Phonics
Short A CVC Words
Printable phonics practice for short a, the short a in cat, mouth open and relaxed. 32 words and 5 word families, as sound boxes, missing letters, family lists or handwriting practice.
Four steps
How to practise short a
- 1
Say the vowel alone
Hold the short a in cat for a second before using it in a word.
- 2
Segment with sound boxes
One box per sound, said slowly.
- 3
Fill a missing letter
The child supplies the sound that was removed.
- 4
Read a family
Learning one chunk unlocks several words at once.
Short a
It is the short a in cat, mouth open and relaxed. Taught first because the sound is the easiest to hold and to hear, and because the -at family alone gives a child a dozen readable words on day one.
The word families
A word family shares an ending, so learning the chunk once unlocks every word in the group. These are the short a families:
- -at: cat, hat, bat, mat, rat, sat, pat, fat
- -an: can, man, pan, ran, fan, van, tan, ban
- -ag: bag, tag, wag, rag, nag, sag
- -ap: cap, map, tap, nap, lap, gap
- -ad: bad, sad, mad, dad, had, pad
All the short a words on these sheets
cathatbatmatratsatpatfatcanmanpanranfanvantanbanbagtagwagragcapmaptapnapbadsadmaddadjamhamramcab
Where this sits
This is the first short vowel and the usual place to start. After it comes short i.
Related printables
See every short vowel, or pair this with sight words, which cover the common words phonics cannot decode.
Answers