Students need to demonstrate their knowledge of CVC words in so many different ways before you can move on to more complex patterns. Most importantly, students need to be able to blend and segment CVC words. Blending sounds together to make a word is the most important skill because this allows students to actually decode words within a text. Segmenting takes this skill to the next level and helps students spell. But manipulating sounds within words is one of the highest skill students can achieve with CVC words.
Manipulating CVC words is when students can take a sound from a word and then change the sound to make a new word. For example change /a/ in cat to /u/...that makes cut! This is a tricky skill that takes practice.
You can practice this at the teacher table with simple phonemic awareness activities just as I stated above. Simply give the students a word and have them change the sound to a given new sound. Students can also take a given word and you ask them to change one letter to make a new word.
CVC Word Ladders
I created a fun activity for my students to practice manipulating CVC words when in stations or at home. These CVC word ladders have students change one letter or sound at time. There are pictures to help guide students to the next word.
One of my favorite parts about this activity is that I ask students to identify the sound that changed (beginning, middle, or ending sound). When I give a place for students to identify the sound that changed, students are able to visualize the sounds a bit better. I find this helps students when manipulating sounds.
I love using these CVC word ladders during stations. I put a set of 5-10 pages in their stations folder for word work. Students then practice manipulating cvc words on their own all week. I pick up their folders at the end of the week and check their work.
This is a great guide for me to see who is ready to move on to more complex spelling patterns like consonant blends or silent E! I This is a great homework idea as well, perfect for an easy grade! You can grab a set of these word ladders for FREE below!
You can grab all 20 CVC word ladders here. Or simply click the download below to grab 9 FREE CVC Word Ladders!!! Be sure to subscribe to my email list for more weekly freebies!
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