Free CVC Bookmark Printables Working on Short Vowel Sounds

Looking for some quick and easy CVC bookmarks to print out for extra reading practice? I've got you! 

Download the free printable

To get this cute set of printable bookmarks, simply sign up for my newsletter below!  All of the short vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, u) are targeted!

How to make it

Once you have your printable downloaded by signing up for my newsletter, just follow the steps below!

1. Print the document out in color on paper (you can use cardstock paper) for some extra durability.
2. Laminate the page.
3. Cut each rectangular bookmark out.
4. Use a corner rounder to smooth out those sharp, pointy edges of each card. 

Purpose

These are great as travel bookmarks for preschoolers, pre-k students, or kindergarteners for some phonetic practice on the go!  They can also be embedded into daily routines and practiced on at home.  It's quick and easy educational material for those who are homeschooling too!

See it in use

Here's a quick video of my daughter using her favorite bookmark, which is the short "o" sound.  The reason for that is actually because she's obsessed with sloths, haha.

How I taught my daughter

My daughter first learned the English alphabet symbols a little before 18 months of age. By 21 months, she was able to identify all 26 of the letters by saying its name ("P") or saying its sound ("puh"). I explain how I taught her with activities and tips for learning in my blog post: How to Teach the Alphabet Letters to Your Baby.  

After teaching her the individual letter sounds, I taught her some simple two-letter words that were very phonetic, such as: me, we, be, go, no, so.  She was able to read those six words by the time she turned two, but then we took a hiatus from moving forward with any new learning in that area.  Instead, we started focusing on expanding her Chinese literacy skills to read at the sentence level. 

I decided to revisit English literacy "lessons" a few months later, and by that time she was around 29 months old. We started working on CVC words, which meant learning how to generalize her ability to blend letter sounds (from CV words to CVC). As with everything else, I taught her the same way I do speech therapy -- with visual cues.  We really only spent about two, less-than-five-minute sessions practicing some "-at" words to begin with.  By the third day, when I wrote down the set of "-at" words again, she demonstrated to me that she understood the concept of blending sounds.

From there, I decided to try out other variations of CVC words, so we went away from "-at" to also include other consonant endings (e.g., "-am") for one session. She mastered those set of words with minimal prompts, and I then presented her with a greater variety with different vowel sounds.  

Hence, these bookmarks were created!

Typically, I don't use any fancy materials because I prefer to just write down the words I want her to practice on the go (I literally use a Magna Doodle or drawing tablet with her all the time). However, I wanted to give her something cute-looking with animal illustrations because she quite enjoys animals! 

Anyhow, I hope that this article is helpful to you! Some parents have asked me to share how I teach literacy, so I wanted to share it here for ease of referring to. 

Happy learning!