Phonics Activity for Kindergarten and 1st Grade: Spring Mystery CVC Words
There is a HUGE push for explicit phonics instruction in lower elementary classrooms these days, and rightfully so!
This Spring Mystery CVC Words phonics activity is perfect when paired with direct phonics instruction during the spring months.
In this post:
- Why phonics?
- Why use this CVC word activity?
- When should students do this phonics activity?
- How to use the Spring Mystery CVC Words pack in your classroom?
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Why are phonics instruction and phonics activities important?
The Science of Reading is a collection of research conducted over decades that explains how children learn to read.
The brain research shows that reading is not just a visual process. Children must understand phonemes (sounds) and connect them to written letters.
Phonics is the process of connecting letters (or groups of letters) to sounds.
Experts have discovered that people cannot simply learn to read by memorizing words. There are way too many words in the English language to memorize!
Children must learn to decode words. Phonics instruction teaches students letter sounds, digraphs, vowel patterns, spelling rules, etc. that children can use to help them decode words.
Around 50% of words are simply decodable and up to 97% of English words are able to be decoded using spelling rules that are taught with explicit phonics instruction.
Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers lay the foundation for reading through direct phonics instruction
Us lower elementary teachers know how hard it is to teach kids to read, but we also play a super important role in their reading mastery.
If students have a firm grasp of phonics and decoding skills by the time they reach 3rd grade, they will likely become fluent readers and will be able to keep up with grade level content.
Third grade is the transition year between learning to read and reading to learn. It is vitally important that children have strong decoding skills by the time they enter this shift in their education.
Phonics activities lead to proficiency
When students engage in ample phonics activities that are tied to direct and explicit instruction from their teacher, they are likely to become fluent in these skills.
Common phonics skills taught in kindergarten and 1st grade include letter sounds, CVC words, consonant blends, digraphs, and common spelling patterns and rules.
All of those skills can be practiced independently or with a partner in the classroom. The more practice students have, the quicker they will gain mastery in their decoding abilities.
I also have sets of small group literacy routines for kindergarten (or first grade) that are intended for quick repeated daily practice to solidify phonemic awareness and phonics skills.
Why should Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers use the Spring Mystery CVC Words phonics activity?
Okay, so we know that students need to work on these skills, but who has time to put together an engaging activity that will provide effective practice?
That’s where I swoop in with the new Spring Mystery CVC Words literacy pack with decoding and encoding task cards and activity pages.
Kindergarten and 1st grade CVC word practice with a super fun twist!
I’ve created this set with lower elementary students in mind! There are colorful graphics (all from the wonderful Krista Wallden of Creative Clips Clipart), engaging hands-on experiences, and writing practice all while having fun breaking the code.
Students take on that cognitive load as they become word detectives. They will look at the task card, find the pictures on the code key, build the word, and write it.
Kids are always so excited to do these phonics activities in my classroom!
When is this phonics activity applicable to your students?
The Spring Mystery CVC Words pack is obviously perfect for when your students are ready to read CVC words!
You will know that your kindergarten or 1st grade kiddos are ready for this skill if they can identify the sounds for each letter, and write the matching letter for sounds they hear.
Students ready for this type of work will also have a firm grasp of phonemic awareness skills such as isolating beginning, middle, and ending sounds, blending phonemes, and segmenting phonemes.
Phoneme-grapheme connections should be strong before children attempt to do this activity independently.
What if your students haven’t mastered those phonemic awareness and phonics skills?
No worries! If your students are still practicing the skills named above, this phonics activity pack is perfect for them to do in a small group setting.
You can use the CVC word task cards as the main activity in your small group lesson (I call it the Engaging Exercise in the SWEET Framework, which you can grab here.) Students will be successful with your support and intentional scaffolding.
The Spring Mystery CVC Word cards can also be used during the application portion of your small group lesson. This part of the lesson is what I call the Try-It activity in the SWEET Framework.
How to incorporate the Spring Mystery CVC Word phonics activity into your classroom
There’s no doubt that I’ve grabbed your attention with this resource, and know you are wondering how you will use it with your own little kiddos.
I am serious when I say this phonics activity is so versatile and can be used in many ways in your lower elementary classroom!
My favorite way to use the Spring Mystery CVC Words task cards is to have it as a literacy center. This activity is so engaging that I can trust my kindergartners to work responsibly on this while I am meeting with a small group of students.
This literacy pack also includes worksheets that are perfect for independent practice. Each activity page has 6 codes to solve. Students write the letters that correspond to the picture code, write the words, and then read them.
You can make this a cooperative learning activity by having students decode the words with a partner.
Here’s a list of ways to incorporate the Spring Mystery CVC Words phonics activity into your classroom:
- Literacy Center
- Independent Practice
- Partner Work
- Small Group Activity
- Early Finishers
- Morning Work
- Extension Activity
- Filler Activity
Where can you get the Spring Mystery CVC Words phonics activity?
That’s a question with an incredibly simple answer! All you have to do is click here to be taken directly to the product in my TPT store!
Do not miss out on my FREE guide on implementing effective small groups!
Right now, The SWEET Framework is FREE! The SWEET Framework is my guide for successful small group instruction in Pre-K through 2nd grade and it focuses primarily on reading and phonics instruction.
