Reading is an acquired skill and the first step to get your child started on their reading journey is through CVC Words. We’ve brought to you some experts tips, tricks and techniques to teach your preschooler CVC words. Read on to find out!

If you’re looking for the right expert to get your child started on their preschool journey, join Kutuki's Live Phonics and Math Program now! For more information, please send a Whatsapp message and speak to our Academic Counselor.

So, what are CVC words?

CVC stands for Consonant-Vowel - Consonant and any word that follows this pattern is called a CVC word. They are the most commonly occurring three letter words. For example - cat, map, cup, pin

We often find CVC words in children's story books, board books and other early reader’s resources. This is because CVC words are very easy to sound out and blend in the initial stages of reading in English.

But it is crucial that you use well-defined strategies and resources to teach CVC words as they are the building blocks for children to be able to read, speak and spell independently over time.

Introduce CVC Words through Word Families

The best way to learn and introduce a range of CVC words is through word families.The range of word families is very vast and you might be wondering where to begin. Don’t worry! Here's a small list that we’ve put together for you to start off with

-an words: ban, fan, can

-ap words: cap, lap, tap

-in words: bin, fin, pig

-it words: bit, fit, hit

STEPS TO TEACH CVC WORDS.

Here are six simple steps you must follow to teach CVC words. Whether you are an educator or a parent homeschooling your child, these steps are sure to support you in getting your child to read simple CVC words meaningfully.

STEP-1

When you first teach CVC words through word families, follow a gentle pace and choose one word family at a time. Let's take the '-an' word family. Write down a CVC word from the ‘an’ family e.g. ‘can’ or use a flashcard, just like the one shown below. Put a dot below every letter and ask your child to place their finger on the dot and sound out each letter slowly while moving from left to right. Once they are comfortable, they can quicken the pace and start blending the sounds together and say the word fluently.

This flashcard is copyrighted by Kutuki. This and other resources are exclusively available only if you have enrolled into Kutuki’s Live Phonics.

STEP-2

Use the kinesthetic technique of arm blending or arm tapping for children to understand the movement between one letter sound to another in a CVC word and blend them fluently. This is a simple yet very effective technique that does not require any other resources other than your arm.

Say you want to teach the CVC word ‘cap’ from the ‘ap’ family using the arm blending technique.

First, stretch your arm out, place your other palm on your shoulder and sound out the /c/ sound, next slowly slide your palm to your elbow and say the /a/ sound and then slowly slide to the palm and end with the /p/ sound.

Repeat this shoulder-elbow-palm sliding method a couple of times and then quicken the sliding movement while saying every letter sound out loud. This will help your child physically feel the movement of every letter sound from left to right while also blending the sounds smoothly.

Here is our Phonics Expert Hiral Ma’am, demonstrating the arm blending technique for you.

https://youtu.be/9gPFzI7l724

STEP-3

Once they are comfortable blending each sound in the CVC word, the next step is to put them in the context of simple sentences.This will help them understand the word in context while also discovering a pattern in the sounds of the CVC words. Again, it is best to introduce CVC words associated with one word family at a time in a sentence .

For example, take the ‘at’ family. Some of the common CVC words that belong to the ‘at’ family are cat , mat, sat. Now make a simple sentence with these words.

The cat sat on a mat

Because the words rhyme, it's easy for the child to repeat the pattern in sound and internalise it.

STEP-4

Create fun activities where your child gets the opportunity to identify which CVC word belongs to which word family. This is a great way to check your child’s understanding of CVC words.

Our experts at Kutuki have curated a fun game called ‘Word Family Bingo’ to support you with this. Write 4-5 word families on a sheet of paper as shown below. Call out a CVC word e.g. map and ask your child to colour or put a stamp on the word family it belongs to.

You can play this game as many times as possible with as many CVC words.

We sincerely hope that these ideas have helped you get started with CVC Word activities for your child. If you are looking for expert guidance to teach your child Phonics, enroll into Kutuki’s Live Phonics Program today. 1000s of students have become active readers and your child could too!

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