Learning the sound of er, ir and ur

I got an email a week or so ago with a photo of an idea that my 6-year-old granddaughter is using to help her learn the sound of er, ir and ur. I don’t know where they got the idea from, or if they made it up themselves.

The “e”, “i” and “u” fingers on her left hand are marked with stars to remind her that they are the ones that all say the same sound when you add an “r”. The corresponding /er/ sounds on her right hand are also marked with stars. The pictures on those fingers relate largely to the memory aids from Gilead Success with Phonics. I developed that program, at least in part, for my grandchildren, most of whom are home-schooled.

The memory aids that I use for the sound of er, ir and ur are “Her bird is hurt”, “bird” and “purse”, so the picture on the “er” finger is “her”, and on the “ir” finger is “bird”. I assume the picture on the “ur” finger is also a bird because “purse” would be difficult to draw on such a small area, and it also emphasises that the sound is the same.

There are so many inventive ways of teaching and reinforcing the sounds of letters and groups of letters. They all reinforce each other. The aim, of course, is to make it easy for children to remember the sounds and be able to recall them instantly and effortlessly. This improves reading fluency and leaves more “brain space” for comprehension and enjoying the story.

It is great to share ways that we have found to help children learn. Children are all different, and different ideas will “click” with different children. This is particularly important if children are having difficulty grasping a particular concept.