Short A Phonics Worksheets for Kindergarten and 1st Grade

Short a phonics worksheets are one of the first CVC resources most kindergarten and first grade teachers reach for, and for good reason: the short a sound appears early in a phonics sequence and gives students access to a large set of decodable words right away.

This set includes 142 no-prep worksheets organized by word family — -at/-an/-ad in Section 1, -ap/-am in Section 2, and -ab/-ag in Section 3. All 18 worksheet templates repeat across each word family, so students practice the same activity types while working through new words. The pages work well for word work centers, small group practice, and independent work time.

If students are struggling to blend these short a CVC words during practice, it may be worth trying a successive blending approach before moving on. Successive blending breaks the three-sound blend into two steps and is a helpful intervention for students who cannot yet hold all three sounds in working memory.

What Are Short A Phonics Worksheets?

Short a phonics worksheets are practice pages that help students read and write CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words with the short a sound. The short a sound is typically introduced early in a structured phonics program because it appears in so many common decodable words, including cat, hat, fan, map, and bag. These worksheets usually cover several short a word families — such as -at, -an, -ad, -ap, and -am — and include a range of activity types to build both decoding and encoding skills.

Short A CVC Worksheet Activities

These Short A Phonics Worksheets focus on short a CVC words and include 142 NO PREP printables to practice short a.

The short a CVC phonics patterns are grouped by word family:

• Section 1: -at / -an / – ad (55 short a worksheets)
• Section 2: -ap / -am (46 short a worksheets)
• Section 3: -ab / -ag (41 short a worksheets)

These can also be printed at a reduced size and can be used for interactive notebooks.

There are 18 worksheet templates with multiple versions of most templates within each section.

The 18 templates are:

1. Color the Picture
2. Circle the Same Word
3. Read, Trace, Write
4. Read, Write, Color
5. Spell & Write
6. Match & Write
7. Circle the Word
8. Read and Check
9. Write Two Times
10. Read, Match, Write
11. Sentence Scramble Cut & Paste
12. Write a Sentence
13. Picture Sort
14. Word Sort
15. Write by Word Family
16. Cut & Paste Onset Rime
17. Cut. Paste. Write.
18. Cut & Paste Onset & Rime Write

Words on the Worksheets Include

• Short a with 
t, n, d: bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, can, Dan, fan, man, pan, ran, tan, van, Jan, bad, dad, fad, had, mad
, lad, pad, rad, sad, tad
• Short a with 
p, m: cap, gap, lap, map, nap, rap, sap, tap, zap, bam, dam, ham, jam, Pam, ram, Sam, yam
• Short a with b, g: cab, dab, gab, jab, lab, nab, tab, bag, gag, lag, nag, rag, tag, wag

Examples of Each Short A Worksheet Template Page

These 18 short a phonics worksheets are repeated in each of the three sections above and often include multiple pages to accommodate the entire word list.

Many of the worksheets utilize the blending cues available on our Blending Cards.  Blending cues are dots to segment the word, dotted lines to blend the word, and a large arrow to “read it fast”. Students can use the blending cues to read the word, then do the work on the worksheets.  If you’re already using the Blending Cards, these worksheets are a great accompaniment.

#1 Color the Picture

On this worksheet, students read the word using the blending cues.  They then color the picture that matches the word.

#2 Circle the Same Word

On this short a worksheet, students read the word using the blending cues and then circle the matching word.

#3 Read, Trace, Write

This worksheet asks students to read the word using the blending cues, then trace and then write the word.

#4 Read, Write, Color

This short a phonics worksheet is similar to the first one; however, now students are asked to write the word as well as read and color the image.

#5 Spell & Write

On this worksheet, students look at the picture, segment the word and circle the letters that make the word.  Students then write the word on the blank space.

#6 Match & Write

This is a match and write worksheet where students look at the picture and then find it within the given words on the list.

#7 Circle the Word

This short a phonics worksheet asks students to circle the word that matches the picture.

#8 Read and Check

This short a worksheet is a bit more complicated and asks students to check the sentence that goes with the picture.

#9 Write Two Times

On this worksheet, students write the word twice.  You can make it more interesting by asking students to use different colors.

#10 Read, Match, Write

On this worksheet, students read the sentence and figure out which word is missing, given the list of words.

#11 Sentence Scramble Cut & Paste

For this worksheet, students are presented with three or four words that make a sentence. Each row has its own set of words.  Students cut apart the words and create the sentence.  If students have difficulty with this task, give them some hints, like the period ends the sentence and the sentence starts with a capital letter.

#12 Write a Sentence Short A Phonics Worksheets

This worksheet is similar to the above worksheet, except instead of a cut and paste, students are asked to write the sentence, given the three or four words.

#13 Picture Sort

This is a traditional picture sort.  Students say the word pictured and determine the word family that matches.

#14 Word Sort

This is similar to a traditional word sort but includes blending cues to help students read the words.

#15 Write by Word Family

This is another worksheet that emphasizes word families.  In it students write the words that go along with the word family. The onsets for the particular column are grouped together.

#16 Cut & Paste Onset Rime

This worksheet is the opposite of the above.  Students are given the onset and match the rime with the picture.

#17 Cut. Paste. Write.

This short a worksheet is a cut and paste where students match the word.  Students then write the word on the blank.

#18 Cut & Paste Onset & Rime Write

The final short a phonics worksheet template is where students match the onset and rime and then write the word.

Many of the short a phonics worksheets are similar with some small tweaks.  One worksheet may ask students to match a word and another may ask them to write it.  Providing so many different options provides plenty of choices, variety, and practice with short a phonics patterns.

How to Purchase the Short A Phonics Worksheets

The Short A Phonics Worksheets can be purchased on my website.

You can also purchase these other CVC phonics worksheet sets:

• BUNDLE of CVC Phonics Worksheets
• Short A Phonics Worksheets
• Short I Phonics Worksheets
• Short O Phonics Worksheets
• Short U Phonics Worksheets
• Short E Phonics Worksheets
• Mixed CVC Vowels Phonics Worksheets

Here are a few more sets that are separated out and bundled together:

• Just the Sentences – CVC Sentence Worksheets
• Just the Word Sorts – CVC Word Sort Worksheets
• CVC BUNDLE with other CVC Phonics Resources

These are VCE Phonics Worksheets that follow a similar format as the CVC worksheets above. They have been adapted to increase the complexity of the tasks on some sheets.

• VCE BUNDLE
• VCE A
• VCE I
• VCE O
• VCE U