly "torch" (or). The final row has "h__l" as "hurl" (ur), "t__nip" as "turnip" (ur), and "h__t" as "hurt" (ur).

Now I'm finishing up the last few words: "Th__sday" is "Thursday" (ur), "j__ky" is "jerky" (er), and "ch__ch" is "church" (ur). Looking at the overall distribution, I notice ur appears quite frequently while or only shows up twice, which makes me wonder if I should reconsider some choices—maybe "short" instead of "shirt" would give better balance, though both are perfectly valid words. I'm settling on my final answers now. For the ambiguous ones like "d__t" and "st__t", I'll go with "dirt" and "start" since they're more common vocabulary words. Let me verify each one works as a real word with the right vowel pattern before committing to the list. I'm noticing some ambiguity in a few of these—particularly with "d__t" appearing twice, which could be either "dirt" or "dart," and "sh__t" which could be "shirt" or "short." Since this is likely designed for elementary students learning r-controlled vowels, I'll stick with the most common interpretations: "dirt" for both instances of "d__t," and "shirt" for "sh__t." Now I'm compiling the complete answer key with all the filled-in words and their corresponding vowel patterns. I'm going back and forth on whether to use "shirt" or "short" for that blank—both are common words kids would know, but "shirt" feels more natural for an elementary worksheet. Let me settle on my final answers and double-check them against the image to make sure I'm reading the blanks correctly. I'm second-guessing myself on a few of these—"clerk" is definitely er, but I want to make sure I'm not missing something with the others. Let me lock in my final answers: dirt, clerk, start, fern, feather, finger, stir, flirt, turf, dart, shirt, torch, hurl, turnip, hurt, Thursday, jerky, and church. I'm settling on my final answers now—going with "dirt" for the first instance and "dart" for the second to show variety, "shirt" over "short" since it's more commonly taught, and confirming all the other words like "clerk," "start," "fern," "feather," "finger," "stir," "flirt," "turf," "torch," "hurl," "turnip," "hurt," "Thursday," "jerky," and "church" with their respective vowel patterns.