Roll n' Read: A Fun Way to Blend CVC Words in Kindergarten

Using fun phonics games and reading activities make guided reading groups easier. Here's a new blending cvc words with short vowels activity I created to use to help prepare students for Dibels and become more fluid readers.

Phonics games are more fun when they are interactive - how much more interactive can you get than using race cars to blend sounds together?

Let me share why created this activity for my classroom, how to do it and where you can buy it.

Why I created this blending activity

Students in this small group had a few mental clicks to make:

• They had most of their letter sounds but needed to build up their short vowels sound automaticity.
• They would give incorrect responses when being asked what word was produced when a teacher would give three separate sounds out loud.
• They weren't quite ready to put three sounds together on their own (or attempt) when reading leveled books during guided reading groups.

I knew that while working with this group that my warm up focus would be on short vowel sounds. For the main meat of the lesson, I knew that having a physical connection to moving from one sound to the next would be a go-to move.

This way they could feel that there is motion behind the concept of blending when taking three separate sounds and putting them closer together and essentially... together faster and faster.

What came to mind when thinking of what goes faster and faster? A race car!

Blending CVC words with short vowel sounds

I focused on short a with this group. I modeled how to "hold each sound in my mouth" until the race car would get to the next letter and my ears would listen to the sounds.

I eventually modeled how to hold the sounds as I raced the car faster and faster until they could "hear" the word. We worked through producing correct sounds, holding the correct sounds in order and hearing the blended words.

It really helped! While I was there to support each child as they worked, they were pumped to be figuring it out.

How to turn it into a phonics game

Some students do just fine with an "activity" for no other reason than to just practice because their teacher said so.

With others, sometimes they need a little incentive.

That's why I built this activity to easily become a "game" where the child tries to score as many points for themselves as they can.

Real vs. nonsense words

If students are blending the word correctly, then categorizing it as a real or silly word gives meaning behind blending this set of random words.

It gives an opportunity to make students stop and check their work, and gives me a chance to check in with them if I was busy helping someone else for the last 30 seconds and missed hearing them blend their word.

Keep an alphabet chart handy for support (not included - but here's my favorite free one online).

Scoring points

Students track their words made with points. Using ten frames {'cause I'm a fan} to track their score, they get two points for a real word and one point for a nonsense word.

Students pull a letter from the parking lot and add it to their workmat to continue playing.

What you'll get

You can get this Roll n' Read set as an instant download!

You'll, of course, get the main activity that is great to use with toy cars or I made some that you can print to use too. There are 20 workmats!

As an option, you can have students make a list of words they made during the activity.

But you'll also get two Roll and Read short vowels pages to help warm-up to the blending activity.

You'll also get two pages as a wrap-up activity worksheet or it would be great as homework printed in black and white! (You can cheaply make dice to send home like these)

If you like what I do here on KindergartenWorks, then be sure to subscribe today. I look forward to sharing ideas with you weekly.

More Guided Reading

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• Guided Reading Strategy Checklist {printable}