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R-Blends Activity - Color by Code

Students complete nine words with the missing initial r-blend, then color each word using a four-color key tied to fr, cr, dr, and tr.
Grades
Preschool–3, Elementary
Pages
1
File type
PDF
Preparation
Print ready

Updated Jul 26, 2025

Subject
ELA, Language Development, Phonics, Holiday & Seasonal, Holidays, Back To School, Months, August, September
Topic
r blends, r blend
Resource types
Worksheets & Printables, Worksheets, Coloring Pages, Teacher Tools, Assessments, Lesson Plans, Activities, Centers
Preparation
Print ready

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Make practicing consonant blends engaging and colorful with this R Blends: Color by Code activity! This resource focuses on the beginning blends fr, cr, dr, and tr. Students will complete each word by writing the correct R blend at the beginning, then use the color code to color the matching pictures. It’s a great way to combine phonics practice with a fun, hands-on coloring task.

Perfect for early readers, this activity helps reinforce word recognition, sound blending, and beginning spelling skills, all while keeping students entertained.

Ways to Use:

  • Literacy centers

  • Morning work

  • Phonics small groups

  • Homework or review

  • Sub plans or early finisher tasks

Why Teachers Love It:

  • Strengthens decoding and phonics skills

  • Builds fluency with R blends in a fun way

  • Supports fine motor skills through coloring and writing

  • Low-prep and easy to implement

  • Ideal for Kindergarten and 1st Grade

This no-prep printable is a great way to bring phonics to life in your classroom. With this resource, learning R blends becomes an activity your students will look forward to!

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

  • Identify and write the correct initial r-blend (fr, cr, dr, or tr) to complete a word.

  • Shade each finished word in the color its blend is assigned: green for fr, red for cr, blue for dr, yellow for tr.

Teaching tips

  • Go over fr, cr, dr and tr and their key colors before students start, since a word shaded green has to be an fr word and one shaded yellow a tr word.

  • The r-blend key uses green, red, blue and yellow only, so a basic four-color set of crayons or pencils covers the page — fr green, cr red, dr blue, tr yellow.

Skills covered

  • Initial consonant-blend decoding — students determine which of four r-blends (fr, cr, dr, tr) correctly completes each word stem.

  • Color-code following — students turn a decoded blend into a color choice, so every dr word on the finished grid comes out blue and every cr word red.

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