It’s all about CVC words this week on the webby! Over the next 7 days, we will be adding the most incredible package of CVC resources for you to use with your students. From super cute digital games to worksheet collections and 12 individual sets of task cards designed to fit the rainbow Kmart Storage system – you are not going to want to miss these! You can find more info about this new package of resources at the bottom of this blog, but for now, let’s look at…
What our youngest learners master in their first year of school is nothing short of mind-blowing 🤯 They start school unable to read or write, and finish the year (mostly) being able to do both! It truly is a magical year to be part of 💛
As we all know, though, there are many, many, MANY steps between those early days of learning to recognise their names and the budding young readers we see at the end of the year.
Most early years teachers start the foundation year learning a selection of letters and sounds, such as SATPIN. Students get much joy out of being able to recognise these letters and the sounds they make. But the magic truly begins when, with only a few letters and sounds under their belts, students realise that words can be formed!
A CVC word is a three-letter word that consists of a consonant, vowel, and consonant sound. These words don’t include any tricky blends or diphthongs and are nice and short – which is important as it can be challenging for beginning readers to hold multiple letter sounds in their heads. Their simple pattern allows students to transform individual sounds into short simple familiar words, which is perfect for starting to build confidence with decoding when reading.
CVC words can help strengthen loads of other phonological awareness skills too! Here are just a few (with links to some resources you might find handy) 💛
Students’ ability to hear and produce rhyme is a proven indicator of later reading success. Rhyming is such an important step in learning to read as it helps students notice the differences among individual sounds (or phonemes) in words. Playing with rhyme helps train our young learners’ ears to hear the differences and similarities in how words sound. As mentioned above, CVC words are simple and short and are perfect for rhyme practise!
These resources are hands-on, cute and super bright – and perfect for practicing rhyming with CVC words:
Another bonus with CVC words being short is that students can start to identify the beginning, middle and ending sounds in these words. This is another phonological skill that helps students identify the individual sounds in words, which is an integral part of being able to read and write words. With only 3 sounds to remember, it is easier for students to hear them all!
When working with the beginning, middle and ending sounds, a great practice is to use hands-on or visual materials to segment/map the sounds. You might be interested in these interactive resources to help with identifying beginning, middle and ending sounds.
💛 Change the Initial Sound Ladder
💛 Change the Middle Sound Puzzles
Finally, another important skill that can be practiced when working with CVC words is exploring sound manipulation and substitution (ie. turning 🐈⬛ cat into 🏏 bat into 👒 hat into 🐀 rat). This skill is another important step in developing a young readers’ phonological awareness. This skill is fun to turn into an oral ‘call and respond’ game with the whole class (ask the class: “I want you to say the word cat, but can you say it without the /c/” or “I want you to say the word cat, but can you change the /c/ to a /b/”?) ⭐️
You might also find these resources useful to practice phoneme manipulation:
💛 Build It, Check It, Change It: CVC Set 1 DIGITAL
💛 Sound Manipulation Word Ladders
Now onto sharing our incredible new package of CVC resources! Every single day this week, a brand new CVC resource will land on the webby. Each and every resource is bright, engaging and absolutely perfect for practising this important skill.
With 6 amazing digital games, 300+ pages of task card goodies and LOADS of practise worksheets – this is definitely worth checking out!
