This post about how to teach CVC words contains affiliate links to amazon.com, which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that I have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they will help me keep this site up and running. Thank you!
What Are CVC Words?
Before we explain how to teach CVC words in the most comprehensive and effective way, let’s see what CVC stands for.
CVC words are basically a type of words that consist of a consonant, a vowel, and another consonant in sequence. So, CVC stands for Consonant-Vowel-Consonant. These words are often used as an initial step in teaching early reading and phonics skills. Here are some examples of CVC words: cat, dog, pig, man, can, fan, pin, etc.
The vowel sound in the middle of the CVC word is typically a short vowel sound, such as /a/ in “cat,” /o/ in “dog,” or /i/ in “pig.” The consonants provide the initial and final sounds of the word. Learning to recognize and decode CVC words is important for your child because it develops foundational reading and phonics skills. These, as a result, then help your little one progress to more complex words and texts.
How To Teach CVC Words
And now that you know why learning CVC words is of utmost importance, let’s have a look at a few simple, yet effective techniques showing how to teach them.
Revise individual letter sounds
Before teaching CVC words, make sure that your kid has a solid understanding of individual letter sounds. Firstly, revise or teach the sounds of consonants and short vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, u). You can do it through various activities, such as letter-sound associations, phonics songs, and letter sound recognition games. You can also download free alphabet flashcards from here or by clicking on the picture below.
If you need the lower case tiles, then you can download them for free from here.
Use multisensory approaches
Children learn through all their senses, so it would be a good idea to engage them in multisensory activities. These activities aim at reinforcing letter-sound connections. For example, use tactile materials like letter cards or magnetic letters that children can touch and manipulate. Encourage them to say the sound aloud as they trace the shape of each letter.
Introduce blending
Once your little one has mastered the letters and the correspondong sounds, you can introduce blending. Help them understand the concept by demonstrating how individual sounds can be combined to form words. Model blending by saying each sound separately and then gradually merging the sounds together to form the CVC word. For example, for the word “cat,” say /k/ – /a/ – /t/ and then blend them together as /k/-/a/-/t/ to form “cat.” You can download some free blending flashcards from here or by clicking on the picture below.
Provide word-building activities
While teaching CVC words, it would be a nice idea to use manipulatives, such as letter tiles or cards to allow children to physically build CVC words. Start with a few simple word families such as -at, -an, -it, -in, etc. Ask your child to arrange the letters to form different words within the word family. Then provide opportunities for them to practice blending and segmenting sounds.
Play word games
Playing games can make a huge difference while teaching CVC words. Engage your little one in interactive word games to make learning CVC words enjoyable. Activities like “I Spy” or “Guess the Word” can encourage children to listen for sounds and identify the corresponding letters to form CVC words. You can also use CVC puzzles as well as pop it games.
Incorporate visual aids
Kids are visual learners. That is why it is important to include visual aids while teaching CVC words. These can be posters, charts as well as colorful word cards. Highlight the individual letters and emphasize the short vowel sound in each word. Then, encourage your little learner to refer to these visual aids as they practice reading and writing CVC words.
Read CVC word books
If you are wondering whether there are more fun ways showing how to teach CVC words, then here’s the answer. Absolutely! How about reading a book? You can choose books or passages that contain lots of CVC words. Then, read aloud to your kid, pointing to each word as you say it. Encourage them to identify CVC words they recognize and then sound them out. At this oint, you can start gradually increasing the difficulty of the texts. As a result, your litte reader will gain more confidence and proficiency.
Provide opportunities for practice
Practice makes perfect, they say. So, make sure you offer plenty of opportunities for children to practice reading and writing CVC words. One option is to create worksheets or activities where they can fill in missing letters, complete word puzzles, or create their own CVC word lists. You may also consider some of the following activities:
CVC words directed drawing
These CVC words directed drawing activities are a perfect addition to your ELA lessons. They can also be used for early finishers, centers or independent work. There are 60 fun and engaging pages and each page includes the following activities:
- Draw a picture of the CVC word using the directions (6 steps)
- Trace the CVC words
- Write a sentence with the CVC word
The following words are included: bag, bat, bad, bed, bib, bin, box, bug, bus, cab, can, cap, cat, cup, dog, dot, fan, fig, fog, ham, hat, hen, hot, jam jet, jug, kid, fin, leg, lid, lip, log, man, mad, mat, mop, mug, net, pan, pen, pig, pin, pot, pod, rat, rug, six, sun, tag, tap, tub, top, ten, sad, van, web, wig, wet, win, zip.
CVC words spinning wheels
CVC Words Spinning Wheels is a fun activity for your students to learn and practice CVC words. There are 5 sets of wheels (5 big and 5 small) with 8 words on each wheel (total 40 words with pictures). Print out the wheels and laminate them for more durability. Then use a pin for each set of wheels. Students look at the beginning sount on the small wheel and rotate it to match the CVC words. The following CVC words are included:bag, bin, fig, mug, pig, pen, bat, can, fan, pan, hen, pin, bed, cap, dog, jam, log,man, cup, lip,ham, lid, hat, mat, rat, rug, sun, tag, van, zip, sad, ten, wig, bib, jug, net, bus, fin, leg, pot.
CVC words task cards – cut and glue
CVC Words Task Cards is a fun activity for your students to learn and practice CVC words. There are 40 task cards (4 per page). Students look at the picture and cut and glue the letters in the correct order to build a CVC words. Students could also just write the missing letters in the provided spaces.
CVC words – find, color, and write
A fun and engaging activity for practicing CVC words. Students find and color the presents with CVC words. Then they write the words, so that the train can ship the presents. You can preview the product here.
Make it fun and engaging
Kids learn best through play. So, it is of utmost importance to incorporate games, songs, and hands-on activities to make CVC word learning enjoyable. Use interactive online resources or educational apps that provide engaging CVC word activities and reinforce learning through play.
And last, but not least, remember that each child learns at their own pace. Always strive to provide support, repetition, and positive reinforcement throughout the whole process. Celebrate your little learner’s progress and offer encouragement as they build their CVC word reading and decoding skills.