Cut and Paste Vocabulary Worksheet: Matching Words to Pictures
Matching printed words to their pictures asks emerging readers to connect an abstract string of letters with a real object, an essential step on the path from picture recognition to true word reading. The cutting and pasting adds a tactile, deliberate pace to the matching process, giving children extra time to look closely at each word before committing to an answer.
Curriculum
How to use this worksheet
Read each word at the top of a section aloud together before your child begins, pointing to the letters as you say them. Have your child cut out the pictures at the bottom of the page along the lines. For each word, ask them to find the picture that matches it and glue it into the correct box, sounding out the word again if they're unsure. When every picture is glued down, go back through the page and have your child read each word aloud one more time.
Materials needed
- Scissors
- Glue
- Pencil
Extension activities
- •Have the child write the first letter of each word next to its picture as an extra reading check.
- •Ask the child to use each new word in a spoken sentence about their own day.
- •Create a simple memory game by writing the words on one set of cards and matching pictures on another.
- •Label a few real objects around the house with sticky notes using the same vocabulary words.
Tips for parents and teachers
If your child matches based on the picture alone without truly reading the word, cover the picture options and ask them to sound out the word first, then reveal the pictures. Praise sounding-out attempts even when the guess is wrong, since decoding effort is the skill being built, not just the final correct match.
Written by
Hemsweta Jain · Teacher Cheena
MBA and Early Childhood Educator, teaching since 2014 · Founder of RaisoActive, Mumbai
Every RaisoActive worksheet is designed and checked by the founder before publishing.
Published · Last reviewed
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