(R208) CVC/CCVC minimal pairs and near minimal pairs contrasted in short sentences

Description

Early reading support: 32 decodable CVC/CCVC minimal pairs and near minimal pairs contrasted in short sentences (e.g. The man hit the big tick with a stick.”)

Learning to decode letters into speech sounds, and then to blend the speech sounds together to form words is a fundamental reading skill for all students in their first year of schooling.

Once our students have learned to decode and encode simple Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) and Consonant-Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CCVC) words composed of letters in the basic code – but before we step up to working on polysyllabic words, we recommend that students practice decoding short sentences containing similar words that contrast CVC and CCVC word pairs, e.g. <tick> v <stick>.

These exercises are also useful for students who may speak with residual cluster reduction (e.g. saying <pin> for <spin>).

Related resources:

• CCVC words in sentences: Is Stan a brat?
• Early reading workout: Stan has three cats – Dom, Don and Dan (CVC, CCVC and CVCC words)
• High frequency digraph sentences featuring sh, ck, th, wh and qu words
• Early sound blending practice 4: CCVC words – starting with a continuant