Reading instruction is so important. As teachers we have the enormous responsibility of equipping our students with the skills and tools they will need to be successful readers and writers.

We all know that student's learn at different rates. And if a student isn't learning the way we are teaching them – we need to change the way we are teaching them.

This is where having a “bag of tricks” comes in handy. A bag of tricks is basically just a fun way to say a hundred different games or activities to teach the same skill. Today I'm going to share with you on of my favorite “tricks” for teaching word families: If I Can Spell…CVC Practice for Kindergarten.

Making the Connection

After students have mastered letters and letter sounds we begin putting those sounds together to make words. Usually we begin with the -at family. First we spell cat.. c-a-t. Great! Now let's spell mat.. m-a-t. Awesome! You are such are doing so good with putting words together. Next let's try sat…dfdiffsd

What?!

Does this sound familiar? We just spelled cat and mat. What some kids struggle to realize or understand is that if they can spell cat and mat THEN they can spell rat, sat, pat, fat…. This can be hard for some students to visually SEE. So that's where the activity “If I Can Spell..” CVC practice for Kindergarten was born!

CVC Practice for Kindergarten! Teach students to spell words by changing just the first letter. Perfect for word work! Can be completed using magnetic letters, play dough, or dry erase markers. Includes "I Can" visual directions and several recording sheet options.

How To Use

Each card focuses on only one word family. The students first practice reading the word at the top of the card. We say the letters in the word and then we go over the sounds in the word. Next we blend the word, read the word, and go over the picture names on the card.

We discuss how all of the pictures have different beginning sounds but they all have the same sound at the end. After we have discussed the words on the card, we begin writing the first word.

We discuss how we are ONLY changing the first sound to make a new word. All of the other letters in the word will stay the same. Using a dry erase marker, magnetic letters, or play dough, students write the new word on the line.

Before we write the next word, we identify the sound that is different. Students continue to change only the beginning sound to make a new word and write them on the card.

Once we have completed the card we go over the CVC words again, focusing on how the ending sound is the same for all of the words. We talk about how the words are all part of the same word family because they have the same ending letters and sounds.

Again, I point out how we only have to change the beginning sound of the word to make a new word. The kids are SO excited to see that they can actually spell more words than they think!

Once we have completed these in a small group teacher-led station I put them in a small group station for students to work on independently. There is smaller version to use as self correcting pages. Just cut and laminate these smaller cards and put them together with small binder ring. Students can refer to these to check their work.

Self-Checking

Included in the resource are mini self-checking cards for students to check their work. The cards are labeled so students match the number on their “If I Can Spell” mat to the number on the mini self-checking card. (These cards are also great at a writing center or word work station.)

Ideas for Use

There's a few ways to use these cards. You could have students use magnetic letters, play dough, or dry erase markers to complete the CVC activities for Kindergarten.