• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Shop
    • Alphabet
    • Centers
    • Math
    • Reading
    • Sight Words
  • Blog
  • Monthly Activity Bundles
  • Free Resources
  • About
  • Contact

Miss Kindergarten

Kindergarten Teacher Blog

  • Alphabet
    • Letter Formation
    • Phonics
    • Writing
  • Centers
    • Literacy Centers
    • Math Centers
    • Morning Work
  • Holidays
    • Crafts
    • Fall
    • Winter
    • Spring
    • Summer
  • Math
    • Addition & Subtraction
    • Calendar
    • Number Sense
  • Reading
    • CVC Words
    • CVCe Words
    • Fluency Practice
    • Guided Reading
    • Sight Words
  • Teacher Tips
    • Back to School
    • Bulletin Boards
    • Classroom Management
    • Classroom Organization
    • Classroom Setup
Home
  • Shop
  • Blog
    • Alphabet
    • Centers
    • Holidays
    • Math
    • Reading
    • Teacher Tips
  • Monthly Bundles
  • Free Resources
  • Contact

5 Fun Activities for Teaching CVC Words

March 26, 2020 misskindergarten Leave a Comment

One of my favorite things about teaching kindergarten is watching my students grow as readers! From learning their letter sounds to being able to blend sounds together, making the transition from letters sounds to reading words is a huge accomplishment for your little readers. The easiest way to teach your students to bridge letter sounds into words is by teaching CVC words.

What is a CVC Word?

A CVC word is a word made up of 3 letters: a consonant, a vowel, and another consonant. Cat, fix, and sun are all examples of CVC words. These are words that follow simple phonics rules, meaning each letter makes its sound.

Teaching CVC words is the easiest way to begin teaching your students to read. Since the words follow phonics rules, as long as your students have a strong phonemic awareness (understanding that each letter makes a sound), they can read! CVC words give children confidence and make them feel like they are making strides towards being a reader. The best news for teachers is that CVC words can be fun to teach!  

We have put together a few fun ways to help with teaching CVC words to your kids. 

CVC Words Puzzles

When we say puzzles, we don’t mean your traditional jigsaw puzzles. There are lots of different ways to make puzzles that kids can put together or build CVC words. Some fun ideas we have used include writing letters on blocks and having kids build the words with blocks. 

There are also some fun puzzles with pictures involved as well. The students will match the puzzle pieces to make a picture, then use their knowledge of sounds to read the word. In this example, they put the puzzle together to complete the picture of a cat. One piece of the puzzle has the letter c on it, and the other piece has “at” on it. When they put the puzzle together, they form the word “cat”.

teaching cvc words with puzzles

These are an excellent way for a beginning reader to understand the idea of blending sounds. You can find these puzzles in my Super CVC Words Activities; it has a ton of centers to help you teach CVC words.

Hands on Learning

There is no question that young kids would prefer to get their hands dirty than sit at a desk with a pencil and paper. The tactile learning just sticks a little better. #punintended 😉

One way to encourage hands on learning is by giving kids play dough to use. These CVC play-doh mats allow your students to form the letters of each word using play-doh. After they form each letter, they can practice reading and writing the word. Play-doh is so easy to use, fairly easy to clean up, and it encourages learning in a different way.

teaching cvc words using play doh mats

Another idea is to fill a cookie sheet with salt or sand. Use some CVC flashcards and let your students practice writing the words in the sand. After they read the word, they can shake the sides of the tray a bit and the word disappears.

This is a great way to bring sensory play into the classroom. We have also seen rice, cornstarch, and flour used to create sensory bins. See what you have on hand and what works best with your kiddos!

CVC Words Games

We don’t have to tell you how excited kids get when it comes to playing games. One engaging game that works for teaching CVC words is giving a student (we recommend doing this in a group) a card with a letter on it. The teacher can say a CVC word or hold up a picture for the students to see. For example, if the teacher says “bat” the students holding the “b”, “a”, and “t” will come up to the front of the room and spell out the word bat.

Another fun idea is to give your students cards with each vowel on it. Then say a CVC word and have your students hold up the card to show the vowel in the word. You can also give each students one vowel card and say “if you have the vowel in the word “bed”, come stand over here”. These games incorporate several different learning modalities which is helpful when teaching your kindergartners.

Digital Games

Your students can practice reading and building CVC words with these digital task cards. After reading the CVC word, they will drag the magnet letters to each box to build the word. Then they will choose the correct image at the bottom. Then they can press the checkmark that says “submit” to check their answers.

teaching CVC words with digital task cards

This resource uses the online platform boomlearning.com. New to Boom Learning? All the instructions for setting up your Boom Learning account are included in this free download!

Teaching with Art

Incorporating art into the classroom is a great way to help concepts sink in. Luckily a lot of CVC words are simple objects where you can easily find coloring pages, or you can even have your kids draw their own.

One idea is to make a word wall for CVC words. Each kid chooses a word to draw. Then they write the word below their picture and you can hang it on the word wall. Having these words hanging in the classroom will help all little readers develop some confidence in their ability to read CVC words and give them ownership over their classroom. 

Try to make CVC practice fun and engaging so your students love to learn!  

You can also find my MEGA bundle of CVC Words Resources and Activities in my shop!

CVC Words, Reading

Free Download

Sight Word Practice

Reading sight words in context improves reading fluency! Use with these teacher-tested and student-approved activities. Sign up to join my email list below, and this sight word practice will be sent straight to your inbox!

You May Also Enjoy These

Short Vowel Reading FluencyMake your own bottle cap lettersBottle Cap Letters {diy}3 Exciting St. Patrick’s Day Ideas for Your Classroom

Primary Sidebar

Welcome

Hello, I’m Hadar!

Welcome to Miss Kindergarten, my kindergarten blog. I’m so happy you’re here! If you are looking for hands-on, engaging kindergarten activities, you came to the right place! I’m here to save you time by sharing engaging kindergarten teacher resources, and hopefully spark some ideas for your own kindergarten lesson plans!

About Me

Sign Up

Join thousands of educators and get teaching tips, success stories, freebies, new product updates, and sales alerts delivered straight to your inbox!

From My Shop

Sight Word Fluency Practice

February Activity Bundle

Addition and Subtraction Task Cards

boom cards mega bundle

BOOM CARDS BUNDLE

Shop All Resources

Follow @misskindergarten on Instagram for more great ideas!

misskindergarten

View

Apr 17

Open
These story time sticks from @rainbows.and.reading These story time sticks from @rainbows.and.reading are such a great idea! She keeps them out while reading a story so she can ask comprehension questions before, during, and after reading. Have you tried story times sticks? #saturdayteachershare

misskindergarten

View

Apr 17

Open
⭐️FREEBIE!⭐️ We love practicing reading, w ⭐️FREEBIE!⭐️
We love practicing reading, writing, and identifying color words with these little booklets. They come with 11 color words for your kiddos to practice:
🖍reading & writing the words
🖍finding the words
🖍reading the words in a sentence
A huge confidence builder in beginning readers!
You can download these Color Words Fluency Books for free in my shop by visiting the link in my profile!

misskindergarten

View

Apr 15

Open
🌈New Boom Cards!! These spring task cards are p 🌈New Boom Cards!! These spring task cards are perfect to use throughout the last few months of school whether your students are still learning virtually, or as an independent center in the classroom. They cover tons of reading, sight word, addition, subtraction, and number sense practice with audio support! 🎉 This set has been added to the Monthly Boom Cards bundle or you can grab them in my End of the Year Activity Bundle! Message me if you need a link to either one! ❤️❤️❤️

misskindergarten

View

Apr 15

Open
The End of the Year Activity Bundle is HERE! Ahh! The End of the Year Activity Bundle is HERE! Ahh! 🥳🥳 After a full year or working on these monthly bundles, I’m so happy to have this one finished! Full of hands-on, engaging activities you can use at home or in the classroom!
☀️Math & Literacy Centers
🪁Monthly Printables
☀️Boom Cards
🪁May Morning Work Printables
☀️Math Craft
🪁Plus June Morning Work if you are still teaching through June, or send it home with your kiddos for extra summer practice 🥳
Grab the EOY bundle for just $15 through next Wednesday! I also discounted the year-long MEGA bundle back to its original buy-in price! Get every bundle for the entire year for just $12/month! Click the link in my profile to them out❤️❤️

misskindergarten

View

Apr 14

Open
Who else has a love for reading pointers!? They ar Who else has a love for reading pointers!? They are so helpful in allowing your budding readers to focus on the words they’re reading and they’re highly engaging! You can usually find these witchy fingers around Halloween, but we use them all year round 😉 What other reading pointers have you used? Thank you @thefancyteacher for sharing this photo!

misskindergarten

View

Apr 12

Open
I can NOT believe I am finishing up the last of my I can NOT believe I am finishing up the last of my monthly bundles this week!! I have been diligently working on these bundles every month for almost an entire year! They have been SO much fun and SO much work to create!  But I am happy to be able to focus on getting other resources up in my shop now too 😉 Who is as excited about the May bundle as I am!?

misskindergarten

View

Apr 12

Open
💕Six years, two sweet girls, one sweet pup, two 💕Six years, two sweet girls, one sweet pup, two homes, and one global pandemic later, I have loved every second making countless memories with you! Happy anniversary to my love! 💞 #twohappyharts #happilyeverhartstein

misskindergarten

View

Apr 11

Open
A wonderful mama sent me this photo and said “Ca A wonderful mama sent me this photo and said “Camden’s self esteem while reading has risen! He is so proud of himself and loves his book. He read five pages in a row with excitement!” 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
THIS is why we do it! Building readers who are CONFIDENT in themselves & show excitement for learning. Once that confidence emerges, those readers shine! ☀️
You can try these reading fluency passages for free from my shop {link in profile!}
Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2021 Miss Kindergarten  •  All rights reserved  •  Privacy Policy  •  Site Design by Emily White Designs