Consonant Vowel Consonant (CVC) Reading Wheel

I love homemade learn-to-read resources.  This is a throw-back from my teaching days. Making a simple CVC word wheel is an easy way to get in some extra reading practice with kids even on the go. Whether you use this at home for extra reading practice, in homeschool lessons or in the classroom, it is an easy solution to getting kids the reading reps they need for reading success!

DIY CVC Word Reading Wheel

Why a CVC reading wheel? I had seen wheels like this in our reading curriculum (don’t ask me what it was – it was over a decade ago). The concept of the wheel is that one letter is stationary and your child can rotate the wheels to create a new word or blend of a word. An easy way to get in some more reading practice!

We made our own reading wheel with the help of two different sizes of cups, a button and needle and thread. Let me show you how! For each wheel you will need…

Supplies Needed to Make a Reading Wheel

• Sturdy paper – I like cardstock for this or you can use regular paper and then back it with light cardboard
• Middle fastener – we used a button and some thread and needle, but you could use a brad too
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Marker

Directions to make your own Learn-to-Read Wheel

Step 1 – Create the Wheels

Create a larger circle, a smaller circle and then a stationary letter space:

• We traced a cereal bowl to trace the larger sized circle with a pencil onto a piece of white card stock and cut it out with scissors.
• We traced a kid cup for the smaller circle onto another part of the cardstock and cut it out.
• Make an extra small circle and cut it in half, then chop off the ends to make a tab. We will use this as the stationary letter space.

Tip: Outline the edge of each of the larger circles with a marker color to make it easier to see where to turn the wheel.

Step 2 – Stack & Attach the Wheels

Stack the three pieces together and add a way for it to rotate either with a brad or like we did with thread, needle and a button:

• You want to poke a hole through the center of both circles.
• Using the button and the tab, create a sandwich of the pieces.   So that the circle “wheels” are both able to move, but the tab stays stationary:

Step 3 – Labeling the Reading Wheel with Consonants and Vowels

We made different wheels with different vowels in the center or with different beginning/ending letters. You can also use letter blends to create the wheels.

Related: Check out these free CVC word list printables

Using a CVC word list can help create wheels that have more “real” words vs. what we call silly words at my house that can be sounded out just like a real word, but are nonsense! My kids actually love having both options with the wheels.

More Ways to Practice CVC

Get crazy when it comes to practice! We love using paint sample cards for all sorts of things, but practicing reading is at the top of the list. Like the CVC reading wheel, you mix and match consonants with vowels for common words and then kids can move the paint chips up and down to make new and unusual words for reading practice.

More REading Fun from Kids activities Blog

• How to read a clock
• How to read a thermometer
• How to read a map
• Favorite reading games for kids!
• Free books to read online to kids
• When do kids learn to read?
• Let celebrities read books!
• Fun reading activities for kids
• AT word families
• Sight reading cards
• Free Printable Short O Words Worksheets
• Fun Short U Words Worksheets

Do you have a favorite homemade learning resource?   Share it in the comments!