Fun CVC Word Families Games

Fun CVC Word Families Games make learning to read CVC words so much more fun!

Especially when they include rolling dice :)

I am excited to show you the phonics games I love for teaching kids how to read simple short vowel words and work on blending words in SUCH a fun way!

I made these because people really loved my CVC Words Roll game and told me how much their kids loved it.

I originally designed that first set thinking it would be a REVIEW of CVC Words for first graders after learning all of the short vowels.

Then, I started noticing that SO MANY kindergarten teachers were telling me that their kids loved it...

BUT - the kindergarten teachers were mostly saying how it was a perfect review for midway through the year and at the end of the year.

Since so many K teachers seemed to be using it, I tried to think of how I could make it a bit easier so their kids could play the games sooner in the year. I had only intended it to be a first grade activity, but so many K teachers were using it...

So I created Short Vowel Word Family Rolls!

Each set comes with a student friendly directions sheet so you can lay it out and they know what to do.

I was SO excited about these because, not only were they perfect for kindergarten (I've even had preschool teachers use them!), but they're also SO nice for first grade students who need that extra word family support.

For example, the picture above practices only TWO short U word families at a time: the -ug word family and the -ut word family. Some of the pictures on this sheet even repeat so that they get extra reading practice with those words. They only get to color/cover it once per roll so the fact that they can roll the same word twice gives them extra fluency practice and confidence, which I love.

Kids learn the word families SO quick because they really want to cover their picture (or color their picture, depending on which kind you're using) and because it's a game!

Also, they are only rolling TWO dice, instead of 3 like in the CVC Words Review Roll, so that helps it be a lot easier for blending.

Just like with the CVC Words Review Roll, each set of game boards and dice comes with a "Color" version and a "Cover" version. For the "Color" version, they get to color in the picture on their sheet:

One thing I was also really excited about is that some of the game boards have 12 pictures and some have 20.

For the game sets that practice ONLY TWO word families at a time, the game boards have 12 pictures.

Each short vowel's pack has a REVIEW set for that short vowels' word families. Those come with the standard 5 game boards with 12 pictures…. Then I also included 5 game boards with TWENTY pictures each for those ones for an even bigger, more fun challenge!

For example, this is the ALL word families set for Short U families in the “Cover” version:

There are 5 versions of the game boards in each set where they cover 12 pictures.

Then there is also a “Color” version of all 5 of the game boards if they would rather color the pictures than cover them:

But if you really want to challenge your little learners, give them the same activity using the same dice but with the 20 picture board:

There are 5 of those as well as 5 in the coloring version as well:

I think it’s so nice to have a lot of options so you can meet the child you’re working with at their level - that’s what makes it not only fun but efficient for learning!

Plus, you can also start easy and work your way up to the harder levels for a ton of practice!

For the color version, they color the picture they rolled. For the cover version, they cover it with an object. Pretty much any small object works!

Each center has multiple sets and each set includes 5 different game boards. This makes it so easy to play as a small group game or partner game. It also makes it super easy to play multiple times with different games boards by simply switching who has which one.

If you're playing with just one student, then woahh, you have A TON of games and game boards to play so many times. :)

You can also play these over and over anyway because the fact that they roll words makes every game different so they are truly an endless center. My favorite kind!

This is only some of them I laid out as an example:

Also, I don’t have a picture of it currently because I didn’t print them out but I also included UK spelling versions of all the sets for those of you who need “Roll and Colour” versions :)

There are A BUNCH of games so I tried to make them super easy to prep by writing what color to print the dice ON the paper, as you can see in this picture:

As you can also see, I have a furry teaching assistant who likes to help me cut out centers :) You may have seen him on this blog or on my IG before - he's quite the character and we had fun making them together. Do you have a little pup or kitty friend who supervises your center prep? Tell me below! :)


I hope this was helpful for looking at how to use my word roll games for word families! They are a lot of fun and make reading a game so I love them.

If you want them, they are here:
Short A CVC Words Roll
Short E CVC Words Roll
Short I CVC Words Roll
Short O CVC Words Roll
Short U CVC Words Roll

I also have a big bundle of them if you know you want them all!
CVC Words Roll BUNDLE

They're also included in the Phonics Word Rolls MEGA Bundle if you want even more of them. That bundle is huge and also includes long vowel word families and more! That's for the suuuuper fan of these :)





If you liked this post, you may also like:
Bottle Cap CVC Word Building Centers
CVC Word Rolls (to see the original one!)
Sight Word Sentences Fun Ideas and Centers

Thank you so much for reading!! :)

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