What’s your favorite tool for teaching CVC words? I love to create word walls and use fluency boards for CVC words. I use bingo and matching games to help provide additional CVC word practice. I have a host of go-to activity sheets students can use in stations or to consolidate skills at home. But there is one CVC word tool my students can’t wait to use—CVC word cootie catchers.
Why CVC words cootie catchers?
Cootie catchers are fun. Kids think of them as a game and may have created their own cootie catchers or fortune tellers. Even kids who haven’t used cootie catchers before catch on quickly and get into the game.
I’ve found that my students are more than willing to go to a literacy station if they know they are using CVC words cootie catchers (or other phonics cootie catchers) — and will even choose them during academic choice time.
Cootie catchers take a little prep (printing and folding), but once together they are ready to go. Fold them up ahead of time or hand out the printouts and give students some scissors and folding time.
How to use CVC words cootie catchers
In this video, I walk through how to use a phonics cootie catcher for alternate spellings of the /ee/ sound, but the process is the same for CVC words.
Can’t see the video? Check out how to use phonics cootie catchers here.
I usually have students use CVC words cootie catchers in pairs, but the process can easily be adapted for students to use them on their own.
I’ve put together 15 different cootie catchers to help your students learn CVC words. The CVC words cootie catchers are split into 5 sets. Each set introduces new sounds/letters and builds on the previous (that means sets will include the sounds/letters from previous sets as well as the target sounds). These are the sounds per set:
Set 1: a, i, m, n, o, p, s, t
Set 2: b, c, g, h
Set 3: d, e, f, v
Set 4: k, l, r, u
Set 5: j, w, x, y, z
Each set of cootie catchers comes with a word overview sheet that provides all of the words used in each cootie catcher. Plus you get instructions for assembling the cootie catchers and how to use them in your class. (You can find the CVC words cootie catchers here, but you may want to read on first.)
Beyond CVC words cootie catchers
Cootie catchers are one of my most popular CVC words tools, but the fun and learning don’t end there. Cootie catchers are adaptable to help students learn lots of phonics sounds and words, like VCC words, CVCC, and CCVC words, various 5–6 letter word patterns like CVCCC and CCCVCC words, digraphs, and sounds with multiple spellings.
And I’ve made it easy for you. I’ve put together more than 100 phonics cootie catchers, ready to download, print, fold, and use.
You’ll have CVC words cootie catchers at your fingertips along with cootie catchers for VCC, CVCC, and CCVC words along with multiple 5–6 letter word patterns, digraphs, and multiple spellings for different sounds.
Each pack includes an overview sheet with the words covered along with instructions for folding and using the cootie catchers in your class.
And when you buy CVC words cootie catchers as part of the bundle (for 100+ cootie catchers in all), you save 30%.
Get yours now >> Phonics Cootie Catchers Bundle
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