Mastering CVC words—simple three-letter words that follow the consonant-vowel-consonant pattern—is a foundational step in learning to read. These words, like “cat,” “pig,” and “map,” are an excellent starting point for children to connect letters with sounds, building confidence and early reading skills. Today, I am going to share ideas for teaching CVC words to help empower littler learns to become successful readers. First, you need to start out with strong, whole group instruction. This creates a solid foundation. Next, you need to give students the opportunity to practice independently. All of the activities that I am going to share today can eb used during independent centers or small group instruction. They align with the Science of Reading because students are focusing on using phonics skills for blending and segmenting words.
Blending words can be challenging for students. They might be able to produce individual sounds, but then struggle to blend those sounds together into a word. Stretchy snake is an oldie but goodie for teaching students how to blends sounds into words. I put the card inside the stretchy snake and slowly pull our one letter at a time. Students make the first sound, then the second sound and blend those to together. Next, show the third sound and add it to the first two sounds. Finally, check with the picture to see if you blended the correct word. I use this activity during both whole group and small group activities.
Onset and rhyme is another way to help master blending sounds together. Onset and rime are used to improve phonological awareness by helping children learn about word families. Phonetic awareness is an important skill used to hear sounds, syllables and words in speech. This can help students decode new words when reading and can also make it easier for them to spell words when writing. This activity can be used in a small group. Students complete it with the teacher and once they have shown some mastery, they can practice independently during centers.
The sliders are another great way to practice onset and rime. They slide the sheet down, changing the beginning sound to make new words. This will help students go from individual sounds to blending words.
Roll, Say, Keep is a classic game for practicing reading CVC words. Students place the cards on their board and put the extra cards in the middle. The roll the dice and read the word on the square that they rolled. If they correctly read it, they take the card and put a new one in its place. Whoever reads the most words wins.
This game is a fun twist on the classic. For this one, they see the picture and have to encode the word by writing it on the snake. If they correctly write the word, they take off the picture card and put a new one in its place. Whoever has the most wins.
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