Embarking on the process of teaching your kids their very first words, marks the beginning of a long journey. This is the time when you find yourself doing things like making the leap from basic phonics and practicing the sounds of individual letters, to putting the pieces together to sound out words.
How does one even begin to impart those vital reading skills to their children? The answer lies in CVC words. Words that help facilitate literacy and spelling.
What CVC words are
Let’s first understand what CVC words are, before getting down to exploring that all-important CVC Word List.
In essence, a CVC word is a three-syllable three-phoneme (sound) word that follows the pattern of ‘Consonant sound, Vowel sound, Consonant sound. Hence the term ‘CVC’.
One must bear in mind here that while some of them are three-letter words, not all CVC words have only three letters. Two ‘pairs of characters’ need to be taken notice of here. The first is ‘digraphs’, which refer to two letters that make one sound. The second is ‘trigraphs’ – three letters that make one sound.
What CVC words do is help introduce children to reading by first learning the sounds of the individual letters, digraphs or trigraphs and blending those three sounds into a single word.
CVC Pattern Word List
When looking for CVC words, one must first understand the concept of ‘CVC Word Families’. These contain the same ending part of the word (thereby the same middle part and ending letter). Essentially, they are groups of CVC words that rhyme.
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Short ‘a’ CVC words
- at words: bat, cat, mad, had, rat
- an words: fan, can, man, pan, van
- am words: jam, Pam, Sam, ham, ram
- ad words: dad, sad, mad, fad, tad
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Short ‘e’ CVC words
- et words: net, vet, pet, jet, set
- en words: ken, pen, yen, den, hen
- ed words: red, bed, wed, fed, led
- eg words: beg, leg, peg, Meg, keg
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Short ‘i’ CVC words
- ig words: pig, wig, rig, fig, jig
- ip words: rip, lip, sip, zip, tip
- it words: pit, hit, fit, sit, bit
- im words: rim, him, dim, Tim, Kim
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Short ‘o’ CVC words
- og words: dog, hog, bog, fog, jog
- ot words: hot, pot, cot, dot, rot
- op words: cop, mop, top, hop, pop
- ob words: job, rob, mob, sob, Bob
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Short ‘u’ CVC words
- ug words: jug, hug, mug, bug, rug
- un words: sun, fun, run, bun, pun
- ut words: nut, but, cut, hut, rut
- ub words: sub, tub, rub, hub, bub
Tips for Teaching CVC Words to Your Child
Here are some really cool tips that will help your little one step up their CVC Word Game!
Use Pictures
Pictures that teach CVC words make learning even more fun. Ensure that the pictures you use are clear and kid-friendly. Children should be able to take one look at the picture and instantly tell what the word is. Teaching pre reading skills for toddlers using pictures certainly hits the spot when it comes to helping them absorb CVC words in a refreshingly unique manner.
Know when they are ready to learn CVC words
You have to trust your gut and begin teaching your kids CVC words only when you believe they are ready to learn them. In case they aren’t, it’s better to hold back and instead keep working on the basics of letter recognition and letter sounds, until you feel your children are ready to learn those important CVC words.
Provide plenty of opportunities to learn CVC Words
Children do not have a long attention span, and you will find them tiring easily of the same CVC activity you might be exposing them to every day. That’s why it becomes imperative to expose them to different activities that will help teach CVC words to them in different ways. Besides the pictorial method touched upon in the first point, there are other CVC word-activities that you could use, like Hands-on CVC Manipulatives and even a Word Work Station!
Go at their pace
All children are different, and while one child might seem to be learning CVC words faster, another who is exposed to the same method and level of learning might take longer to grasp what is being taught. Ensure you don’t push them, if they are slow learners. Pre reading skills for toddlers are best taught when you teach children at their own pace.
Practice, Practice, practice!
We have all heard that ‘Practice makes perfect’, right? It’s definitely so in the case of learning CVC words. Therefore, daily CVC Word Practice becomes a must, if we want children to fully absorb these vital words. To do this, you can incorporate teaching CVC words to them in their morning routine or even as part of their writing lessons!
Some Great CVC Word Activities
Here are some really cool CVC word activities that will help take your child’s learning of CVC words to the next level.
- Missing Sounds. Write several words on a whiteboard. For each one, leave out a beginning, middle and ending sound. Children have to say what letter is missing, as you sound out each letter.
- CVC Playdough. CVC words and Playdough? A great idea indeed! Use that playdough to build the ‘connect’ of given CVC words. A wonderful way of incorporating the sensory skills of children to combine words.
- Digital Word Cards. Using these, your children will love building words to match kid-friendly pictures, as they practice CVC words digitally. Moreover, each one can be self-checked as children move the box to reveal the correct answer.
- CVC with Magnetic Letters. Use lowercase CVC words to create a perfect Word Workstation. Children will delight in building CVC words, to match cards or pictures.
Needless to say, the curriculum at EuroKids lays a strong emphasis on CVC words being an introduction for the more comprehensive reading skills to follow. We strongly believe that they are a vital tool when introducing many of the phonological awareness skills that young children need to learn.
