📖 ReadingLevel 1Lesson 2
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Blending CVC Words

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Learning Objectives

  • 1Blend three sounds — consonant + vowel + consonant — to read a short CVC word
  • 2Identify the middle vowel sound when sounding out a CVC word
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Mini Lesson

In Lesson 1 you learned the five short vowel sounds. Now we are going to use those sounds to read real words! A CVC word has three letters: a Consonant, a Vowel, and another Consonant.

What is blending?

  • Blending means saying each sound one at a time, then pushing them together into a word.
  • Example: c – a – t → /k/ /a/ /t/ → cat
  • Think of it like sliding sounds down a ramp into one smooth word.

The three-step blend

  • Step 1 — Start sound: Say the first consonant sound. /s/
  • Step 2 — Middle sound: Say the vowel sound. /i/
  • Step 3 — End sound: Say the last consonant. /t/
  • Now blend: /s/ /i/ /t/ → sit

Common CVC word families

  • -at family: cat, hat, bat, mat, sat, rat
  • -in family: bin, fin, pin, tin, win
  • -op family: hop, mop, pop, top, cop
  • -en family: hen, pen, ten, men, den
  • -ug family: bug, hug, mug, rug, tug
Three CVC words blended from separate soundsThree rows — c-a-t, s-u-n, m-a-p — each showing three letter boxes joined by arrows into a whole word on the right.Blend the sounds → read the wordcatcatsunsunmapmapSay each sound, then push them together!
Three sounds blend into one word — cat, sun, map.
Sound to word flow — finger, mouth shapes, blended wordTop: a finger points along the letters s, i, t. Middle: three mouth shapes show each sound. Bottom: the letters are joined into the word sit.Sound → Wordsitpoint under each letter/s//i//t/sit
Point, sound each letter, then blend — /s/ /i/ /t/ → sit.
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Ask yourself: "What is the first sound? What is the middle sound? What is the last sound? Now blend!"

Vocabulary
Blending
Saying each sound one at a time and then pushing them together to make a whole worde.g. /k/ /a/ /t/ → cat
Word family
A group of CVC words that share the same ending vowel-consonant patterne.g. -at family: cat, hat, bat, mat
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← Lesson 1: Short Vowel Sounds CVCLesson 3: Consonant Digraphs — ch, sh, th, and wh →