What if I told you that magnetic tiles are one of my favorite tools for practicing short vowel sounds and CVC activity for early readers? It’s true! And even better, kindergarteners and first graders enjoy this practice much more than a worksheet. How do I know? I just left a classroom of first graders learning to read, and they did not want to stop when the time was up. It was a small group success in the classroom and at home with my seven-year-old.

Young child holding a magnetic letter in front of the -ag sound to see if it makes a word. — Worksheet Credit: Heggerty Reading Program

What are Short Vowels?

Short vowels make short vowel sounds, typically found in CVC words. Short vowels make the short sound as opposed to the long vowel sound, such as when a vowel says its name in a word.

Example: We hear a brisk, short “ah” sound in the word cat. We hear the long vowel sound in the word gate with ā saying its name.

As a former kindergarten and first-grade teacher, I enjoy short vowel sounds. The English language has many rules, and CVC words follow a predictable pattern. The child feels so successful once they get into the rhythm with this activity. (However, each child learns at their own pace, which can take lots of practice. Reading is an individual journey.)

Child adding an o to the ending -ag to see if it makes a word. — Worksheet Credit: Heggerty Reading Program

What is a CVC word?

CVC stands for consonant, vowel, consonant. CVC words typically follow the same pattern and have many word variations simply by changing the beginning sound.

Another term for CVC words is word families. Word families are a collection of words with the same ending (such as at, ap, it, ip) that can be manipulated into different words by changing the first sound.

Long vowels typically follow a different pattern.

RELATED: Play these kindergarten activities with your child at home to reinforce what they are learning in school.

List of CVC words and Word Families

Before diving into the short vowel sounds and CVC activities for early readers, let’s look at a list of CVC word families and letter sounds that your child may want to play around with.

Collection of word families with a CVC pattern for kindergarten and first grade.

List of CVC words and word families to practice:

Remember, it is not a list of every word family. Instead, it is a simple list of examples to get you started. These decodable words follow a predictable pattern the child can recognize.

Notice each word family below contains either the short a sound, the short e sound, the short I sound, the short o sound, or the short u sound.

Child using magnetic letters and a magnetic tile to make CVC words. — Worksheet Credit: Heggerty Reading Program

Let’s play

Okay, now that we better understand how to help our child with short vowel sounds, let’s dive into the activity. Your child will have so much fun making new words, and young readers will have a lot of fun with this.

The first step is to gather a square magnetic tile broken into four sections.
Pick a word family from the list above. I like to begin with -at.
Use a dry erase marker to write -at on each section.
Remind your child that you are using a dry-erase marker, the only marker to wipe away a tile. Show them how the marker says dry erase and what to look for before they try independently. (Not my first rodeo.)
Lead by example. Share what you have written -at on each tile and sound it out together.
Invite your child to look at the magnetic letters you have sorted.
Say, I wonder which letter we should try first.
Place the letter on the magnetic tile next to the word ending.
Say, Let’s sound this out together.
Say, Hmm, can I use this word in a sentence? Let’s try. I use my bat when playing baseball.
Say, We made our first word. Let’s see if we can add it to our list.
Have your child write the word on a list.
Move to the next section of the magnetic tile and repeat until you have four words.

Important step!

As my first grader makes new words using his alphabet magnetics, I always ask how to use this word in a sentence.

Often, my child may not realize a word is a word until I share an example with the word in a sentence, or my child needs to rethink a word they built on the magnetic tiles.

RELATED: Are you a mystery reader in your child’s classroom? Use this book list for kindergarten read-alouds!

Supply List:

Like all Days with Grey activities, I like to use the same supplies for many hands-on activities. Here is my complete activity supply list with my favorites.

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Magnetic Tiles

These square magnetic tiles will be very useful. They are a forever toy that grows with your child.

SHOP MAGNETIC TILES

Dry Erase Markers

Use these markers on muffin tins, too!

SHOP DRY ERASE

Magnetic Letters

This is one of my favorite sets of magnetic letters. Pull these out with homework.

SHOP LETTERS

Final thoughts

Remember, children learn how to read at different ages and stages. Here is a helpful article about the stages of reading and child development.