There are various types of words that children need to get their heads around. Once they fully understand CVC words, then you can move the class along onto longer and more difficult words, including VCCV words.
After the initial consonant, the word splits into two syllables, these are known as VCCV words. VCCV words are easy to split, and this group of words is considered one of the easiest syllable divisions to teach your class.
It helps to improve their reading and move them onto the next stage. In this article, we will discuss more about VCCV words and the patterns they follow, so that you can teach these types of words with ease.
What Are VCCV Words?
Vowel-Consonant/Consonant-Vowel words are two-syllable words that adhere to this particular pattern. Between the two consonants, the word will be divided into two closed syllables.
Due to the pattern that the word “rabbit” follows, they are occasionally referred to as “Rabbit Words.”
In order to prepare pupils for reading multisyllabic words, syllabication should be introduced after they are capable of reading one-syllable words with short vowels, digraphs, and blends.
For accurate reading, this entails dividing lengthy words into syllables or smaller, more accessible components. It’s a crucial decoding technique that aids kids in developing their reading skills.
When To Teach VCCV Words?
Make sure the kids are first aware of closed syllables. A short vowel followed by a consonant makes up a closed syllable. Hat, dish, and basket are a few examples that you could use.
VC/CV words provide a simple transition to lengthier words for children who can read closed syllables fast. This type of word is often taught in kindergarten and grade 1.
Teaching VCCV Words
When you decide your class is ready to learn VCCV words, you need to ensure that you make everything perfectly clear and provide the class with lots of examples.
They need to know the difference between vowels and consonants, and can count syllables. You can break down VCCV words into the following steps:
Firstly, have your students identify the constant and the vowels in the target word. Under each constant and vowel, a letter v or c should be placed underneath.
At this point, they need to read the word out loud and discover how many syllables the word contains.
A curved line should be drawn underneath each syllable found in the word.
Finally, the class or student should reach every syllable out loud, and then blend the word to read it in full out loud.
Different Types Of VCCV Words
There are a few different types of VCCV words which are constructed in slightly different ways. You can easily create your own VCCV word lists, but there are many word banks out there that you can download to use.
The different types of VCCV words are categorized by particular features that these words contain. Below, we have gone into more detail about what makes these VCCV words slightly different from one another.
Same Middle Consonant VCCV Words
All of these words include the same middle consonant. Hence, this is by far one of the easiest VCCV words to introduce to your students. This is because they can clearly see where the word breaks apart. Examples of same middle consonant words include:
Gossip
Rabbit
Muffin
Classic
Happen
Tennis
Griffin
Suddenly
Teach children that by separating a word between its consonants, they can be certain that they are reading it correctly even if they are unsure of its meaning.
Then, take advantage of the chance to introduce a new word and teach its meaning. Once children are able to separate these syllables and read the words properly, go on to the next set of VCCV words.
Different Middle Consonant VCCV Words
All of these words contain two syllables and the middle consonant is different. The example words we have listed below are all 6-letter words that contain no digraphs or blends, and different consonants.
For this type of VCCV words, you could use any of the following words:
Nutmeg
Velvet
Magnet
Tablet
Tinsel
Napkin
Public
Again, once your class is comfortable at breaking these words down into their syllables, then you can move onto the next type of VCCV words.
Blending VCCV Words
Teaching that certain words have more than two consonants between the vowels should be done once students have mastered reading words from the two types above.
For these types of VCCV words, they might need to search for consonant blends. These ought to be spoken as a single consonant. Blends may appear at the start of the second syllable or the end of the first syllable.
Dan/druff, Frank/lin, for instance, are examples of these VCCV words. Pupils should locate and underline the consonant blend. They will be better able to detect it as a VC/CV word and handle it as a single consonant as a result. Some of these words include:
Untwist
Alfred
Pumpkin
Hundred
Complex
Plankton
Address
Compound VCCV Words
Finally, once your class has mastered all of the above VCCV words, you can teach them that sometimes closed syllables will create a compound word. However, it is important to be aware that certain words in this category can include digraphs and blends.
As a result, you should be aware of which words from this list you are choosing and whether your students have the skills to be able to break it apart and read it. Words you may use to consider are:
Catfish
Pigpen
Uphill
Himself
Batman
Cannot
The following words contain blends or digraphs, but are still considered VCCV words. They could be a great opinion when you want to challenge your students.
Trashcan
Bathtub
Backpack
Jackpot
Tips To Keep In Mind
These types of words are great to introduce when you are looking to teach your class longer and multisyllabic words.
VCCV words are quite simple to understand, but to ensure that your class fully understands this type of word, we have created a few tips you ought to follow.
It is critical that each student breaks the word apart by coding or marking the vowels and consonants. It isn’t enough for you to just tell your students to break the word apart, as not all words are that simple.
This is definitely the case with words that also contain blends or digraphs. In addition to this, you want to make sure that you start with the easiest VCCV words possible when you introduce this topic.
Then you can slowly make your way up the different types of VCCV words. As you can see, some VCCV words are more complex than others and may take some time for our class to fully understand them.
By doing these things, your students will be able to understand, break down and read VCCV words in no time.
Conclusion
VCCV words contain two consonants in the middle of a word that creates two syllables. These words are also referred to as rabbit words, which can easily be broken up, and then blended together to be read out loud.
The main thing to remember with VCCV words is that they are usually split up between the two consonants.
Although, there are a few expectations to this rule, thus you need to keep an eye out for words that fall into the final category of VVCV words mentioned above.
The VCCV rule explains that if you find two consonants placed between two vowels, then you divide that word up between the consonants.
Do VCCV Words Create Closed Syllables?
Often, VCCV words will contain two closed syllables, with each of the syllables having a short vowel sound.
Are There Any Exceptions To The VCCV Rule?
With VCCV words, you will split the word between the two consonants. However, there is an expectation to this rule to divide the words after any consonant blends such as st, fr, and i or consonant digraphs like ch, ck, and ph.
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