CVC Words Worksheets
Short vowel reading one skill at a time: word families, missing sounds, rhyming pairs, vowel sorting and first sentences. Every sheet holds one thing steady and changes one thing, which is what keeps blending easy. Download any sheet as a free PDF, no signup.
Ages 4-7
Updated September 2026
Curated by 
Poppy Fox
Missing middle sound
Ten CVC words with the middle vowel blanked out, one box to fill per word.
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Missing first sound
The same blending skill from the other end: only the beginning sound is missing.
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Read and write
Eight model words with two ruled boxes each: read it first, then write it from memory.
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Circle the vowel
Eighteen words in a grid: find and circle the vowel hiding inside each one.
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The -at word family
Eight -at words to build one first sound at a time, from cat all the way to pat.
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The -an word family
The -an family: the same two closing letters carry can, fan, man, pan and four more words.
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The -ap word family
The -ap family, eight words long: cap, gap, lap and map all close on the same two letters.
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The -ag word family
Join a first sound to -ag and the page fills with bag, tag, wag, rag and four more.
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The -ad word family
The -ad family: bad, dad, had and mad differ at the front and nowhere else.
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The -am word family
Five -am words to put together, from the everyday ham and jam to the yam nobody expects.
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The -ab word family
Six words off one ending: cab, dab, jab, lab, tab and gab all belong to the -ab family.
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The -et word family
Eight -et words built on a single ending: bet, get, jet, let and the rest of the set.
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The -en word family
The -en family: den, hen, men, pen, ten and yen, six words assembled the same way.
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The -eg word family
A deliberately short family: -eg gives beg, leg, peg and keg and then it runs out.
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The -ed word family
The -ed family: bed, fed, led, red, wed and zed, six words from one two-letter ending.
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The -it word family
Eight -it words to assemble: bit, fit, hit, kit and four more that rhyme with them.
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The -ig word family
The -ig family: big, dig, fig, jig, pig, wig and zig, seven words on one middle sound.
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The -in word family
Six -in words to build: bin, fin, pin, tin, win and sin all share the same ending.
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The -ip word family
The -ip family runs long: dip, hip, lip, rip, sip, tip, zip and nip, eight in a row.
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The -id word family
The -id family: bid, did, hid, kid, lid and rid, built one first sound at a time.
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The -ot word family
Eight -ot words: cot, dot, got, hot, jot, lot, not and pot, the whole family on one page.
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The -og word family
The -og family: cog, dog, fog, hog, jog and log, six words that only change at the front.
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The -op word family
Six -op words to join up: cop, hop, mop, pop, top and sop, one ending between them.
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The -ob word family
The -ob family: cob, gob, job, mob, rob and sob, all six closing on the same short o.
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The -ut word family
The -ut family: but, cut, gut, hut, nut and rut, six words built from one ending.
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The -ug word family
Seven -ug words: bug, dug, hug, jug, mug, rug and tug, a family made for reading aloud.
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The -un word family
The -un family: bun, fun, nun, pun, run and sun, six words off a single ending.
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The -ub word family
The -ub family: cub, hub, nub, rub, sub and tub, the last of the short u families.
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Read and write short a words
Eight short a words read first and copied twice from memory, from cat and map to rat and jam.
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Read and write short e words
The short e set to read and copy: bed, net, hen and leg are the four that give most children trouble.
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Read and write short i words
Short i read and write: pig, lid, six and win copied twice each, with the model always on the left.
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Read and write short o words
Eight short o words to read then write: dog, box, mop and pot, the vowel that sits lowest in the mouth.
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Read and write short u words
The short u set: sun, bug, cup and nut read aloud first, then written twice without looking.
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Odd one out, short a
Six rows of four words, three with the short a sound and one intruder that borrowed a different vowel.
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Odd one out, short e
Cross out the word that is not a short e word: three in each row share the sound, one does not.
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Odd one out, short i
The short i intruder hunt: six rows, and in each one a single word swapped its middle sound.
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Odd one out, short o
Six rows of short o words with one word per row that slipped in from another vowel family.
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Odd one out, short u
The last vowel hunt: three short u words per row and one impostor to cross out.
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Sort short a and short i
Sort twelve words into the short a column or the short i column, the two vowels most often confused.
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Sort short a and short o
A against o: twelve words to split into two columns by the sound sitting in the middle.
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Sort short e and short i
The e and i sort, the pair that makes bed and bid sound alike until the ear is trained.
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Sort short o and short u
Twelve words to sort by o or u, the two rounded vowels that swap places most in early writing.
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Sort short a and short e
The a and e sort: twelve short words with only the middle sound telling the two columns apart.
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Sort short i and short o
Sort i from o across twelve words, the vowel pair that separates pin from pon and lid from lod.
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Sort short e and short u
Twelve words split between short e and short u, the two vowels that sound furthest apart.
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Sort short i and short u
The last vowel sort: i and u across twelve words, both narrow sounds and both easy to rush.
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Sort the -at and -an families
Twelve words that all start the same way: only the last letter says whether it joins -at or -an.
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Sort the -ap and -ag families
The -ap and -ag sort: p and g at the end are one small movement of the tongue apart.
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Sort the -et and -en families
Sort -et from -en: twelve words where the vowel is identical and the final consonant decides.
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Sort the -it and -ig families
A dozen short i words to split by ending: -it in one column and -ig in the other.
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Sort the -ot and -op families
The -ot and -op sort, twelve words deep: the ending is one letter and the whole column depends on it.
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Sort the -ut and -ug families
Short u sorted two ways: -ut and -ug, twelve words that rhyme in pairs across the columns.
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Rhyming words · #1
Eight short a rhymes to join up: cat with mat, pan with man, and six more pairs that end alike.
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Rhyming words · #2
The short i rhyme page: pig and wig, lip and tip, eight pairs that only differ at the front.
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Rhyming words · #3
Short o rhymes, eight pairs deep: dog with log and cot with pot, all matched by their ending.
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Rhyming words · #5
The short e rhyme page: bed with red, hen with pen, eight pairs to link across the page.
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Which vowel do you hear? · #1
Ten everyday CVC words with the five vowels printed beside each: circle the one you hear in the middle.
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Which vowel do you hear? · #2
A second round of ten words, this time with the vowel hiding in less familiar company: lid, win, bun.
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Which vowel do you hear? · #3
Ten harder words to listen through, including fig, cob and peg, where the vowel is easy to swallow.
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Which vowel do you hear? · #4
The review round: ten words with all five vowels shuffled so no two rows in a row share a sound.
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Missing last sound · #1
Ten CVC words with the closing consonant taken away, so the ear has to finish the word.
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Missing last sound · #2
A harder ending hunt: map, bug and lid lose their last letter and only the first two give it away.
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Missing last sound · #3
Ten more words missing their final sound, with several pairs that would be identical without it.
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Missing last sound · #4
The last of the final-sound pages: ten words where the missing letter is the one children drop when writing.
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Missing middle sound · #2
A second missing-vowel page with words that share their outside letters, so guessing does not work.
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Missing middle sound · #3
Ten more words with a hole in the middle: bat, fig and rug need the vowel before they can be read at all.
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Missing middle sound · #4
The last middle-sound set, mixing all five vowels so no two answers repeat in a row.
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Missing first sound · #2
Ten words missing the sound they start with, chosen so the ending never gives the answer away.
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Missing first sound · #3
The last beginning-sound page: ten words where the first letter is the only thing missing.
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Short a sentences
Five sentences built almost entirely from short a words, the first real reading a child does alone.
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Short e sentences
Short e sentences to read and copy: hen, pen, bed and wet doing the work in five lines.
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Short i sentences
Five short i sentences, the vowel that vanishes first when a child reads too fast.
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Short o sentences
Short o sentences: dog, pot, mop and log strung into five lines that still decode letter by letter.
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Short u sentences
The short u set of five sentences, the last vowel and the one that finishes the CVC lane.
Download PDFWhat are CVC words?
A CVC word is a three-letter word built as consonant, vowel, consonant: cat, pen, pig, dog, sun. They matter because they are the first words a child can sound out from left to right without any exception to trip over. Every letter says its most common sound, so blending c-a-t into cat is a win the child earns on their own.
Work through one vowel at a time rather than mixing all five. A child who has just learned that a says its short sound in cat will read hat, bat, man and bag almost immediately, because only the first letter changes. That early run of easy successes is what builds reading confidence, and it is why these sheets are grouped by vowel.
How do you teach a child to blend?
Say each sound slowly and separately, then say them again faster until they run together. Point to each letter as you say its sound, then sweep your finger under the whole word as you blend it. If a child stalls, it is almost always the vowel in the middle: go back to that sound on its own before trying the word again.
Print at 100% (choose "actual size" in the print dialog) on US Letter or A4 paper. Once these are comfortable, move on to syllable worksheets for longer words.
