Bossy R Stations Teacher Guide Teacher Facilitation Guide
Bossy R & Heart Word Workshop
UFLI Aligned
Grades 1–2 • Hands-On Lab
Target Phonics
R-Controlled Vowels: ar, er, ir, or, ur
Target Heart Words
other, another, mother, brother
Pacing & Rotation
4 Stations • 12–15 Mins Each
1
Tactile Sound-Box Builders & Sort
Material: Builder Mats + Cutout Tiles
Materials Needed
Bossy R Sort & Build Mats (laminated or in sleeves)
Printed cut-out letter and phonogram tiles
Dry-erase markers & felt erasers
Optional: Magnetic letters, playdough sound dots
Student Action Steps
Pick a picture/word card from the draw pile.
Say the word, tap the sounds, and place tiles into Elkonin boxes.
Sort the completed card into its Bossy R lane (ar, or, er, ir, ur).
Write the word on the handwriting line to anchor memory.
2
Heart Word Detective & Sentence Clues
Material: Detective Task Cards & Strips
Materials Needed
Heart Word Detective Cards (other, another, mother, brother)
Red dot markers (bingo daubers) or red counters
Decodable sentence puzzle strips
Wooden clothespins or paperclips for clip-and-solve
Student Action Steps
Map the word: tap phonemes (/ʌ/ /ð/ /ər/).
Place a heart counter over the irregular letter "o" (/ʌ/).
Identify the regular bossy r "er" ending sound /ər/.
Insert and clip the correct heart word into the decodable sentence strips.
Pedagogical Connection: Why Teach These Together?
The heart words other, another, mother, and brother all share the exact same phonogram chunk -other. The regular ending in all four is the bossy r digraph "er" (/ər/)! Only the initial "o" (/ʌ/) is the "heart part" taught by heart.
Bossy R Workshop • Station Facilitator Guide Page 1 of 2
Stations 3 & 4 + Orthographic Mapping Scripts
Implementation Protocols
3
Bossy R Safari Board Game
Focus: Partner Fluency & Word Reading
Materials: Bossy R Trail Game Board, 1 die or spinner, game pawns, partner record sheet.
Rules: Roll and move pawn. Read the word landed on aloud. Partner verifies pronunciation.
Heart Word Oasis: Landing on a heart word requires saying its rhyme partner (e.g. mother → brother) and writing it on the record card.
4
Multisensory Sand & Dough Lab
Focus: Kinesthetic Encoding & Muscle Memory
Materials: Shallow sand/glitter trays, playdough, alphabet dough stamps, wooden styluses.
Action: Teacher or audio cue gives target word (e.g., "smart", "brother").
Finger Trace: Student traces target in the sand tray saying: "s-m-ar-t... ar says /ar/!".
Heart Stamp: For heart words, roll a small dough heart over the 'o' to imprint memory.
Explicit UFLI Heart Word Instruction Script
Step 1 (Phoneme Segmentation): "Say mother. Let's tap the sounds: /m/ ... /ʌ/ ... /ð/ ... /ər/. How many sounds? Four sounds!"
Step 2 (Orthographic Analysis & Heart Part): "The first sound /m/ is spelled with 'm'. The third sound /ð/ is spelled with digraph 'th'. The last sound /ər/ is spelled with bossy r 'er'! Those are all sounds we know. But look at the letter 'o'—it says /ʌ/ like short u! That's the part we learn by heart."
Step 3 (Pattern Transfer): "If you know mother, you also know brother (/b/ /r/ /ʌ/ /ð/ /ər/), other (/ʌ/ /ð/ /ər/), and another (an-oth-er)!"
Station Observation Quick Rubric
Informal Formative Assessment
1. Phoneme Blending
Accurately blends r-controlled chunk as a single unit without separating /a/ and /r/.
2. Heart Identification
Pinpoints the letter 'o' as the irregular sound and identifies 'er' as bossy r.
3. Contextual Fluency
Reads decodable sentence strips smoothly without stumbling on heart words.
Bossy R Workshop • Station Facilitator Guide Page 2 of 2
Bossy R Builder Mats Phonics Sound Lab • Activity Mat
Bossy R Sort & Sound Builder
Name:
Date:
Sound Tap & Word Build Zone
1. Tap sound • 2. Place tile in box • 3. Write word
Sound 1
Sound 2
Sound 3
Sound 4
Write Word:
Bossy R Sort Trays (Place Tiles Here)
ar
like car
Drop ar cards
er
like fern
Drop er cards
ir
like bird
Drop ir cards
or
like horn
Drop or cards
ur
like surf
Drop ur cards
Heart Word Landing Runway
Tricky "o" • Bossy "er" ending
other Place word here
another Place word here
mother Place word here
brother Place word here
Bossy R Workshop • Build & Sort Mat Page 1 of 2
Hands-On Manipulatives
Print & Cut Tiles & Word Cards
Cut along dotted lines
Letter & Bossy R Sound Tiles (Cut Out)
ar
er
ir
or
ur
ar
er
or
b
c
d
f
g
h
k
m
n
p
s
t
sh
ch
st
th
UFLI Heart Word Cards (Cut Out)
Heart Word other
over 'o'
Heart Word another
over 'o'
Heart Word mother
over 'o'
Heart Word brother
over 'o'
Picture & Word Sort Tokens (Draw Pile)
⭐ star /st/ /ar/
🏚️ barn /b/ /ar/ /n/
🦏 horn /h/ /or/ /n/
🍴 fork /f/ /or/ /k/
🐦 bird /b/ /ir/ /d/
👕 shirt /sh/ /ir/ /t/
🌿 fern /f/ /er/ /n/
🦜 perch /p/ /er/ /ch/
🏄 surf /s/ /ur/ /f/
🔄 turn /t/ /ur/ /n/
Bossy R Workshop • Printable Cutout Tiles Page 2 of 2
Heart Word Detective Cards UFLI Heart Word Lab • Station 2
Heart Word Detective Cards
Phoneme Mapping
Tricky letter "o" • Bossy "er"
Detective Mission:
1. Tap sounds • 2. Color heart over tricky "o" • 3. Circle Bossy "er" • 4. Write word
Clue Card 1 other
1. Tap Sounds (3 Phonemes)
/ʌ/
/ð/
/ər/
2. Map Letters & Hearts
o Heart
Digraph th /ð/
Bossy R er /ər/
Heart Part: The "o" says /ʌ/. The "er" is a regular bossy r!
3. Write it 2 times:
Clue Card 2 another
1. Tap Sounds (5 Sounds / 3 Syllables)
/ə/
/n/
/ʌ/
/ð/
/ər/
2. Map Letters & Hearts
Schwa a /ə/
Letter n /n/
o Heart
Digraph th /ð/
Bossy R er /ər/
Chunk Pattern: Notice that an-other is just "an" + "other"!
3. Write it 2 times:
Clue Card 3 mother
1. Tap Sounds (4 Phonemes)
/m/
/ʌ/
/ð/
/ər/
2. Map Letters & Hearts
Letter m /m/
o Heart
Digraph th /ð/
Bossy R er /ər/
Memory Key: "m" + "other" = mother. Ending is r-controlled "er"!
3. Write it 2 times:
Clue Card 4 brother
1. Tap Sounds (5 Phonemes)
/b/
/r/
/ʌ/
/ð/
/ər/
2. Map Letters & Hearts
Letter b /b/
Letter r /r/
o Heart
Digraph th /ð/
Bossy R er /ər/
Rhyme Buddy: mother and brother rhyme! Same irregular heart sound /ʌ/.
3. Write it 2 times:
Heart Word Detective Cards • Orthographic Mapping Page 1 of 2
Clip & Solve Activity
Decodable Sentence Puzzle Strips
Cut strips • Clip heart word in blank
Cut Out Heart Word Badges (Insert Into Sentences):
other
another
mother
brother
Strip 1
His
[ clip word ]
saw the little bird fly near the big red barn.
R-Controlled words: bird (ir), barn (ar) Correct: mother
Bossy R Trail Game Station 3 • Partner Phonics Game
Bossy R Safari Trail Game
2 Players Heart Word Stops
How to Play:
1. Roll die / spin • 2. Move token • 3. Read word to partner • 4. Record word in your Trail Scorecard. If you land on a Heart Word Oasis, say the rhyming buddy and spell the tricky sound!
Player Cutout Pawns
🦁 🐦 🐢 🦊
Start 🏕️ Base Camp
Space 1 star ar
Space 2 fern er
Oasis
mother Bonus Roll!
Space 4 bird ir
Space 9 horn or
Space 8 surf ur
Oasis
brother Bonus Roll!
Space 6 park ar
Space 5 perch er
Space 10 girl ir
Space 11 fork or
Oasis
other Bonus Roll!
Space 13 turn ur
Space 14 storm or
Finish 🏆 Safari Camp
Space 18 shirt ir
Oasis
another Bonus Roll!
Space 16 hurt ur
Space 15 yard ar
Bossy R Workshop • Safari Trail Game Board Page 1 of 2
Game Tracking & Accountability
Bossy R Partner Scorecard
My Name:
Partner:
1. Safari Trail Word Log (Write words you land on)
ar Words
er Words
ir Words
or Words
ur Words
Heart Stops
2. Rapid Roll-and-Read (Roll die & read row)
Partner puts a star when read smoothly
1
bark germ mother turn
2
farm bird storm brother
3
other fern skirt burn
4
fork another curb shirt
5
smart perch mother short
6
swirl surf brother sharp
3. Super Sentence Challenge
Pick 1 Heart Word (other, another, mother, brother) and 1 Bossy R word. Write your own great sentence:
Bossy R Workshop • Partner Scorecard Page 2 of 2
