Are your students ready to tackle the CVCe long vowel pattern in words? This skill can be tricky for beginning readers, but one that can be mastered with explicit instruction and LOTS of practice. Check out these CVCe phonics skills tips and set your students up for success when learning this new skill!

Check out these related posts:

• How to Teach Phonics in Kinder
• Strategies for Teaching Decoding
• Decodable Readers for Small Groups

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The CVCe Pattern

CVCe represents the CONSONANT + VOWEL + CONSONANT + SILENT e pattern. The silent e found at the end of this pattern causes the vowel before the consonant to make a long sound. This is only ONE rule of silent e.

Introducing CVCe Words

As with all phonics skills, the CVCe pattern must be explicitly and systematically taught. Use Simply Kinder’s phonics teaching slides for an easy-to-follow format when teaching this new phonics skill to students. Write directly on these phonics slides using your interactive whiteboard!

• Introduce the new skill.
• Warm up with phonemic awareness activities.
• Practice making the targeted sound. Focus on mouth formation, movement of the tongue, and airflow.
• Skill Review – What do students need to know before this skill? Review the difference between a consonant and vowel. Review what students have learned about syllables.
• Teach the phonics rule associated with the targeted sound.
• Investigate and take a deeper look at words with the targeted sound and spelling pattern. Apply and practice the skill together.
• Practice reading words with the sound and pattern.
• Match words to pictures and build vocabulary.
• Spend time saying, tapping and mapping words with the phonics skill.
• Practice encoding by writing words, sentences, and/or a story using words with the sound and pattern.

Pair teaching slides with phonics books!

Give your students access to the teaching slides with their own printable phonics book. Phonics books guide students through phonemic awareness, decoding, and encoding activities. Each phonics book follows the format of the teaching slides and allows students to engage in interactive learning! Format the books to fit the needs of your students. Use as many or as few pages as needed for each skill.

CVCe Worksheets

Provide tons of practice with this new skill through interactive worksheets. Peep the ways these worksheets can support your students.

• Review previous skills.
• Clap syllables.
• Phonics rule review and reference sheets. These are great to include in a phonics folder or notebook so students can access all the skills you cover.
• Coloring the VCe pattern and reading words.
• Mapping Words
• Sentence Writing
• Cut & Glue Matching
• Word Searches

Provide these worksheets to students as a whole group activity, place them in centers, and send home for more practice. Differentiate with a variety of options!

CVCe Decodable Readers

Don’t forget the value of getting decodable readers in the hands of your students. Students will apply their knowledge of new phonics skills and spelling patterns. They will practice decoding and build automaticity. Decodable readers should follow a systematic order of phonics skills that have been taught so students will also get practice with previously taught skills. Decodable readers are great to implement with small groups of students and to provide students independent reading practice.

Check out Simply Kinder’s Decodable Reader Bundle HERE or on Simply Kinder + Printable Membership HERE!

Other CVCe Tips & Ideas

Check out more CVCe tips & ideas below.

• Use magnetic letters to build CVCe words.
• Mark the vowel pattern in passages and decodable readers to draw students’ attention to the pattern when reading.
• Practice turning CVC words into CVCe words with sticky notes on a cabinet or door. Students read a CVC word on one sticky note and then close the cabinet to add the silent e sticky note. This will be helpful for students to recognize the spelling pattern and how it changes the vowel sound.
• Incorporate interactive and targeted literary centers to focus on the CVCe pattern. Simply Kinder’s Silly Sentences with CVCe Words found HERE and Heart CVCe Bingo found HERE make great options!

Simply Kinder’s Phonics Bundle

Get access to a growing phonics bundle that includes teaching slides, phonics books, and worksheets. All of these materials are Science of Reading aligned and make teaching the why behind reading easier and more interactive. Grab the GROWING bundle HERE from Simply Kinder or on Simply Kinder + Printable Membership HERE!