CVC Words: Free KS1 Phonics Tracing Worksheet

What is on the worksheet

One clear, friendly line drawing of six everyday objects that name common CVC words: a cat, the sun, a pig, a hat, a bus and a dog. There is a tracing task with all six words shown in pale letters, and a writing task with four simple clues (such as It says woof.), a word bank and a line for each answer. The word bank holds all six words, so your child still has to choose.

The picture has bold, even outlines and plenty of white space, so it is comfortable for small hands to colour and a pleasure to display afterwards.

How to use it at home or in the classroom

Print the worksheet, or open it on a tablet and print from there. Start by letting your child colour the picture however they like, which is a relaxed, low-pressure way in.

Next, move to the tracing task. Encourage your child to say each sound as they trace, for example c-a-t, and then blend the sounds together to read the whole word. For the writing task, read each clue aloud if needed, then help your child say the word slowly and write one letter for each sound. Look out for the cap in the picture: some children call it a cap, which is a CVC word too, so praise the sounding-out either way. In a classroom, it works well as an independent phonics activity, a guided-group task, or an early-morning starter.

What your child will learn

By the end of the activity, your child will have practised blending sounds to read CVC words and segmenting words into separate sounds to spell them. These two skills sit at the very heart of early phonics.

A CVC word is a simple word built from a consonant, a vowel (a, e, i, o or u) and another consonant, like cat or dog. Because each letter makes just one sound, CVC words are the first words most children can read and write on their own. A common slip is writing the first and last sounds but missing the vowel in the middle (ct for cat); stretching the word out, c-aaa-t, helps them hear it.

A note for teachers

This worksheet supports the Year 1 word reading and spelling expectations, where pupils blend taught grapheme-phoneme correspondences to read unfamiliar words and spell words containing the phonemes already taught. The six target words use only single-letter graphemes and short vowel sounds, so they suit children who have learnt the first set of letter sounds, usually in Reception.

There is no log-in and no watermark. You are welcome to print copies for your class and to link to this page from your school website or newsletter.

Frequently asked questions