Watching students transition from practicing letter sounds to reading whole words is one of the most exciting parts of teaching kindergarten! The key to helping students become confident and fluent in decoding CVC words is to give them plenty of practice with this new skill. A great way to keep students engaged in the repetition of reading practice is to use fun games for CVC words.
Using Games for CVC Word Practice
There are many reasons why games are a great choice for CVC word practice:
- Increase Motivation: Games are exciting for kindergarten students! They are a great way to keep students motivated to keep practicing CVC words.
- Practice Fine Motor Skills: Hands-on activities provide many different opportunities for young kindergarten students to improve their hand strength and coordination.
- Encourage Teamwork and Cooperation: Young students are often still working on taking turns during activities. Adding simple games to your daily routine can help students get that important skill practice!
- Build Independence: You can use CVC games during centers or morning work to encourage students to become more independent learners.
The best part of using games for CVC practice is that you can incorporate them into many different parts of your daily routine. Keep reading for some hands-on and engaging CVC games.
CVC Word Games for Kindergarten
1. Match It Up
This first game matches onset and rime for different CVC words. When the cards are put together, they complete a picture of the word. This makes a great self-correcting activity, which is helpful if you want to use this CVC game during centers or morning work.
To turn this into a fun game for CVC word practice, students can play in pairs or small groups. They can place the cards face-down on the table and then take turns selecting two cards at a time, looking for a match. They can say the sounds on each card before deciding if they have found a match. This concentration-style game is a fun way for students to practice decoding CVC words!
2. Build a Word
The next activity uses word-building cards and letter magnets to help students practice spelling CVC words. Students use letter tiles or magnets to build a CVC word to match the picture that they choose.
These task cards can also be used for a variety of fun CVC word games! For example, students can play in pairs or a small group to try and build a CVC word. Each student can choose a picture for the word they are working to build. All of the letter tiles or magnets can be placed in a bag. One at a time, students can take a letter from the bag and see if it fits onto their word building mat. If not, they can put the letter back in the bag and the next student will take a turn.
If students want to play independently, they can play in basically the same way. However, they can choose two or more pictures and race to see which word they can build first as they select the letters from the bag.
3. Spin, Build and Write
Students LOVE spinners! This task card activity can be a fun way for students to practice building and writing CVC words. Students can use a clear overlay spinner or a paper clip with a pencil for this activity.
They will see which picture the spinner lands on, then build the corresponding CVC word. After building it with letter magnets or tiles, students can write the word using a dry erase marker.
To make it feel even more like a game, students can put a small dot on each picture. They can keep track of how many times they land on a particular picture before time runs out. Students are always so excited to see which word “wins”!
This fun game is another great way to help students practice spelling CVC words. Students will have a game mat with four pictures that each correspond to a different CVC word.
Students will take turns choosing bubble gum letter cards and placing them in the correct spot on their mats. They will keep adding letters to their mats until they successfully build one of the words. Students can keep playing until they have built all of the words!
5. Pocket Chart Sentences
When students are ready to read CVC words within simple sentences, they can practice this skill with an engaging pocket chart activity! Students can match each picture to the correct sentence in the pocket chart.
You can also turn these pocket chart sentences into a fun CVC game! You can fill up the pocket chart with the sentence task cards. You could also include the picture cards to serve as helpful visual cues for your students. Then, one student can hide a small object behind one of the sentences, like a laminated paper star.
Students can try to find the object by reading the sentence they’d like to look behind. After reading the sentence, the “hider” will lift the card to see if that is where the object is hidden. (The grand reveal is the best part!) If the object is not behind that sentence, the student can try again with another one.
Printable Games for CVC Words
You can find all of the games mentioned in this post (and more!) in one easy-to-download resource. This set of CVC word centers, games, and printable practice worksheets can help your students get the repetition they need to master CVC words. You’ll be able to keep your students engaged as they build their confidence in reading and writing new words.
If you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this set of CVC games and learning activities, you can find it in my shop.
Save These Games for CVC Words
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