Or is another bossy-r spelling: once r follows the vowel o, the o no longer says its short sound as in hop or its long sound as in hope. Instead, or makes one new sound, heard in fork, storm, and horse. Children who just learned short o often try to read horse as "hose" without the r, or they split or into two sounds instead of blending them. Because this pattern is so common in everyday words, it earns its own practice separate from ar, er, ir, and ur, so a child masters one bossy-r spelling firmly before comparing it with the others. This worksheet asks your child to find the word carrying the or sound among other words, fill in missing letters inside a partly hidden or word, find the word that has the letters or, and pick the or word that correctly completes a short, true sentence.
Support sheets use short everyday words, standard sheets add other bossy-r words as wrong choices, and challenge sheets use two-syllable words. Have your child say the whole word slowly, keeping the o and r together as one sound, and check that the word still makes sense in the sentence before choosing it.
What your child will learn
Hear the or sound in words like fork and storm
Read and spell common or words
Tell or apart from other bossy-r sounds
Choose an or word that fits a sentence
Worked example
In horse, the letters or come right after h. Say the whole word: horse, with the o and r blended into one sound, not h-o-r-s-e sounded out letter by letter.
Common mistake
Dropping the r sound and reading an or word as if it only had a plain o, such as reading horse as hose.
Helpful hint
Say the whole word aloud and listen for the o and r blending together.
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