Phonics blends or clusters, are groups of consonants whose sounds blend together. As children become more confident with the alphabet consonants, they start to blend these letters together. Consonant blends are so called, because you will notice that they do not have any vowels between them.
Each letter within the blend is prounounced individually, but quickly, so they ‘blend’ together.
Blends are usually composed of two or three consonants and can begin or end a syllable or word.
Consonant blends that appear at the beginning of a word, are referred to as Initial Consonant Blends or beginning blends, and those that appear at the end of a word are referred toas Final Consonant Blends or end blends.
Initial consonant word blends:
Click here for blend printables
| bl- | br- | cl- | cr- | dr- | fl- | fr- | gl- | gr- | pl- | pr- |
| sc- | sk- | sl- | sm- | sn- | sp- | sq- | st- | str- | sw- | tr- |
Final consonant word blends:
Click here for blend printables
| -ct | -ft | -lb | -lt | -mp | -nd | -ng |
| -nk | -nt | -pt | -sk | -sp | -st |
Phonics Blends Classroom/Group Game:
Print out the Blend Cube on the free printables page and play this In The Blender game to review Initial Consonant Blends for a fun phonics blends activity.
Mark each cube face with different phonics blends you are working on. After spending time reviewing the sounds of specific blends, form a circle.
Take turns to roll the cube in the middle of the circle and say out loud a word which starts with the blend the cube lands on, i.e. “tr – tree”.
Each child attempts to say a word which begins with that blend. If they are unable to think of a word, then that child has to go In The Blender – ie, they have to weave in and out of everyone in the circle until they arrive back at their starting point and then roll the cube again to choose another blend and so on.
Continue until all the blends have been used or each child has made an attempt at saying some word blends. Print out more Blank Blend Cubes as you learn more blends, until you have a complete set!
Click here for free printable phonics blends
Flashcards, spelling word lists, blend games, vocabulary lists – everything you need to aid word learning in your child!
No comments yet.