Supporting Beginning Readers: Creating with CVC and Sight Words

ByChristie Burnett Updated on

Immy is enjoying the beginning stages of learning to read and I recently made some simple reading and drawing prompts to provide her with the opportunity to practise reading simple sentences. At school Immy has learnt all of the most commons single sounds (consonants and vowels) and is learning to blend the sounds of one syllable CVC words. CVC words contain a consonant, followed by a short vowel and ending with a consonant. She is also learning to recognise the common, high frequency words that are difficult to sound out, known as sight words.

I chose a simple sentence that combined CVC and sight words for each drawing prompt, leaving Immy with an opportunity to complete the sentence and the drawing. Being that Immy likes to draw and is enjoying the process of learning to read, this activity provides a good balance between creating and academic learning.
CVC Words and High Frequency Words-Supporting Beginning Readers @ Childhood 101

 Notice the sad faced captured fairy and butterfly!

CVC Words and High Frequency Words-Supporting Beginning Readers @ Childhood 101

This prompt is based on an early reader that the children were enjoying at school, To Town by Joy Cowley. Immy has even corrected my ‘in’ to be ‘on.’

CVC and High Frequency Words-Supporting Beginning Readers | Childhood 101
This must be a disco chick, given the eyelashes, red beak and long legs!

CVC Words_High Frequency Words for Beginning Readers @ Childhood 101
Fairies, unicorns, pegasus – you wouldn’t know that my big girl loves the world of make believe, would you? 🙂

I have plans for more prompts, including;

  • I would like to hug a ___________.
  • I can see the ___________ on the big, red rug.
  • I have a pet. It is a ___________.
  • In the bag I have a ___________.
  • It is fun to ___________ in the mud.
  • Can you see the ___________ in the pan?

And for those of you concerned that you cannot draw – don’t be. You can always use Google images to find some clipart to copy, paste and print out.

Do you have a child who has begun the process of formally learning to read? How are they doing?

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Christie Burnett is a teacher, author and mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to find engaging, high quality learning ideas.

3 Comments

  1. Mansi@experimenting-mom says:

    Hi, i loved this idea. My daughter is learning to read too. We setup a weekly password for her room using sight words.

  2. Some great ideas here Christie…filing them away for a little later although I think the twins are nearly there!

  3. This is great! My son is also learning to read, and he loves to draw, so I’ll try some of these ideas. I love the fantasy theme she’s got going there.

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