Teach the CV Phonics Rule with NO, GO, WE, and ME

Recently I shared word flashcards to print and cut with phonics rules on the back. The words no, go, we, and me follow the CV phonics rule. This rule tells a reader to usually make a long sound at the end of a short word if it ends in a vowel. This set of flashcards has a few exceptions to this rule. The words are TO, DO, and WHO. They all have the same sound and can be taught together. You can call these rule breakers.

Check out this post for ideas to teach and practice the words no and go.

Make sure your child is confident in the long o, long e, hard g, n, w, and m letter sounds.

Put the flashcards NO, GO, ME, and WE in a ziplock bag for practice. As you teach new words you can add them to this bag for practice and review. Practice these words at least every other day. (Dads, moms, grandparents, and older siblings can all help a child practice and review flashcards.) After a child knows these four words, I suggest making your own flashcards for the words SO and HE to show more words that follow similar phonics patterns.

The first step is to show a child to make the letter sounds and blend the sounds together to make the sounds into a word. Here's a video of me showing how to blend the sounds in the words NO, GO, and SO using magnetic letters.


Magnetic letters have the added bonus of mixing the letters up and asking a child to put them back together.

You can share read the book Hop on Pop by Dr. Suess to allow a child to practice the words WE, ME, HE, and NO. You will read the book to a child. Pause and point under WE, HE, ME, and NO at the beginning of sentences and when they are written in bold type at the top of the page. Make sure your child knows which words he or she is expected to read. Some children want to take over all the reading in a shared reading and get frustrated.

Here are the pages from Hop on Pop you can share read.