I Spy CVC Words – 5 Free Short Vowel Worksheets
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Get 5 free read-and-find I Spy CVC Worksheets! The printables are separated by short vowel sounds, so young readers can practice decoding CVC words as they learn!
Why We Love It
CVC words are words that follow the Consonant-Vowel-Consonant pattern, creating a closed syllable type.
Like our CVC Sentences and CVC Word Searches, this engaging resource helps young readers practice reading CVC words and short vowels.
Not only do these worksheets promote important beginning decoding skills, but they also encourage kids to connect the words with their meanings. This is important to build vocabulary and comprehension.
We specifically organized these worksheets into five worksheets, organized by short vowels. You’ll get one worksheet for each vowel: Short A, E, I, O, and U!
This will provide targeted vowel instruction for your students. Since vowels can be pretty tricky for kids, it’s best to really focus on each vowel separately at first, until they are firm in both reading and spelling words with that short vowel.
Tips for Teaching CVC Words
👌 Make it Multisensory! For blending CVC words, kids should finger tap the sound individually, then stretch the sounds together, and then blend it quickly to read the whole word. Use our CVC puzzles and for this!
📘 Use Decodable Readers. There are many beginning decodable books that include tons of frequently used CVC words alongside high-frequency words.
👨👩👧👧 Teach Word Families. Begin teaching word families that follow the VC pattern, like -at, -ig, -ot, -un. For -an and -am (where the /a/ sound changed slightly) teach your students about glued sounds. Grab our free Word Family Anchor Chart to introduce, display, and practice reading with your students.
🔗 Use Word Chains. Word chaining, or word ladders, helps show kids the connection between words. By just switching one phoneme, an entirely new word is created. Kids have a blast while manipulating sounds and letters. Grab our free CVC Word ladder activity!
👎🏼👍🏼 Use Real and Nonsense Words. I like to use my blending board by placing individual letter cards on there. We blend CVC words, including both real and nonsense words. Then, we use thumbs up and thumbs down to determine whether they’re real words (thumbs up) or nonsense words (thumbs down).
Using the Printables
- Short A Words: cat, hat, bat, bag, map, pan.
- Short E Words: bed, jet, ten, hen, web.
- Short I Words: lip, pig, six, fin, pin, dig.
- Short O Words: mop, pot, log, hog, fox, box.
- Short U Word: cup, cut, bug, tub, bus, sun.
You can challenge kids to color match the pictures and words. For example, kids can trace the word ‘cat’ with a purple crayon and then color in the cat purple. Then choose a different color for each of the words.
The printables can be used for morning work, independent work, partner work, or even homework. It makes for a fun and engaging activity that kids LOVE!
These worksheets can be used alongside our Label the Picture worksheets for even more practice with short vowels!
More CVC Resources
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I love all your materials! THANK YOU!!!
Hi Olga, Thank you so much for the kind words! We’re thrilled our resources are helpful for real teachers like you! 🙂