Hands-On Phonics Resources for the Early Years Classroom

If there’s one truth known to all early years teachers, it’s that little learners LOVE hands-on activities! 

This set of work mats is perfect for your daily literacy groups! It has been designed to give your students practice in decoding and writing CVC words. The mats also allow students to manipulate the phonemes in these words to create word chains.

How to Use the CVC Word Mats

Students select a mat. Each mat contains images of four CVC words. Students are required to:

• Look at the first picture and identify the word. Spell out the first word in the boxes at the bottom of the mat using magnetic letters or similar. Write the word on the lines underneath the first picture.
• Look at the second picture and identify the word. Spell out the second word in the boxes by switching out only one letter and replacing it with another. Write the new word on the lines underneath the second picture.
• Do the same with the third and fourth words.

The download includes ten word mats (answers included). Cut-out letters are also provided in case you do not have access to magnetic letters or the like.

Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the PDF or Google Slides version of this resource. 

As this resource contains an answer sheet, we recommend you print one copy, then photocopy the desired number of work mats for your class. Thick card is recommended to increase the durability and longevity of the resource.

Instead of laminating, why not slip the work mats into dry-erase sleeves? Students can work on the mats using whiteboard markers, then erase and reuse. 

Alternatively, project the work mats onto your interactive whiteboard for a paperless lesson!

This resource was created by Lisamarie Del Valle, a Teach Starter collaborator.