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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.
CVC Words (and more) for Short a
- ab: cab, dab, gab, jab, lab, nab, tab, blab, crab, grab, scab, stab, slab.
- at: bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, vat, brat, chat, flat, gnat, spat.
- ad: bad, dad, had, lad, mad, pad, sad, tad, glad.
- an: ban, can, fan, man, pan, ran, tan, van, clan, plan, scan, than.
Besides, What are VC words in phonics?
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.
As well as What is CVC pattern example? When a vowel is followed by a consonant, it is a closed syllable and makes the vowel say its sound. Cat is an example of a CVC word. Each letter makes its sound and is therefore decodable and easy for a beginning reader to sound out. Dog, big, pot, sun, and bag are also examples of CVC words.
Furthermore What are VC and CVC words?
VC and CVC words are simply words that follow the vowel- consonant(VC) or vowel-consonant-vowel(VCV) pattern. The vowel sounds in VC and CVC words are considered closed or short vowels. Examples: at, it, sat, hit. Important to note: This is a critical time in a child’s life as a reader.
Is black a CVC word?
CVCC (consonant-vowel-consonant-consonant) and CCVC (consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant) are words that begin or ends with a blends or digraphs. Examples: black, clam, hack, lack. … Or, just pick one box: CVC -ig word family, or CVCC -ash word family, etc.
What is the difference between VC and CVC?
A key distinction between VC and CVC is the investment objective. While traditional VC firms strive only for above-average financial returns, CVC units also pursue strategic objectives, such as getting ahead of new trends and technologies.
What CVC words should I teach first?
CVC words are three-letter words that consist of a consonant-vowel-consonant. Think cat, pot, run, sip, etc. These words are easy to segment and blend, therefore, beginning readers should be taught how to decode them.
What is CVC rule?
Doubling consonants in single-syllable words
When adding suffixes to one-syllable words, it’s helpful to follow the CVC rule. CVC stands for “consonant, vowel, consonant.” When the last three letters of a one-syllable word follow the CVC pattern, the last consonant should be doubled when adding the ending.
cvc Words – Bus It – Making Words with Short Vowels.
What is CV Blend?
Blends means two or more letters come together to make a particular sound/word. Phonics consists of two basic blends – CV (Consonant-Vowel) blend and VC (Vowel-Consonant) blend. Actually , many a times this step is overlooked and the children are taught directly to read 3-letter words/CVC words from Letter Sounds.
Is ship a CVC word?
A CVC word is a word with a consonant phoneme, a vowel phoneme and then a consonant phoneme – it is not referring to letters. Therefore hot, bed, boat and ship are all CVC words but cow and toy are not.
When should you start CVC words?
If you have students who are still struggling with letter sounds, they are not ready to begin segmenting and blending words. You should focus on the mastery of letter sounds before moving on. However, if your class knows their letter sounds, you are good to go! The next phonics skill you should introduce is CVC words.
What is a VC in investing?
Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity and a type of financing that investors provide to startup companies and small businesses that are believed to have long-term growth potential. Venture capital generally comes from well-off investors, investment banks, and any other financial institutions.
What is financial CVC?
Corporate venture capital (CVC) is the investment of corporate funds directly in external startup companies. … An investment made through an external fund managed by a third party, even when the investment vehicle is funded by a single investing company, is not considered CVC.
What is a independent venture?
Independent Venture Capital (IVC) funds are organizations formed by General Partners (GPs) who manage the fund and raise third-party capital to invest, rendering to a predefined investment thesis.
How do you blend CVC words?
First, ask your learners to cover up the last letter in the CVC word. They should then start on the dot and say the first letter’s sound /s/. They move onto the second letter /a/. Once those two sounds are there, encourage them to go ahead and blend the two sounds /saaaa/.
What are the 5 spelling rules?
Here are the first spelling rules that students should know.
- Every word has at least one vowel.
- Every syllable has one vowel.
- C can say /k/ or /s/. …
- G can say /g/ or /j/. …
- Q is always followed by a u (queen).
- Double the consonants f, l, and s at the end of a one-syllable word that has just one vowel (stiff, spell, pass).
How do I make a CVC?
A CVC word is a word made up of 3 letters: a consonant, a vowel, and another consonant. Cat, fix, and sun are all examples of CVC words. These are words that follow simple phonics rules, meaning each letter makes its sound.
What are some short a words?
Short “A” Words
| act | apt | bat |
|---|---|---|
| cap | cab | dab |
| fad | gap | gal |
| had | hat | jam |
| lap | man | mat |
Are CVC words?
CVC words are consonant-vowel-consonant words. They are words like cat, zip, rug, and pen. The vowel sound is always short. These words can be read by simply blending the individual phoneme sounds together.
What is a 2 letter blend?
Common 2-Letter Blends. The most common 2-letter consonant blends are: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl, br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, sc, sk, sm, sn, sp, st, sw, and tw. Here are some words with 2-letter consonant blends: Bl: blank, black, blue, blister, blight, blast.
What is a 3 letter blend?
Consonant blends can be two letters or three letters long. Three-letter consonant blends are sometimes called consonant clusters or triple consonant blends. You can find a consonant blend at the beginning or end of a word.
What are two vowels together called?
Vowel digraphs
Sometimes, two vowels work together to form a new sound. This is called a diphthong.
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What are CVC Words?
Teaching students how to read can be overwhelming. Understanding what cvc words are and how to teach them is a critical part. This post will share helpful tips and tricks to help you with better understanding cvc words.
You know you have to teach your students how to read. You know that learning letter sounds and sight words is an important part of that…but outside of those things, what else should you do?
That’s where cvc words come in. So if you’re asking yourself “what are cvc words?” or if you just need some help with finding ways to incorporate them into your lessons, then this blog post is for you!
What does cvc mean?
What does cvc mean?Okay, so you might be asking yourself, what does a cvc word even mean? Cvc stands for consonant-vowel-consonant. So any word that follows that pattern is a cvc word.
When children are just learning to read, many of their books will be filled with sight words AND cvc words. This is because three-letter words are easy to sound out and blend. So as educators, we must have the proper tools to make sure our students are confident when they see a cvc word in a text.
You might also like this blog post: CVC Words in 7 Simple Steps!
What are cvc words?
What are cvc words?Okay, so remember how I said that a cvc word is a three-letter word that follows a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern? Sounds simple enough right? Well, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in front of my class, working with cvc words, and the only words that come to my mind are “cat, hat and fat.” If you ever find yourself struggling to think of different words, you can refer to this list.There is also a form to submit your name and email and I will send you the printable list for free.
I’ve broken them up by word family for easy reference. Of course, these aren’t the ONLY cvc words, but it’s enough to get you started.
What are short a cvc words?
-ab words: cab, lab
-ad words: bad, dad, had, lad, mad, pad, rad, sad
-ag words: bag, gag, nag, rag, sag, tag, wag
-an words: ban, can, fan, man, pan, ran, tan, van
-ap words: cap, gap, lap, map, nap, rap, sap, tap
What are short e cvc words?
-ed words: bed, fed, leg, red, wed
-eg words: beg, leg, peg
-en words: den, hen, men, pen, ten, zen
-et words: bet, get, jet, let, net, pet, vet, wet
What are short i cvc words?
-ib words: bib, fib
-id words: did, hid, kid, lid, rid
-ig words: big, dig, fig, pig
-in words: bin, fin, kin, pin, tin, win
-ip words: dip, hip, lip, pip, rip, sip, tip, zip
-it words: bit, fit, hit, lit, pit, sit, zit
What are short o cvc words?
-ob words: cob, mob, rob, sob
-od words: god
-og words: dog, hog, log
-on words: son, ton, won
-op words: cop, hop, mop, pop
-ot words: cot, got, hot, jot, lot, not, pot, rot
What are short u cvc words?
-ub words: cub, pub, rub, tub
-ud words: bud, mud
-ug words: bug, hug, mug, pug, rug, tug
-un words: bun, fun, run, sun
-ut words: cut, gut, hut
CVC Words with Pictures
So now that we know what a cvc word is and have a list of them readily available. Let’s talk about how we begin to teach these.
When I first introduce my students to cvc words, I include activities that have pictures with them. This helps children tremendously and only after they are able to segment and blend the sounds in cvc words do I take the pictures away.
Don’t think of using pictures as cheating. When we provide children with a picture that represents the word we are helping them to internalize the process we are teaching them. When scaffolding your cvc word lessons, always include pictures when you first start.
Here are some examples of activities and printables that include consonant-vowel-consonant words with pictures. All of the activities are different and ask children to complete a different task, yet they all include cvc words with pictures.
In this activity, Bag of Bones, children are provided with both the cvc word and three picture options. Using a clothespin, children clip the correct picture that matches the word.
Here is another hands-on activity that includes pictures. With these beginning sound dry erase boards, children are given the picture and the last two letters in the consonant-vowel-consonant word. Using their letter-sound knowledge, and the letter clues on the bottom, children must determine the correct beginning sound.
CVC word puzzles are another great way to practice segmenting and blending cvc words. Although this game includes pictures, this is for our children who are able to read cvc words independently.
Reading Cvc Words
I realize that I’ve used the phrase “segment and blend” a few times in this post. So now let’s talk about that. To segment and blend is the process we use to decode words. Children have to segment all three-letter sounds (say them individually) and then blend them together to form a word. This takes practice, practice, practice!
I love using segment and blend cards for this because it makes it an engaging activity for the students.
Here are a few examples of segment and blend cards.
If you use Beanie Babies to teach your students their reading strategies, then definitely include Stretchy the Snake when working on segmenting and blending three-letter words. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then read this post: How Beanie Babies Taught My Students to Read.
The short version is, each key reading strategy (using picture clues, initial sounds, segmenting and blending, etc), is assigned a Reading Buddy aka Beanie Baby. This helps students remember specific strategies to apply when they get stuck on a word. But that is a whole other lesson so let’s stick to cvc words for now.
Writing Cvc Words
If you follow the sequence I showed in this post, you will have scaffolded your lessons and activities in such a way that your sweet littles are now ready to start independently reading and writing cvc words. Yay!!
But that doesn’t mean our job is done. Phonics skills require constant practice. Think of it like riding a bike. If you haven’t done it in a while, you might be shaky. You might fall, forget how to brake, or bump into something. You didn’t completely forget, but you definitely need some work. The same goes for cvc words. So spiraling in skills is really helpful for our students.
Here are a few of my favorite independent reading and writing activities for cvc words. These are great for spiraling in this skill.
The first thing I do when having children write cvc words on their own is to provide them with either 3 boxes or 3 lines. This helps them with stopping to think of the 3 individual sounds. It’s a great way to start the writing process. Stretch it Out Cards are something I always use. There’s a picture clue and then three boxes. I’ve laminated these cards so that my students can use a dry erase marker on them. I simply wipe them off and they are ready for the next child to use.
Once children have begun to show fluency with sounding out cvc words, I remove the boxes and incorporate activities that have them “free write” (in a sense) the words. A great activity is writing with shaving cream. I put a little in front of each child and have them smear it to make a “board.” I say a cvc word and they write it in the shaving cream with their finger. Once it’s been checked we rub the shaving cream to make a new board.
Shaving cream is great because it’s tactile, engaging and it doesn’t stain or make a mess. All you need is a paper towel to clean it up afterward.
I hope that you now have some ideas for how to move forward with your cvc word lessons. If you think that any of the resources shown above would benefit your class, you can find them in my store or click on the following links.
CVC WORD UNIT
CVC WORD PUZZLES
CVC DRY ERASE BOARDS
STRETCHING AND BLENDING SOUNDS
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
List of CVC Words
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CVC Word List
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Last Updated on February 26, 2023
Do you struggle with teaching CVC words to your students? Or are you looking for new and different ways to teach the CVC pattern? In this blog post, you will learn what a CVC word is, how to teach them, plus download my FREE CVC words list to help you plan your activities.
What is a CVC word?
CVC words are words that have the pattern consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC, like the words cat and mop. The vowel in CVC words makes the short sound because it is a closed syllable.
When a consonant follows a vowel it creates a closed syllable. This means the vowel makes its short sound instead of saying its name (the long sound). Learn more about the closed syllable here.
Since CVC words are so easy to decode, they are perfect for students learning how to read. Students usually learn letter sounds first, and these are easy to apply with CVC words since they are short and straightforward.
Teaching students how to read CVC words introduces blending and segmenting with letters. These two skills are what they will need as they progress with more complex words and patterns.
By learning to read the CVC pattern, students are now able to read sentences and books on their own and practice these skills. Most early reader books are full of CVC words and high frequency words, so it makes sense to start here.
How to teach CVC words
The major skill in teaching CVC words is getting students to understand that the word always has the same pattern. For example, the word pot has the consonant-vowel-consonant pattern of /p/ /o/ /t/. It’s important to show your students how each letter makes its sound so they are able to blend them together quickly and recognize the pattern.
Teach students about the beginning, middle, and ending sounds. Start with the beginning sound, asking students what the first sound is or what the beginning sound is. Then move to the middle sound. And finally, work on the final sound. Show them visually where the beginning, middle, and end of a word are. Always model first, pointing to the place you are referring to.
After you have taught students to isolate the individual sounds, you can show them how to blend and segment the sounds.
One thing to note is that you don’t want to use the letters m, n, or l as the final sound when segmenting words because they change the vowel sound. This means you can use /m/ at the beginning of a word like mat but not at the end like jam. Say those 2 words aloud and segment them aloud you’ll notice the slight difference in the short a sound.
When introducing the consonant vowel consonant pattern, start off using pictures only to work on CVC words, then move to words and letters that students can manipulate, and finally have students write CVC words. This progression goes from easy to more difficult building on the previous skills.
When to teach CVC words
Students need to already know what consonants and vowels are. They need to know the sounds of the letters they are working with. They should be familiar with blending and segmenting orally through previous phonemic awareness practice.
If students have never done oral blending and segmenting then you’ll have to go back and teach that before you teach them how to do it with letters. This is because students need to know how to manipulate individual sounds. This is an auditory skill and it can create confusion trying to teach it along with the visuals of the letters.
You also don’t need to wait until students have learned every single sound before introducing CVC words. You can introduce CVC words as soon as students have learned a few letters that you can blend and segment together.
So for example, if your students have already learned the sounds for a, b, and c, you can introduce the CVC word cab.
Free printable list of 100+ CVC Words!
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CVC Word Activities
Sound Isolation
Sound isolation is one of the first activities you want to do when teaching CVC words. Have students circle and say the beginning, middle, or final sound. Have students fill in a blank sound in a word, such as the popular Word Ladders worksheets. You can search for beginning, middle, or final sound CVC word worksheets and games on Teachers Pay Teachers for more ideas.
Word sorts
Word sorts are a great way to practice CVC words. You can have students sort picture or word cards by the beginning, middle, or ending sound or you can have students sort words that rhyme. You can also play a memory game with different CVC words.
The worksheet pictured below is an example of a sound isolation and sorting activity. This one is part of my Halloween Phonemic Awareness set and does not focus on the CVC pattern, but I wanted to give you a visual example of a worksheet you could use for this skill.
Build a word
You can use magnetic letters, letter cards, or letter tiles to create words. Give students letters and have them build their own words and read them aloud. Or say the word and ask students to build it. Or give students a picture and have them build the word.
Students can also make different CVC words by changing one letter in a CVC word, then building or writing that new word. For example, students have the word cap. Ask them to change the first sound to /t/. They should now have tap.
Rhyming words
Ask students to make words that rhyme. Give them a word to work with. You can challenge them to create as many words as they can. For example, if you have a word like cap they could change the beginning sound/letter to make up the word map. This could be auditory, with pictures, or with letters.
Elkonin Boxes
If you’re a long-time reader then you know how much I love Elkonin boxes! They’re just so versatile and effective for teaching blending and segmenting.
Grab or create an Elkonin boxes template (I have one in my freebies library), and students can use manipulatives or write in the boxes as they work with words.
You can say the word for students to build or provide pictures for them. This would make a great independent activity once they know how to do this and have had sufficient practice.
Segmenting
As I said before, segmenting is very important. Students can practice segmenting using Elkonin boxes, letter cards, tapping out the sounds, or any activity that has them break up the word into its 3 sounds.
To do this, you want to say the word aloud. Ask students to segment the word by tapping out the sounds. They should tap and say each sound. Ask them how many sounds are in the word. You can use manipulatives to do this, such as bingo chips or counting cubes to represent each sound. I typically model this on the board using pictures and magnets.
Read this post all about how to teach phoneme segmentation for more ideas and tips.
Blending
Students can practice blending different sounds with letter cards, tiles, or magnetic letters. I like to use phonogram drills for this.
To do this, you lay out 3 letter cards to create a CVC word. For this example, let’s use b, a, and t. Ask students to blend the 3 sounds together. They should say bat.
Then place another consonant card over the b, such as h. Ask students to blend and say the new word. They should say hat. Continue swapping the sounds, moving through all 3 to practice initial, medial, and final sounds.
This could be done with Elkonin boxes as well. Students can use letter cards or write in the boxes. For struggling readers, it helps to have the visual of the 3 boxes representing the 3 sounds.
Blending cards are also a great activity. Blending cards are flashcards that have words with dots below each sound and a line guide to help students blend the sounds together. See the image below for an example of CVC blending cards.
Fluency grids are also a good activity to develop more automaticity once students are comfortable with blending. These CVC Fluency Grids focuses on CVC words to help students read them faster.
Phoneme Grapheme Mapping
This is very similar to Elkonin boxes but combines it with writing.
You say a word and show a picture of it. Students segment the word using manipulatives or by tapping out the sounds. Then students write the letters in sound boxes.
I have a few free word mapping worksheet templates in my freebies library.
Below is an orthographic mapping template you can purchase from my TPT shop for words with 2 to 5 sounds. It’s a multisensory version with more steps than my freebie template.
Writing
Dictation, worksheets, and whiteboards are some ways to get students to write CVC words. Start with guided activities using whiteboards and worksheets. Move on to more independent activities such as dictation once students have had some practice. Dictation is the hardest because they have to recognize the sounds in the word you said, segment them mentally, then produce them in writing.
In the activity pictured below, students use picture cards to segment, spell, and write CVC words. This is from my CVC Words With Pictures – Cards for Segmenting and Blending activity.
Games
Games can be a fun way to practice CVC words. Teachers Pay Teachers has so many free games. But you can turn any game into a CVC review game by adding flashcards and a targeted task.
One game I play with CVC words is Connect 4. On every turn, students pick up a flashcard, read the CVC word, segment it by finger tapping, then write it on a whiteboard. Then they add their chip to complete their turn.
Conclusion
I hope that this article has given you a better understanding of how to teach CVC words. It is important for children to learn as early on in their education process as possible so they can build foundational skills and knowledge about the English language. Be sure to check out all the resources listed above (especially my super helpful list of CVC words) if you are looking for more information or inspiration when teaching the consonant vowel consonant pattern.
Want to remember this? Save How to Teach CVC Words + FREE CVC Word List! to your favorite Pinterest board!
If you’re looking for more tips on teaching reading to struggling learners, check out these other posts:
- How To Structure Your Literacy Block
- Reading Assessments You Should Be Using
- What is the Science of Reading?
- Teaching High Frequency Words Using the Heart Word Method
- Phonemic Awareness Strategies & Activities For Struggling Learners
- The 6 Syllable Types
- Why You Should Switch To A Sound Wall
- Reading Strategies for Struggling Readers – Elkonin Boxes
- Activites That Improve Reading Fluency
Delilah Orpi is the founder of Thrive Literacy Corner. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Special Education, a Master’s degree in TESOL, and is a member of the International Dyslexia Association. She is an experienced educator and literacy specialist trained in Orton Gillingham and Lindamood Bell. Delilah creates literacy resources for educators and parents and writes to create awareness about dyslexia and effective literacy instruction based on the science of reading.
The letter C means a consonant letter is required.
The letter V means that a vowel letter is required.
So, a CVC word is one that has a consonant letter followed by a vowel and then a consonant as in the following examples:
cat dog mat
There are 26 letters in the English alphabet and these can be split in to two categories:
Vowels – ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, ‘u’ and the letter ‘y’, when it is used as a semi-vowel, in words such as by, my and fly.
Consonants – ‘b’, ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘f’, ‘g’, ‘h’, ‘j’, ‘k’, ‘l’, ‘m’, ‘n’, ‘p’, ‘q’, ‘r’, ‘s’, ‘t’, ‘v’, ‘w’, ‘x’, ‘z’ and the letter ‘y’ when it is being used as a consonant, in words such as yak, yam and yellow.
Schools will often use the abbreviation CV, CVC, CVCC words when sending home phonics work or suggestions for phonics games. It is also used by many phonics computer games, activity programs and schemes.
Here are some examples for:
| CV & VC | CVC | CVCC |
| as | bat | lamp |
| at | cat | milk |
| be | dog | tent |
| by | fog | hump |
| he | hot | band |
| if | pig | tilt |
| in | peg | want |
| is | lap | pond |
| it | mop | jump |
| me | net | just |
| my | put | nest |
| no | but | send |
| on | set | went |
| so | tap | wind |
| to | zig | bend |