Before a child can read words, we teach them the alphabet. We begin by teaching them the names of the letters and once they have mastered that, we teach the sounds the letters make. This is the phonetic alphabet.
Once a child knows the phonetic alphabet, they can begin sounding out words. However, English is a complex language with many confusing rules. Certain combinations of letters change the sound they make from their straight forward phonetic sounds.
To make it as easy as possible for a child to learn to read, we usually begin by using CVC words. Having a CVC word list will keep you on point when teaching reading to your child.
- What Is A CVC Word?
- Why are CVC words important?
- Short A Words
- Short E Words
- Short I Words
- Short O Words
- Short U Words
- How Do You Read CVC Words?
- Ways to Use CVC Word Lists With Your Students
- CVC Words At The Forefront Of Learning
What Is A CVC Word?
A CVC word is one that begins with a consonant, has a vowel in the middle, and then another consonant at the end. The vowel sound in the middle is always a short vowel sound (1).
So, consonant, vowel, consonant = CVC.
Why are CVC words important?
These three-letter words are the ones your child first learns to read. They are the easiest words to learn because they do not have any of the complex letter sounds or rules of other words.
Each letter of a CVC word is a “short” letter, and it makes the same sound it does in the phonetic alphabet (2).
By learning to read CVC words first, your child has the opportunity to be successful in sounding out words. This builds confidence in their reading skills and promotes enthusiasm for reading. These CVC word lists can be used when teaching reading to your child.
Short A Words
- ab: cab, dab, gab, jab, lab, nab, tab
- ad: bad, dad, had, lad, mad, pad, sad, tad
- ag: bag, gag, hag, lag, nag, rag, sag, tag, wag
- am: bam, dam, ham, jam, ram, yam
- an: ban, can, fan, man, pan, ran, tan, van
- ap: cap, gap, lap, map, nap, rap, sap, tap, yap, zap
- at: bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, vat
- ax: fax, lax, max, sax, tax, wax
- Other short A CVC words: gal, pal, gas, yak, bath, math
Short E Words
- eb: web
- ed: bed, fed, led, red, wed
- eg: beg, keg, leg, Meg, peg
- em: gem, hem
- en: den, hen, men, pen, ten
- et: get, jet, met, net, pet, set, vet, wet
- Other short E CVC words: yes, pep, hex
Short I Words
- ib: bib, rib
- id: bid, did, hid, kid, lid, rid
- ig: big, dig, fig, gig, pig, rig, wig, zig
- im: dim, him, rim
- in: bin, din, fin, pin, sin, tin, win
- ip: dip, hip, lip, nip, rip, sip, tip, zip
- it: bit, fit, hit, kit, lit, pit, sit, wit
- ix: fix, mix, six
- Other short I CVC words: hill, pill, fish, dish
Short O Words
- ob: bob, cob, fob, hob, job, lob, mob, rob, sob
- od: cod, god, nod, pod, rod, sod
- og: bog, cog, dog, fog, hog, jog, log
- om: mom
- op: cop, hop, mop, pop, top
- ot: cot, dot, got, hot, jot, lot, not, pot, rot, tot
- ox: box, fox, pox
Short U Words
- ub: cub, dub, hub, nub, pub, rub, sub, tub
- ud: bud, cud, dud, mud
- ug: bug, dug, hug, jug, lug, mug, pup, rug, tug
- um: bum, gum, hum, mum, sum, yum
- un: bun, fun, gun, nun, pun, run, sun
- up: cup, pup
- us: bus
- ut: but, cut, gut, hut, jut, nut, put, rut, tut
- ux: tux
How Do You Read CVC Words?
You read CVC words by segmenting and blending them.
This means you:
- Split up each of the letters, which is segmenting them.
- Make the sounds of the individual letters.
- Blend those sounds together to make the entire word.
Once a child can recognize individual letters and the sounds they make, they will be able to begin decoding CVC words.
Start by concentrating on the beginning sounds. For this, you could use a worksheet that has a picture of an item and the last two letters of the word. So, you might have a sheet that has a picture of a pig and underneath it reads ___ig.
You then encourage your child to say the word and concentrate on the first sound, in this case the P. Finally, your child writes the P in the gap and they can read the entire word — pig.
Next, you move onto the end sounds and use the same principle, but in reverse. So now your sheet will read pi___. The third stage is to have them fill in the blanks using the middle letter.
After your child has mastered this skill, you can move onto sheets where they write two letters. So the sheet would say ___ ___ g. And then, again, you would do the same thing, but require them to insert the end of the word p ___ ___.
Finally, after they’ve mastered the prior exercise, you’d have your child write the entire word.
Ways to Use CVC Word Lists With Your Students
There are many interesting and engaging ways you can use a CVC words list with your children or students.
Reading in Pairs
Pair up your children, placing a child with more confidence with a child who is less confident. Have them take turns reading the CVC words on the list.
Encourage each child to sound out the individual letters and then blend the letters to make the words.
If each child has a CVC word list, they can cross out the words they read.
CVC Word Review
At the end of a lesson, give your children a blank sheet and have them write down as many of the CVC words as they remember.
You can do the same thing by giving your children CVC word lists with some of the words on them and asking the children to write down words that rhyme.
Spelling Dictation
You can also use CVC words to introduce spelling practice.
To do this, you read words from the CVC list aloud, and your children write them down.
Reading Flashcards
Either print out a list of CVC words and cut them up or write the words out on individual cards.
You can use these flashcards in a number of ways:
- Have your children turn them over and read the words aloud.
- Make another set of the CVC word flashcards, lay them face down and play Memory.
- Print out an even number of sets of CVC flashcards and use them to play Go-Fish.
Highlighter Quiz
Give each of your children a copy of the CVC word list and a highlighter pen. Then either read words aloud from the list or read a story that contains a large number of the words.
As you read, your children will highlight each CVC word they hear you say.
CVC Words At The Forefront Of Learning
CVC words can be found frequently in early reader books. Using a CVC word list not only encourages your children to learn individual words, but it equips them with the skills to begin reading those early reader books themselves.
Print them out, decorate your room, create worksheets and games, but whatever you do, celebrate CVC words and their role in raising readers.
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What are CVC words? As you probably know, words in the English language are made up of vowels and consonants. Vowels are the letters a, e, i, o, and u (and, sometimes, y). They make “open” sounds, meaning that vowel sounds are made by moving the tongue to various places within the mouth, but without any parts of the lips or mouth coming into contact.
Consonants, which are all the other letters in the alphabet, are “closed”, in that their sounds are made by contact between two parts of the mouth, such as the tongue on the teeth, or pressing your lips together.
What Are CVC Words?
CVC words are three-letter words with a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. Most CVC words use short vowel sounds, although there are a handful of exceptions. A short vowel sound is when a vowel does not “say its name”. Examples of words with short vowel sounds are kit, cut, and tap.
Learning CVC words is an important first step in the process of learning to read. It gives students the opportunity to practice phonemic awareness. This is the skill that allows a person to identify and separate the individual sounds within a word. This skill is at work in both constructing words from individual letter sounds, or phonemes, as well as breaking down a word into it’s individual phonemes. CVC words are helpful in building this skill because the reader only needs to be able to understand the sounds of single letters, not strings or combinations of letters.
Phoneme awareness is an auditory skill, not a visual skill, and is a good predictor of future reading difficulties (or lack thereof). Neurodivergent individuals (such as those on the autism spectrum or those with dyslexia) may have trouble with this skill, but it can still be successfully taught through practice and reinforcement.
What Are CCVC and CVCC Words?
CCVC words and CVCC words are the next step in the learning process. These words either start or end with two consonants together. These combinations of consonants are often referred to as “blends”. A strong foundation in CVC words is necessary for this next step in the learning process, where the student begins learning to recognize these blends of consonant sounds, as in the words trip, or path.
List of CVC Words
Below, you will find a list of CVC words. Although all attempts have been made to make this list as thorough as possible, please do not consider it an exhaustive list.
Short a CVC Words
-ab | -ad | -ag | -am | -an | -ap | -at | -ar |
cab | tad | wag | Sam | pan | sap | pat | bar |
dab | bad | bag | dam | ban | cap | rat | car |
jab | dad | gag | ham | can | gap | sat | far |
lab | had | lag | jam | Dan | lap | vat | jar |
tab | lad | nag | Pam | fan | map | bat | tar |
nab | pad | sag | ram | man | rap | cat | war |
mad | rag | cam | ran | tap | fat | ||
rad | tag | fam | tan | nap | hat | ||
sad | hag | ram | van | yap | mat |
Short e CVC Words
-ed | -eg | -en | -et | others |
bed | beg | Ben | bet | web |
wed | leg | den | get | gem |
fed | peg | men | jet | hem |
led | keg | pen | let | pep |
red | Meg | ten | met | yes |
Ted | neg | hen | net | dew |
zed | Zen | pet | mew | |
Jed | Ken | set | pew | |
Ned | Yen | vet | ||
wet | ||||
yet | ||||
het |
Short i CVC Words
-ib | -id | -ig | -im | -in | -ip | -it | -ix |
bib | bid | big | dim | bin | dip | bit | mix |
fib | did | dig | him | fin | hip | fit | six |
rib | hid | fig | Kim | pin | nip | hit | fix |
jib | kid | pig | rim | sin | rip | kit | |
sib | lid | rig | Tim | tin | sip | lit | |
rid | wig | Jim | win | tip | pit | ||
jig | Vim | kin | zip | sit | |||
zig | din | lip | wit | ||||
gin | pip | zit | |||||
yin |
Short o CVC Words
-ob | -og | -op | -ot | -od | -on | -ox | -ow | others |
cob | cog | cop | cot | God | son | box | bow | boy |
gob | dog | hop | dot | rod | ton | fox | cow | soy |
job | fog | mop | hot | pod | won | pox | sow | toy |
lob | jog | pop | lot | bod | con | lox | row | mom |
mob | log | top | not | cod | Tom | |||
rob | hog | bop | pot | mod | ||||
sob | bog | rot | ||||||
Bob | tot | |||||||
got | ||||||||
jot |
Short u CVC Words
-ub | -ud | -ug | -um | -un | -ut | others |
cub | bud | bug | gum | bun | but | cup |
hub | dud | dug | hum | fun | cut | pup |
rub | mud | hug | mum | nun | hut | bus |
sub | cud | jug | sum | run | nut | yup |
tub | lug | bum | sun | put | tux | |
nub | mug | rum | gun | rut | ||
pub | pug | tum | pun | gut | ||
dub | rug | yum | jut | |||
tug |
CVC Words | Images
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Last Updated on February 26, 2023
Приветствую вас, дорогие читатели! Сегодня мне хочется рассказать вам об увлекательной игре, реквизит для которой легко изготовить в домашних условиях, а результат сложно переоценить: ведь с её помощью ваш ребёнок научится складывать буквы в слова.
Но сначала небольшое отступление. Думаю, знатоки английского языка со мной согласятся, что обучить малолетнего ребёнка читать на английском гораздо труднее, чем на русском. И дело здесь даже не столько в наличии огромного количества правил чтения с массой исключений к каждому, хотя и в этом тоже — а в том, что привычный нам слоговой метод для английского языка не работает. Что же делать?
Чтобы не попасть впросак, давайте позволим самой структуре языка указать нам путь. Большинство слов английского языка состоят из одного слога, а одной из самый распространённых моделей являются так называемые «CVC-words», т.е. слова, состоящие из согласной, гласной и ещё одной согласной: cat, dog, fit, gym, hot etc. Вот этой особенностью мы и воспользуемся.
В отличие от методики обучения чтению целым словом (методики Глена Домана), мы пойдём традиционным путём: от звуков к буквам, от букв — к словам, а от слов — к предложениям. Как только ребёнок освоился с названиями букв и запомнил, какой звук даёт каждая из них, можно приступать к их соединению в слова. И вот на этом этапе нам как раз и помогут игры.
Идею одной простой до гениальности игры я подсмотрела на блоге «Itty Bitty Love». На то, чтобы сшить домик из флиса с кармашками-балкончиками из прозрачной плёнки потребовалось совсем не много времени — и вот наша «Short Vowel Word Game» или просто «Домик» уже готова:
Мы с дочкой и раньше составляли слова из букв — в том числе и по принципу, предложенному Анной, автором блога. Но ведь игра — это совсем другое дело: у неё есть сюжет!
Для начала мы выбираем ведущего — например, буквосочетание «at» — и селим его в балкончик на крыше. Далее необходимо найти ещё пять карточек с этим же сочетанием букв и заселить ими каждый балкончик дома. Теперь выбираем одиночные согласные буквы, которые выстраиваются в очередь к ведущей в надежде заселиться в домик. Даша поочерёдно подставляет их рядом с буквосочетанием «гласная-согласная» и читает получившееся слово (сначала с моей помощью, но теперь всё чаще и чаще сама). Если прочитанное слово имеет смысл, буква остаётся, если нет — то уходит. На следующий день мы ещё раз читаем слова, которые получились у нас накануне, потом убираем все буквы и выбираем нового ведущего.
Вот некоторые из слов, которые можно составить:
Буквосочетание | Слова с ним |
AN | can, fan, man, pan, ran |
AP | cap, map, nap, sap, tap |
AT | bat, cat, hat, mat, rat |
EN | den, hen, men, pen, ten |
ET | jet, net, pet, set, wet |
IT | bit, fit, hit, pit, sit |
IN | bin, fin, pin, tin, win |
OG | bog, dog, hog, jog, log |
OP | bop, hop, mop, pop, top |
UG | bug, hug, jug, mug, rug |
UT | cut, gut, hut, nut, rut |
Составленные слова можно не только читать, но и писать: просто переписывать себе в блокнот или писать не глядя под диктовку. С ними можно составлять предложения. Например, для практики чтения слов на «-at» можно использовать известную скороговорку:
A fat cat sat on a mat and rapidly ate a fat rat.
Есть и другие замечательные игры, которые могут помочь ребёнку в постижении закономерностей чтения «CVC words». Например, Phonics Bingo или Word Family Sliders. Кроме того, по запросу «CVC words printables» вы найдёте множество материалов для распечатки.
Удачи вашем деткам и ученикам на нелёгком пути освоения грамотности на английском языке!
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March 23, 2020 -
Alphabet Animals Reading Skills, Literacy
CVC words meaning: a three letter word made up of a consonant, vowel, consonant (ex. cat). The CVC pattern will always go in the order of consonant, vowel, consonant. The consonants and vowels change but the c-v-c pattern will remain the same. Sometimes these words are referred to as ‘CVC a words’ or ‘a CVC words’. This tells you what vowel will be in the middle of the word. For example, ‘i CVC words’ or ‘CVC i words’ would include words such as six, fin, or tin; always with an i as the vowel.
Below is a list of CVC words. This CVC words list gives some examples of CVC words for kindergarten.
Students are introduced to CVC words once they begin to learn the letters and the sounds the letters make. They can begin to put the sounds together to make words. This can be done in reading, writing, or hearing and producing the spoken sounds (as in phonemic awareness activities).
How to Teach CVC Words
Teaching CVC words is important when students are learning to read. One way to teach CVC words is with Elkonin Boxes. In a small group setting, give each student a mat with a different picture and three small manipulatives that fit inside each box. Have students place one manipulative under each box on their page. Tell them a CVC word, starting with one of the student’s pictures (ex. Teacher says, “Sally’s picture is a fox, let’s sound out fox.”) All students in your group follow the next steps even if their picture is not the word you call out. As you and students say each sound in the word, they slide one manipulative in a box, going from left to right. Once you have gone over all three sounds and all manipulatives are in the boxes, have students slide their finger under the boxes from left to right slowly and blend the sounds together. Then have them slide their finger fast under the boxes and read the word. Continue with other CVC words, use the pictures that are on the other students’ Elkonin Box pages. You can also have students sound out any CVC word in the boxes, it does not have to match the picture. Start with simple CVC words.
Reading CVC Words
We teach many reading strategies when students are learning to read. One reading strategy we teach is Sound Out The Word. When teaching and practicing this strategy, it is best to have books that have a lot of CVC words in them. This gives them practice focusing on this one strategy of decoding CVC words. There are some great CVC books to use when teaching this strategy. See below for our favorites, BOB books and I Can Read. Don’t have any of these and teaching the lesson soon? Look through the pages of the books you already have for CVC words. Dr. Seuss books usually have plenty of CVC kindergarten words. You can read the book and when you get to a CVC word, stop and let the student/s read that word. We love Dr. Seuss books when students are learning to read CVC words. They are filled with fun and easy CVC words.
Click on the books to purchase on Amazon.
Sample Reading CVC Words Lesson
Start off the lesson by showing them a CVC word written on a sentence strip or white board. Show them how to read CVC words by sounding out each letter, then blending the letters together to form the word. Do this with a few CVC words, and invite them to help you with the sounds and blending them together. Then show them the book they are to read and tell them they will be using this strategy to help them read the book. If some of your students are having trouble producing the sounds, it might be helpful to show them some CVC words with pictures. The pictures can help them produce the sounds of the letters.
Writing CVC Words
When teaching how to write with cvc words, we ask students to say the words as slowly as they can listening to each sound they hear. We ask them to use this writing strategy to write all of their words, but sometimes they skip over some of their sounds or add in extra sounds. So we take time to practice sounding out words together. Students sit on the learning carpet with a dry erase board, dry erase marker, and eraser. We call out CVC words, one at a time, and students say them slowly and put down the sounds they hear. This is a great lesson to watch and see where they might be having trouble and be able to guide them in the right direction.
CVC Word Practice Packets
There were many times where I felt that, towards the end of the year, most of my students mastered the skill of blending CVC words, but I still had one or two students who were struggling. I was lucky enough to have a paraprofessional in my class for a few hours a day, so I had her work with these students to catch them up. I made a packet of many different CVC word worksheets. Every morning during sign in, my paraprofessional pulled those students to a table for some CVC practice. She worked on the worksheets with them. This only took five minutes each morning, but it was such a big help! The students showed tremendous growth. Our CVC worksheets are self-explanatory and ready to be put into a packet. So if you don’t have a wonderful paraprofessional in your class, you can send this home for extra CVC word practice with their parents.
Worksheets for CVC Words
We have made some excellent kindergarten CVC words worksheets! There are twenty three pages of activities for CVC words that include:
- Sound out and write the words underneath the pictures. (one page for each vowel and a few pages with mixed vowels)
- Use a word bank to fill in the CVC words.
- CVC Reading: Circle the CVC word that matches the picture.
- Circle and color the CVC pictures that end with the matching letters at the beginning of each row.
- Unscramble the CVC word, write the word, then color the matching picture. (These pages are for students who are ready for a little more challenge.)
Frequently Asked Questions
CVC words means 3 letter words with consonant vowel consonant in that order. You can find samples of consonant vowel consonant words in the common CVC words list above.
CVC pattern words are mostly learned in kindergarten. Although some kids learn some of these words at an earlier or later age. See the list above for an example of CVC words kindergarten uses.
A CVC verb is any verb with the consonant, vowel, consonant pattern. The words run, sit, jog, dig are all CVC verbs.
Students should work on a variety of CVC words; words with each vowel and different consonants at the beginning and the end. The more they practice, the easier it will be for them to read new CVC words.
CVCC words are consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant words like mash or jump. CCVC words are consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant like flap or stop.
More CVC Word Work?
Are you teaching CVC words activities, like CVC Build a Word, that you don’t see here? We love hearing new ways of teaching all subjects. Please share with us in the comments.
Looking for more reading skills worksheets? We have plenty!! Check out our Alphabet Animals Reading Skills Curriculum. You can get the whole curriculum or just the worksheets you need for your class now. We hope you enjoy using our products. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. We will get back to you as soon as possible!
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Phonics teaching introduces children to CVC words (consonant vowel consonant), then CCVC words (consonant consonant vowel consonant) and CVCC words (consonant vowel consonant consonant). Understand how teachers will present the different words in the classroom and how to support your child’s learning at home in our parents’ guide to decoding and blending sounds.
What are CVC words?
A CVC word is a word that is made up of a consonant, vowel and consonant sound.
Cat, hot, tip, man and hut are all CVC words.
What are CCVC words?
Consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant words, for example: trap, chop, stun, grit, shop.
What are CVCC words?
Examples of CVCC (consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant) words are: hunt, fast, cart, milk, want.
Consonant digraphs and vowel digraphs in phonics
Children start to learn their letter sounds in Reception, then start to ‘blend’ sounds to read words.
As a first step children focus on decoding (reading) three-letter words arranged consonant, vowel, consonant (CVC words). They will learn other letter sounds, such as the consonants g, b, d, h and the remaining vowels e, o, u. A child who already knows all their letter sounds might be shown the CVC word ‘pit’ and asked to read it out loud. This is the point where they are required to use their knowledge of the individual sounds of each letter and ‘blend’ these letter sounds together, so they are saying the whole word and not three individual sounds.
CVC words don’t have to be three-letter words, as the C, the V and the C refer to consonant and vowel sounds (which could be made up of more than one letter) rather than to individual letters of the alphabet.
Once children have learnt to read a variety of CVC words, they move onto reading digraphs (two letters that make up one sound). They will learn the sounds /ch/ and /sh/ and be shown how to represent these sounds as letters. They will also learn how to blend consonants, for example: they may be shown the two letters ‘sp’ and asked to say the sounds (/s/ and /p/) these letters make out loud.
Children then move onto reading CCVC words, such as chat, ship, frog, snap.
Once they have mastered these, they will move onto CVCC words, such as bash, card, send, mast.
Alongside this essential work on reading, they will be taught to form all their letters with a pencil on lines. The better they get at decoding (reading a written word out loud) the better they should get at encoding (spelling a spoken word on paper).
Phonics information for parents
For more information on phonics and how it’s used to teach children to read look through our parents’ guides, or find phonics worksheets and phonics games for your child to help them practise early reading at home.