CVC Review Worksheets

Free printable cvc review phonics worksheets. Five practice activities: decodable passage, word sort, phrasing cards, rapid naming chart, and word search.

Grade: K Phase 1: Foundations Pattern: Mixed CVC review across all short vowels
cat bed pig hot bug ham jet win mop cup fan pen

1 Decodable Reading Passage

A short, decodable story embedding cvc review words. Students read the passage then highlight all the target words.

Hal's Back Full of Nuts
Skill: CVC Review  •  Sight Words: the, is, a, and, to, was, it, on, his, her
Hal's Back Full of Nuts illustrated mini-book cover
Illustrated mini-book

It was fall. The sun was dim and not hot. Nuts fell on the hill.

Hal had to get the nuts to his den in a log by the time it got cold. He put the nuts in his red bag. But the bag had a rip. The nuts fell out!

His pal Jim ran up to help. Jim could carry just one nut at a time.

"I can fix this," said Hal.

He got down on his back on the nuts. He got up with nuts on all the pins on his back!

Hal jogged to the log. Soon the den was full.

"We did it!" said Jim.

Circle or highlight all the short vowel words in the story above. How many did you find?

This story is part of Level 1. Get every Level 1 illustrated mini-book in one print-ready file ($14) →

2 CVC Review Words

The words this story set practices, in the two groups used by the word sort.

Real Words (10)

cat, bed, pig, hot, bug, ham, jet, win, mop, cup

Nonsense Words (10)

zan, ped, gib, lod, tun, bap, reb, vib, dof, rup

Phrases to read
the pig can dig · a bug on the rug · sit in the sun · a red cup · the cat and the dog · a pen on the bed · win a fan · mop it up · a hot ham
RAN chart words
cat, bug, mop, dig, red
Sight words
the, is, a, and, to, was, it, on, his, her

3 Mixed Short Vowel Picture Worksheets

Short vowel words to read, match and write, with pictures. Each PDF has its answer key on page 2.

Find the Word: a mixed short vowel picture worksheet

Find the Word

Look at each picture and circle the right word out of three.

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Circle the Picture: a mixed short vowel picture worksheet

Circle the Picture

Read a word, then circle its picture out of three.

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Which Sentence?: a mixed short vowel picture worksheet

Which Sentence?

Look at a picture and pick the sentence that matches it.

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Read and Fill In: a mixed short vowel picture worksheet

Read and Fill In

Read a short story, then fill in the missing words.

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Sound Boxes: a mixed short vowel picture worksheet

Sound Boxes

Say each picture and write one letter in each box.

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Read and Match: a mixed short vowel picture worksheet

Read and Match

Read each word, then draw a line to its picture.

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Level 1 Word Work: CVC Words pack cover

Level 1 Word Work pack: all 77 CVC worksheets in one file

The sheets above are free. The pack is every sheet for short a, i, o, e and u in order, a review set and all the answer keys, ready to print.

Get the pack for $7 See every kind of sheet

Teaching more than one level? All 6 levels, 600+ worksheets, for $19.

4 Story Worksheets

4 ready-to-print PDFs for this story's cvc review words. Each one opens as its own file.

CVC Review word sort printable preview

Word Sort

Cut-apart word cards to sort: Real Words or Nonsense Words. Answer key on page 2.

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CVC Review phrasing cards printable preview

Phrasing Cards

Short phrases to cut out and read smoothly, for fluency.

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CVC Review word search printable preview

Word Search

Find 12 cvc review words in the grid. Answer key on page 2.

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CVC Review ran chart printable preview

RAN Chart

A grid of five words to read fast, with room to record three timed tries.

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More picture worksheets: beginning sounds, ending sounds, rhyming and syllables — new pictures every time you print.

📖 More CVC Review Stories

A new decodable story with the same cvc review sounds — each comes with its own set of worksheets.

← Blends & Digraphs Review View All Phonics Skills NG and NK Endings Worksheets →

Free Printable CVC Review Worksheets

CVC word review is a critical step for kindergarteners, solidifying their understanding of consonant-vowel-consonant patterns after individual short vowel sounds have been introduced. This phase builds automaticity by mixing all five short vowels, which can be tricky as young learners often overgeneralize or confuse similar-sounding vowels like short ‘a’ in “cat” and short ‘u’ in “cup,” or short ‘e’ in “bed” and short ‘i’ in “pig.” Students might also struggle with auditory discrimination, mishearing "hot" as "hut" or "pen" as "pin." The challenge here is not just decoding each word in isolation but quickly differentiating between vowel sounds within a varied set, preventing common confusions and reinforcing the consistent sound-symbol correspondence for each short vowel. Mastering this review phase ensures a strong foundation for more complex phonics patterns. To make the most of these CVC review worksheets, encourage students to sound out each letter in words like "bug" or "dog" before blending. The story "Pip's Lost Bat" provides an excellent decodable passage for applying these skills in context; have students point to and read each CVC word they find. Utilize the word sort activity to help children visually and auditorily group words by their middle vowel sound, such as sorting "fan," "ham," and "bat" under the short 'a' category. Phrasing cards can build fluency by encouraging smooth reading of short CVC phrases, moving beyond word-by-word decoding. Finally, the Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN) chart is invaluable for developing quick, effortless recognition of these mixed CVC words, signaling true mastery.

For more early literacy resources, explore our sight word flashcards, tracing worksheets, handwriting worksheets, and coloring pages.