Santa R-Controlled Roll & Read Games – Free Printables
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Hop on the Santa Express with two FREE printable Santa Express Roll & Read board games for practicing decoding words with r-controlled vowels!
Why We Love It
Get two free printable boards games for kids to celebrate Christmas and Winter while decoding R-Controlled words!
Kids roll the dice to navigate around the board, bringing the Santa Express to the North Pole, all while reading different R-Controlled words per board.
👉 There are 2 free board games, each with 22 words.
This is targeted, intentional practice for important foundational literacy skills: identifying the r-controlled vowel sounds in a word, then blending and reading the word fluently.
Teachers can offer lots of opportunities for exposures to words with R-Controlled vowels. Get our FREE R-Controlled Christmas Worksheets for the holidays, or print our FREE R-Controlled Bingo to use any time of year!
♟️ Game 1 Words: car, verb, her, bird, nurse, corn, bar, girl, for, turn, far, herd, first, or, fern, lurk, far, start, curl, third, thirst, born.
♟️ Game 2 Words: pork, fur, scar, her, birth, part, dirt, stir, form, burn, farm, yurt, sort, for, nerd, harp, card, corn, shirt, bird, torn, fork.
How to Play
The rules are very simple, so kids can play fairly independently in groups of two. You just need two game pieces or markers.
Begin at the starting line, then take turns rolling the dice and moving your piece to the correct square. Read the word that’s written where you land out loud. The players can check the other’s word to ensure correct pronunciation.
If you land on a square with other instructions (jump ahead or go back), follow them! The first person to reach the finish line wins!
👉 For extended use, laminate the printed board games or insert them into plastic sleeves.
👉 Display our FREE R-Controlled anchor chart for referencing the sounds each r-controlled vowel makes.
Extension Ideas
Get more out of every exercise! Add simple strategies to add more excitement to the game while kids practice other literacy skills.
Accountability: After kids land on a space and read the word out loud, have them write it on a recording sheet.
Rhyme: After a player reads the word out loud, they need to say a word that rhymes (it can be a real or nonsense word).
Comprehension: After a player reads a word out loud, they need to use the word in a sentence either verbally or in writing. If they don’t know the meaning of the word, they can ask the other player for help.
More Decoding Practice: To make the game go on longer, require that kids reach the finish line, then turn around and work in reverse until they return to the start.
More Phonics Resources
Get the Phonics Roll & Read Board Games GROWING BUNDLE for Seasons & Holidays!
You’ll get TONS of games covering phonics skills: CVC, Magic e, R-Controlled, Vowel Teams, Digraphs, Blends, and FLOSS!
👆Upgrade! Get dozens of games with our GROWING BUNDLE: Phonics Roll & Read Board Games for Seasons & Holidays!
Download & Print
DOWNLOAD TERMS: All of our resources and printables are designed for personal use only in homes and classrooms. Each teacher must download his or her own copy. You may not: Save our files to a shared drive, reproduce our resources on the web, or make photocopies for anyone besides your own students. To share with others, please use the social share links provided or distribute the link to the blog post so others can download their own copies. Your support in this allows us to keep making free resources for everyone! Please see our Creative Credits page for information about the licensed clipart we use. If you have any questions or concerns regarding our terms, please email us. Thank you!
❄️ More Winter FREEBIES: Phonics Snowman for all phonics skills!