CVC Clip Cards

Clip cards are a quick and easy way for kids to practice reading skills. That’s one of the reasons we love them so much! Rhyming, alphabet letters, blends, digraphs… you name it, we’ve clipped it! These CVC clip cards are a motivating way to help students identify middle vowel sounds.

They are a perfect addition to our Editable Word Work Games!

Getting Ready

To prep, I printed the cards on card stock for added durability and then cut along the dotted lines to separate the pieces.

I filled a container with clothespins and placed it beside the CVC clip cards.

I wanted the kids to be able to self-check their answers, so I flipped the cards over and drew a dot in the correct clipping spot so students could easily see if the pins were in the right place later.

Note: If you’ll be using the cards in a classroom, you may want to laminate them.

Middle Vowel Sounds

The kids and I have talked A LOT about vowel sounds because, for most students, they are the hardest letter sounds to memorize.

And, since there’s at least one vowel in every single word, memorizing them is supremely important.

We reviewed the five vowels (A, E, I, O and U) and talked about the sound for each one.

Since my students worked on our vowel word puzzles just the day before, they were ready to jump in and get to work.

CVC Clip Cards

I set up the activity as a literacy center so children grabbed one CVC clip card at a time and said what the picture was out loud.

The first time reading it, I encouraged them to use a normal speed. But the second time they repeated it, I suggested that they stretch the word out slowly like a rubber band so that they could focus on the middle sound.

For instance, when one of my boys picked up the bed card he said, “Bed!” and then slowly repeated, “B-E-D”. As if a light went off, he recognized that /e/ sound and clipped the right spot on his card.

If kids got stuck, I encouraged them to “try out” each vowel sound to see if it made sense. It was quite funny trying to hear questions like “Who has a bath teb at home?”

There were smiles all around!