Are some of your students ready for CVC words? We have been having fun with some new activities. We are using CVC Bingo Mats, CVC Playdough Mats and other CVC Word Work Mats to help us notice patterns in words.   We have mainly been working on -at words, but I went ahead and created complete packs with words that end in -at, -an, -en, -et, -ig, -it, -ot, -ug, -in, -un, -og, -ad, -op, and -ap.

The first activity that we used can be found in this CVC Playdough Mats pack. 

We used this mat by looking at the word, sounding it out then rolling out the letters for the word. Instead of just using alphabet stamps to make the word, we explored using other manipulatives such as alphabet magnets and alphabet dice. This has been a fun activity. 

Another activity that has been super fun is this CVC Tic-Tac-Toe pack that I came up with. I was actually trying to make a different type of game when this idea came to mind. I just had to hurry up and put it together to see how it would work and I love it. This is not a competition game like the regular tic-tac-toe. It is meant for one student to use independently. It has been a favorite around here!! We have game mats and the corresponding picture/word cards for each of the 14 word families.  Beginning readers can use the word cards along with the the game mat. Students who feel confident with a specific word pattern will not need the picture cards! Look at the picture below to see how well it works. We write each word in a different color and cross out the word and the picture in the same color. The vowel is given in the center of the mat. Students simply finish making the words. I love to see the look on a child’s face when he feels successful!  Did I mention that I LOVE this activity? I love it!