CVC words are some of the first words your child can learn to read. They are 3-letter words that begin with a consonant, followed by a middle vowel, and ends with another consonant. Hence, “consonant-vowel-consonant” or “CVC”! They are easy one-syllable words and children can blend (put together) the sound of each letter to read the word (decoding). In decoding, the child has to use their knowledge of letter-sound relationships to correctly pronounce written words. It is the ability to blend the letter sounds together to read a word, instead of saying the individual letter sounds respectively.
Is my child ready to learn CVC?
To start off, your child will need to learn the letter sounds, beginning with the most frequent ones (the hard consonant sounds and short vowel sounds - see our phonics video here to learn how to teach these to your child!). Train their phonemic awareness (awareness of sounds in words) by getting them to practise listening to and identifying these sounds at the front, end and middle of words. Once they are able to hear and identify letter sounds in words, they can start putting 2 sounds together to read 2-letter words, before progressing to CVCs!
Ways to teach CVC
To help your child learn to read CVCs, we have produced several resources in various mediums to aid your teaching. Browse on to find out about some of our CVC-related products!
1) Teaching manipulatives
Our CVC Pegging Cards are developed to promote the development of phonemic awareness in children, while training their fine motor skills at the same time. Phonemic awareness is an important precursor to reading.
The cards will enable you to guide your child to recognise starting and ending sounds of words. You can say the word indicated by the picture on the card, emphasizing on the target sound you want your child to listen to (we recommend you start with beginning sounds first - which is easier - then the ending, and finally the middle vowel sounds!), then get him/her to peg the right letter. Your child can also learn to identify middle vowel sounds in the same way. The cards-and-pegs set contains more activity suggestions, and you can purchase this item at our e-shop here.
2) Books
Our early literacy books provide many activities for your child to learn CVCs. The Literacy 1 book (which we also sell in a bundle with our CVC Pegging Cards!) provides exercises on letter formation, letter sounds and phonemic awareness - identifying the starting, ending and middle vowel sounds, without blending yet.
Our Literacy 2 book consists of CVC reading exercises where the child can practice blending using two different methods (the “Word Family” method and just putting the sounds together from left to right) . As the child gets more able, he/she can progress to 4 letter words and longer! We have also included other activities such as reading comprehension exercises, blending games, and cut-and-paste activities for your child to have fun while building their early literacy skills! The book builds on your child’s CVC skills further by starting with 3 letter words, followed by 4-5 letter words. As the exercises’ level of difficulty increases progressively, you can expect your child’s skills to be built up step by step.
3) Digital Activities (PowerPoint)
Besides printed cards and books, we also offer digital activities such as our ‘Sound Sorting/Phonemic Awareness’ Bundle which includes 3 types of activities: CVC sounds (a digital alternative to our CVC Pegging Cards), sound sorting (vowels), and long and short vowel exercises. Our ‘Word Reading/Blending to Read’ Bundle contains 4 files of activities: an e-board with movable letters for blending, blending e-games, word family (12 words) and magic ‘e’ (10 words).
4) Free downloadables
We have also produced some simple worksheets on CVC that are free-to-download! Simply head to our site here to check them out!
5) BONUS: Home DIY!
If you're feeling creative, here's an add-on activity we've came out with which you can do to engage your child in learning the CVC as well! With just 4 materials and a few steps, you get yourself this CVC Tower!
View our Instagram post here where we share the instructions and ways to use! We've even provided you with a list of CVC words to give you a head start.
Works 2 ways-
Method 1: Place one vowel-consonant window on the right, and write down multiple letters on the starting consonant strip.
Method 2: Place several vowel-consonant windows on the right, and write down only one letter on the strip.
With these, we hope you are now more aware of what CVC words are, how you can build your child’s foundations first, as well as ways you can teach your child to read CVCs! If you did up the DIY or something similar, do share with us. We're glad to know it has benefited you. : )