If your five-year-old is starting to sound out words like car, farm, and star, you’ve probably searched for ar sound jolly phonics help. The /ar/ sound is the 42nd and final sound in the Jolly Phonics programme, closing out Group 7 alongside qu, ou, oi, ue, and er.
Most children meet /ar/ toward the end of Reception or kindergarten, around age five to five and a half, once they’re comfortable blending shorter vowel sounds. This is really the last new mouth shape they need before moving into the sounds that come after the 42, so it’s worth taking slowly.
How to Say the /ar/ Sound Correctly
/ar/ is a long, open vowel, the sound in car, park, and farm. Open your mouth wide, drop your tongue low and back, and keep your voice on the whole time. If your accent pronounces the r, let it follow as a light, soft r; if it doesn’t, one long stretched vowel is just as correct — both are used across Jolly Phonics classrooms.
The official action makes this easy to remember: open your mouth wide and say “ah,” the way you would if a doctor were looking down your throat. Pair it with a two-line cue song, sung to any tune your child already knows: “Open wide and say ar, ar, ar, just like at the doctor’s, near and far.” For the full method behind every Jolly Phonics action, see our guide on how to teach Jolly Phonics step by step.
Sounds That Get Mixed Up with /ar/
Two mix-ups are common. Short a and ar can look alike — cat and cart — so have your child stretch the vowel to check. And ar and or can trade places, as in for and far; compare mouth shape: /or/ rounds the lips forward, while /ar/ stays open and relaxed.
Once ar and or sound different to your child, the ur sound phonics lesson is a good next r-controlled sound to try.
Ways to Spell the /ar/ Sound
At this stage there’s one main spelling to know:
- ar — as in car, park, star, farm, and garden
A Short Story for the /ar/ Sound
Carla loved ice cream, and one afternoon her mom left a whole carton in the freezer just for her. Carla ate scoop after scoop until it was empty, and then her teeth and throat began to ache. “Ar, ar,” she cried, holding her jaw. At the doctor’s office, he asked her to open wide and say “ar, ar” so he could look at her throat, then sent her home with medicine and a gentler plan for next time.
Watch and Practice the /ar/ Sound
Watch the clip once through together, then pause it after each step and try the mouth position side by side with your child.
ar Words: Beginning, Middle, and End
/ar/ rarely opens a word on its own, but it shows up clearly once you know where to look.
Beginning: arm, art, artist, argue, arch, ark
Middle: market, garden, party, sharp, target, carpet, harvest, starlight
End: car, star, far, jar, scar, guitar, cigar, radar
Blending practice: c-ar → car, f-ar → far, j-ar → jar, st-ar → star, f-ar-m → farm, p-ar-k → park
Watch out for: war and warm (the w bends ar toward an /or/ sound instead), and sugar (spelled with ar at the end but said as an unstressed /ər/).
Four Quick /ar/ Activities to Try Today
- ar sound hunt (3 minutes): Spot anything nearby with /ar/ in its name — car, jar, a star sticker, the garden hose.
- Cat vs. cart (2 minutes): Say pairs like cat/cart and for/far and have your child call out which one has the long /ar/.
- Action and cue song (2 minutes): Practice the doctor’s-visit action and cue song together three times, sillier each round.
- Build-a-word warm-up (5 minutes): Using cards for p, ar, and k, see how fast your child can rebuild the word park from a shuffled pile.
Free /ar/ Worksheet and Flashcard Practice
Here’s the digraph “ar” tracing worksheet, ready to print:
For more hands-on practice, use our phase 2 and phase 3 flashcards with your child. First level: lay out the ar, k, and p cards and ask which two together make the /ar/ sound. Advanced level: let your child arrange all three alone to build the word park, saying each sound as they place the card.
Finish with a short dictation: say car, jar, farm, star, and park one at a time and have your child write each word, then check their spelling together. For a refresher on how sounds map onto letters, see our guide to phonemes and graphemes.
Where the /ar/ Sound Sits in the Sequence
/ar/ is the very last of the 42 official Jolly Phonics sounds. Right before it comes the /er/ sound, and after the 42 many programmes move on to the /air/ sound. See the complete order in our Jolly Phonics complete guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the ar sound in Jolly Phonics?
It’s the 42nd and final sound taught in the Jolly Phonics programme, the long vowel heard in car, park, and farm, taught with the action of opening the mouth wide and saying “ah” like at the doctor’s.
How do you teach the ar sound to a five-year-old?
Start with the action and cue song, then move to spotting /ar/ in real words, blend simple words like car and star, and finish with the tracing worksheet and a short dictation.
What is the difference between the ar sound and the or sound?
/ar/ keeps the mouth open with relaxed lips, as in far, while /or/ rounds the lips forward, as in for. Comparing pairs like far and for side by side helps children hear the difference.
Why doesn’t “are” rhyme with “car”?
The word “are” is a common exception: it’s spelled with ar but said as a short, unstressed sound, not the long /ar/ vowel, so it’s worth pointing out as a watch-out word early on.
