Blends are two adjacent consonants in a word which maintain the sound each has when pronounced separately. For example the “s” and “l” in “sled” are blends, but the “t” and “h” in “that” are not blends because the usual sounds of those letters are not maintained when they are used together.
The right time to teach blends is once students master CVC words (words formed by a consonant, vowel, and consonant, such as “cat”). Make sure students can pronounce CVC words made with every vowel before moving on.
Teach beginning-of-word blends first. End-of-word blends are much harder for students to learn.
The letter “s” is a good letter to start with since it forms more beginning-of-word blends than any other letter. Use real CVC words which become real CCVC words when the “s” is added, such as nap/snap, led/sled, kid/skid, top/stop and lug/slug. Little children are concrete learners, so being able to picture the words helps with the learning.
You can write the CVC word and then put an “s” in front of it. Or you can use letter tiles, gradually moving the “s” closer and closer to the CVC word, saying the “s” sound and the CVC word separately at first and then more quickly until the child can hear the blend happen.
The child might consider the process a game if you slide the “s” letter tile gradually while you say the “s” sound and the CVC word. Usually the child will shout out the blended word when he figures it out. At first this will be after you say the blended word. But as a child learns the skill of blending, he will shout out the word before you get close to saying the blended letters. The process needs to be repeated with many consonants and many CVC words.
Some consonant blends are easier to hear than others. CVC words that begin with “l” and “r” are easy to hear.
Don’t be concerned if the child adds the blended letter to the end of the word, such as saying “leds” instead of “sled.” Remind the child that the “s” is going at the beginning of the word, and repeat the process. This is a common occurrence and will gradually lessen as the child practices blends.
Try to teach every letter that can be blended. These include “b,” “c” “d,” “f,” “g,” “p,” “s,” and “t.”
Don’t teach three-letter blends at this point. They are much harder to hear than two-letter blends. Wait until the child is farther along in learning to read.
comicphonics for early readers 