Maybe you are a teacher that is wondering about fun new activities or worksheets for consonant-vowel-consonant words.
Either way, I have you covered today with answering your questions. I’ll also be providing activities for teaching short vowel sounds.
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What are the CVC words?
Any educator will tell you that we love some acronyms, in fact, sometimes (even after teaching for 14 years) I have to think twice when I hear them! The case here isn’t any different but it’s not as complicated as it sounds.
CVC stands for consonant-vowel-consonant. This just means that CVC words are three-letter words that have a consonant letter at the beginning & end with a vowel in the middle.
We’ll get into examples of these words in a bit. But first, let’s talk about what makes learning to read and spell CVC words so important.
Why are CVC words important?
CVC words are important because they’ll be some of the first words your child will learn to read and spell. They are easier to teach because they are short and phonetically match the sounds your child will be learning.
By learning to read CVC words, your child will learn to read 200 words!! Let’s use the letters A, B, T, and P as an example. If your child knows these letters and sounds then they can use the knowledge of that to read and spell:
- bat
- Tab
- At (not CVC)
- Tap
- Pat
A lot goes into teaching a child how to use their knowledge of letters and sounds to read words. But with the right instruction they should be able to blend the letter sounds together to read those 5 words from just four letters.
This is just one reason that teaching CVC words is so important! By learning to read these 3 letter words, your child will begin to build confidence that they can read!
The best part is that researchers are always learning more about the brain. This includes how people learn to read and take in information. All of the new information learned helps educators learn best practices for teaching reading.
When will my child learn to read CVC words?
CVC words are taught in kindergarten after students know letters and sounds. This means that by the second quarter of Kindergarten your child will (most likely) be learning about these 3-letter words.
If your child is younger and showing interest in reading and spelling you can introduce them earlier. My 4-year-old is showing a lot of interest in reading and spelling.
Since he knows his letters and sounds we have started teaching him to read and write consonant-vowel-consonant words. We do this with bath letters in the bathtub and on a Leapfrog computer, he’s used for years in the car.
With these toys, it is easy to keep learning fun and engaging. We do this by allowing him to ask the questions when he is ready.
If your child is in first grade and not yet reading CVC words, I would talk to your child’s teacher. Their teacher can give you tips and ways to support their learning at home.
What are the short vowel CVC words list?
Most CVC word lists are broken up by short vowels because there are hundreds of them. I can link to a product here {here} with all of the short vowel family word lists, posters, flashcards, & activities.
Below you’ll find some of the CVC short vowel sound words list broken down by the 5 short vowels. Some teachers choose to teach the words by teaching short vowel word families. I’ll give you some of the CVC word families and a few words that would fit together.
They are called “word families” because all of the words have the same last two letters. This also makes the word pairs rhyming words.
CVC Words Short A
The CVC words with short a include the word families:
- ab (tab, lab, cab, dab)
- ad (bad, dad, fad)
- ag (bag, jag, lag)
- am (ham, bam, jam)
- an (can, ban, tan)
- ap (tap, lap, sap)
- as (has, gas)
- at (cat, bat, sat)
- ax (tax, wax)
CVC Words Short E
Some of the CVC words with short e include,
- eb (web, Deb)
- ed (bed, Ted, wed)
- eg (leg, beg, Meg)
- em (hem, gem)
- en (hen, ten, pen)
- et (get, set, let, pet)
CVC Words Short I
Some of the CVC words with short i include,
- ib (bib, fib)
- id (bid, did, kid)
- ig (big, dig, pig)
- im (dim, him)
- in (bin, fin, tin)
- ip (dip, lip, sip)
- is (his)
- it (hit, lit, kit)
CVC Words Short O
Some of the CVC words with short o include,
- ob (cob, sob)
- od (sod, pod)
- og (dog, log, fog)
- om (mom, Tom)
- on (ton, won)
- op (pop, mop)
- to (cot, not)
- ox (box, fox)
CVC Words Short U
Some of the CVC words with short u include,
- ub (cub, tub)
- ud (bud, mud)
- ug (pug, rug, tug)
- um (gum, sum)
- un (fun, run)
- up (pup, cup)
- us (bus)
- ut (but, gut, put)
Activities for Teaching Short Vowel Sounds
There are dozens of activities for teaching short vowel sounds. I have written about some ways in my post about digraphs here.
These 7 are great because most of them are hands-on making learning more hands-on. Activities for Teaching Short Vowel Sounds
Clip Cards
Once the cards are laminated, children can use a dry-erase marker to circle the answer. They can also use a clothespin to “clip” the answer.
Shaving Cream
I love using shaving cream in the classroom or at home to help support learning. Students can use it to practice writing letters, numbers, sight words, or as I’m sure you’ve guessed – CVC words!
Simply put a bit on the table or desk. Then have students practice writing in the shaving cream.
Eventually, the cream will dissolve. You may need to wipe down the area with a paper towel at the end. The children love using it and as long as your expectations are clear at the beginning it’ll provide a great hands-on activity.
Activity Books
Each book has 10 or more pages. It’s a great activity for children to use to practice reading and spelling CVC words. They can use them in a small group, at centers, or as extra independent practice.
Changing A Letter
Part of learning to read is hearing different sounds in words. Through learning about letters and letters sounds, children will begin to learn that putting letters together creates words.
Something that children are expected to be able to do in kindergarten and first grade is to understand that changing one letter in a word can change the entire word. By looking at the string of words below you can see that to make different words the child has to only change one letter.
This skill could be completed with alphabet magnetic tiles, using a whiteboard, or even verbally identifying how the letters are changing to make new words.
Cat → sat → sap → sip → tip → top → tot → cot → cut
Word Family Sorting
Word family sorting is a great activity to practice short vowel word families. Students are given pictures of CVC words and they sort the words into the correct word family.
For example, given pictures of a bat, cat, bib, and rib children would sort the pictures into word families “at” and “ib”.
Worksheets on Short Vowel Sounds
The students will work on rhyming words, reading, writing, and spelling CVC words. In addition, they’ll be sorting pictures of word families.
They can be used in a small group, independently as a morning work activity, or as a center. Having children cut and paste activities helps promote their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
Love, Ashley E
