Teach Consonant Blends

Yesterday I helped a student I tutor practice reading words with beginning consonant blends from books before reading. Blends can be tricky for some early readers. Many children like to stop after the first sound in a word. This stopping after the first sound can be a result of too much word family learning. Blending more than one sound without pausing helps a reader hear a word better. Have you heard of body-coda blending?

A reader can learn to see and blend consonant blends together without pausing.

Reading consonant blends quickly together before attempting the rest of a word can be taught by covering up other parts of a word in a book to only show the blend, separating the blend when writing a word, or using magnetic letters to separate the blend.

The books I used to teach and practice consonant blends in these pictures came from a ten book series written by Nora Gaydos. I love all her books! I used the stories: Drips and Spills and Hop, Frog, Hop from the Playful Pals Level 1 Phonics Reader Set.

You can find more information I share about teaching reading on my Parent and Child Reading Assistance Website.  

Teach Consonant Blends

Practice Stretching Sounds to Read Words

Currently I'm tutoring a student with reading once a week. Here is an activity we did together today. The videos show me using magnetic letters. My student's mom chose to use the book page without magnetic letters to practice stretching and blending sounds to read words from p.59 in Phonics Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling at home. We'll continue to use magnetic letters during tutoring sessions. This book is a great resource for easy quick reading practice. I used Phonics Pathways to teach my daughter to stretch sounds and read words.

Practice Stretching Sounds to Read Words