CVC Words
FREE
Here are 4 sets of consonant-vowel-consonant pattern words with short vowel sounds. Sets have a small number of CCVC and CVCC words, too.
Description
These cards are suitable for beginning readers of any age who need practice decoding letter sounds and blending them together.
Most of the words in the sets below are 3-letter CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, with just a few 4-letter words mixed in (CCVC and CVCC). All of the words have short vowel sounds. Each set progressively adds more letters and sounds to decode.
When to Introduce CVC Words
After students have learned the individual sounds of the letters of the English alphabet, your next step is to teach your class to put those sounds together. Usually CVC words are the first words to teach when introducing reading by phonics.
How quickly or slowly you teach English phonics will depend on whether your students can already read in their native language and whether Language 1 is phonetic, uses the roman alphabet, reads left-to-right, etc.
CVC Word Sets
This particular groupings of letters, in non-alphabetical order, comes from the Jolly Phonics method. Visit their website to learn more about their method and to purchase their extensive materials.
When making these free sets I’ve tried to choose vocabulary words that will be familiar to young ESL students. However, for the sake of reading practice I’ve included some words that will probably be new. These words cards do not have pictures, so to teach the meaning of the words you will have to draw and mime. Of course that’s the fun part!
With very young learners, you can pick out only the nouns and present tense verbs from this list, such as: ant and pan, pat and sit. Who wants to mime “it”?
Checklist, Set 1 - s a t p i n
Word list for CVC Set 1 (S A T P I N).
Words only, Set 1 - s a t p i n
A set of 2-, 3- and 4-letter words made using only the letters: S, A, T, P, I, N. Fourteen words follow the CVC pattern, the rest are a mix of VC, CCVC, and other patterns.
24 cards.
Words
at, in, it, ant, nap, pan, pat, pin, pit, sap, sat, sit, sip, tan, tap, tin, tip, pant, snap, snip, spin, spit, spat, pants
Checklist, Set 2 - c k e h r m d
Word list for CVC Set 2 (S A T P I N + C K E H R M D)
Words only, Set 2 - c k e h r m d
A set of words made up of letters C K E H R M D in addition to Set 1 letters. Set 2 contains thirty CVC words and fourteen 4-letter letter words with blends.
44 cards.
Words
can, cap, cat, did, dip, had, ham, hat, hen, hid, him, hip, hit, kid, mad, man, map, mat, men, met, pen, pet, ram, ran, rat, red, rip, sad, set, ten, camp, damp, dent, hand, hint, kept, mend, melt, mint, mist, rest, risk, sent, step
Checklist, Set 3 - g o u l f b
Word list for CVC Set 3 (+ G O U L F B).
Words only, Set 3 - g o u l f b
Set 3 contains thirty-two CVC words, plus twelve 4-letter words. This set adds the letters G, O, U, L, F, B to the letters from Sets 1 and 2.
44 cards.
Words
bad, bat, bed, big, bit, bus, but, cut, dot, dug, fat, fit, fun, gap, get, got, hop, hot, leg, let, lid, lip, lit, log, lot, mug, not, pot, rot, rug, sun, tug, best, bill, clap, club, flat, gift, grub, help, loft, lump, milk, stop
Checklist, Set 4 - j z w v y z
Word list for CVC Set 4 (+ J Z W V Y X).
Words only, Set 4 - j z w v y z
Set 4 contains 3-letter CVC pattern words, plus 18 4-letter words. Words in the set contain the letters J, Z, W, V, Y, and X, in addition to the letters from the previous sets.
43 cards.
Words
jam, job, jog, jet, jug, jazz, just, junk, zebra, zip, zap, buzz, fizz, win, web, wag, wig, wet, went, wept, west, wind, swim, van, vet, vast, vest, vent, yes, yak, yam, yap, yet, yelp, yell, six, fix, mix, fox, box, wax, next, exit, exam
KrisW –
Great work, thank you very much for sharing. I’ll be using these in my ESL classes 😀
Karen –
Super! Glad to hear it!
Stephen Fein –
I just wanted to send you a quick ‘thanks’ for your helpful material. I am just returning to ESL after a 25 year hiatus and this is one of the best online resources I have found. Thanks again
Karen –
Thanks Stephen, that’s nice to hear!
Tonya –
CVC – it’s genius idea, thank you so much for your work! useful and very easy for kids to learning how to read! Wonderful! I just hope, that in a future we would see something like CCVC, CVCC, CVCV etc 😉
Karen –
Thanks for the ideas, Tonya!
Amanda –
just wondering why zebra is included in the CVC words considering it is not a CVC word and also has a long e sound ….
Karen –
Some regions do pronounce zebra with a short e, however you’re right that it isn’t a CVC word, oops. I guess zebras are just sneaky animals :S
Marquerita –
Thank you for the great resources!
Karen –
You’re welcome!
Shelly –
Thanks a lot for sharing such amazing resources!
Helps a lot!
Karen –
Glad to hear that!
ionela –
Thanks a million for sharing these helpful resources!
Karen –
You’re welcome! 🙂
Ana Cruz –
This is awesome! Thank you!
Alan –
Thank you for all of these wonderful free resources. It can be incredibly time consuming to find quality free resources for my students, and I always wonder why more people who love to educate don’t offer free materials. I hope to be able to give back myself and create free resources for teachers and ELLs myself in the future and hope that others do the same!
Karen –
You’re welcome, and good luck with your projects!
JACQUELINE WHITTINGTON –
Thanks for this fabulous resource. I use them in my R.T.I groups and I created some games to use with the flashcards.
Stefanie –
Thank you very much.
Karen –
You’re welcome, both. 🙂
Susan Jonely –
Thanks so much for all the resources you have created and shared. They are truly appreciated.
Karen –
I hope they’re useful 🙂
Joey –
Thanks for sharing good job, and those helps lots
Karen –
I’m glad you find these cards helpful! 🙂
Ana Maria Luca –
Amazing! Really helpfull!
Htoo Aung Bo –
i really thanks you for your flash cards and teaching Aid. I will contact when you have a premium package.
thanks you so much
Nancy A Schroyer –
awesome
momoina –
Thank you
Raelene Tang –
What a lifesaver! Thank you!
CHii –
These CVC printable really help me in preparing materials for kids. I appreciate your works. Thank you so much!
nhla –
beautiful
elppa1015 –
Thank you
ruby Dela Mata –
nice flascard.
Jenine Valencia –
Thank you for sharing! You helped a lot! sending love!!!
W –
Nice
Thuong –
thanks for sharing. It helped a lot for my kids
kay –
excellent
kay –
THANK YOU THESE ARE VERY GOOD
Jeng –
Awesome
DEDY –
GOOD
Nayab –
The flashcards are simply amazing and very handy. Thanks for providing them for free. The effort is much appreciated
Karen –
I’m happy to hear you like them 🙂
EDNALYN JOVEN –
Amazing, very helpful
Revathi Krishnan –
Awesome
Maria Impagliazzo –
Quick and easy. Love it!
Merly D. Pulquiso –
Thank you. It’s awesome. Very helpful for me.
Sara –
These cards have helped me help my son learn to read! Thanks so much.
Karen –
You’re welcome! 🙂 So nice to hear the cards have helped you!
Natalie Roussée –
Great! Thank you!
Dayne –
Thanks for providing them for free.
Elena –
Great!
Valeriya –
Awesome
Philippa Austin –
Great!
ren –
thank you for sharing these materials. Useful and nice
Katie –
Good !!!!
Catherine Mundstock –
Beautifully done!
Teacher Keren –
Very helpful for my students with special needs
Lim –
useful
Kim –
These are exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!
AP –
Excellent & very helpful
RO –
nice collection of CVC words for emergent readers
easy to read font and print out nicely to use in class
Darlene –
These are fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing.
chidambaram –
very good for children to learn ..thank you!!
halle –
amazing for this level. i cannot wait to use
Ana María Severin –
Simplen and functional. Suggestion, maybe add in the back the image for more fun
Leah Lara –
thank you very much. It isvery helpful
Sherilyn S. Ramos –
these will be a great help. thanks
Cheryl –
good
vera –
Thanks for the flashcards. It is very helpful.
hIEN –
SO GOOD
Sean –
Great
Mrs. M –
Thank you…just what I need
Georgie –
Thank you! Just what I need!
Carolyn –
Thank you so much! I’ve been looking for cards like these for so so so long. I’m a new teacher this year and funds are not there to purchase. 😁
Karen –
I’m glad you found us 🙂 I hope the cards are fun to use in class!
Linh –
thank you . It is very helpful
Julia –
Great! Thank you!
Rhea –
Thank you very much for these free reading materials. Very useful for my son.
Karen –
You’re quite welcome!
Ling –
Very useful! Thank you for sharing.
Lorena –
I am thrilled with these flashcards. They are so helpful for my class.
Ms. Hannie –
very helpful thank you!!
Dinara –
That was really helpful! Thank you so much!
mary –
very helpfully
Lina –
I love these cards. They are my go-to.
Karen –
Glad to hear that 🙂
Nicole –
Great
Angela –
great for small group
Roza –
Very nice cards! Thank you !!!
gei –
love it it will be a great help thank you
Tatiana –
Great! Thank you! They are so cool!
Elisabeth –
Great resource
Diễm –
good
Mycaela –
Thanks!
Kavitha –
very nice. Easy to select the size and content.
Kavitha –
very nice material.
T. Precious –
You just made teaching easier for a lot of people.
Ms Sam –
amazing.. this what i need to help my students to read
Rama –
Guys!!! I can’t thank you enough… You saved my time and helped a lot!
Andrea –
Excellent for using for my class for games.
A.K. –
😍
Anum –
Very good
Nguyen Huyen –
good
nolumkandawire –
This is great!!! can’t thank you enough!!!
D –
These are great for begiining readers
Remy –
great resource!
Catherine Brannigan –
excellent
Yamu –
It’s really helpful and effective for my students. Thank you so much for sharing and being accessable for everyone.
Karen –
You’re welcome!
Mrs Amina Ahmed –
Great for teaching pre-entry ESOL learners
piyanat wongpattanavong –
great
Rocio –
Great