10 Tips for teaching consonant blends
Knowing the consonant blend words and decoding and encoding them are essential concepts to teach the kids. After they have mastered the CVC words and consonant digraphs (one sound represented by two letters), the subject that confuses toddlers is words containing consonant clusters (two letters representing different sounds), known as blends.
Teaching consonant blends involves incorporating skills that are useful across multiple syllable types in reading and writing words. Therefore, jolly phonics teachers need to follow some tips and tricks that will help them impart this knowledge without puzzling the child and strengthening their foundation.
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What are consonant blends?
Before beginning with teaching blending sounds to kindergarten, let’s gain clarity into what consonant blends are. Consonant blends are clusters of consonants, meaning two or more consonants in the beginning, end, or middle of a vowel. For better illustration, look into the word “spin.” You’ll find a consonant cluster of ‘sp’ at the beginning, followed by a vowel.
These words make up consonant blends. They retain their separate sounds like ‘sp,’ ‘sk,’ ‘gl,’ ‘cr,’ and so on. Unlike a digraph that makes up a new word – for instance, ‘sh.’
Do’s and Dont’s while teaching consonant blends
Now that we know what consonant blends mean, let’s look into what you should and should not do while teaching consonant blends:
| Do’s | Dont’s |
|---|---|
| 1. Phonemic awareness integration Let the kids begin with oral blending, segmenting, and manipulating words to make it easier while reading. Oral blending helps in decoding and segmentation into individual sounds and offers spelling benefits. | 1. Memorising as single units Learning how to teach blends to kindergarten means knowing not to pressure a child to memorise the words. Since they are already struggling with reading or are in the process of strengthening their memory, this unnecessary burden wouldn’t benefit them. Further, several consonant clusters and combinations are possible, which can’t get memorised. |
| 2. Emphasis on blending skills Give the kids power by not forcing them to memorise words or flashcards but by decoding the given words. With the necessary tools like phonics and phonemic awareness, it can help kids read the word thoroughly and pay attention to the grapheme-phoneme correspondence. | 2. Pronunciation issues Single unit memorising may confuse children and let them add an extra consonant sound where it doesn’t belong. For instance, they may pronounce fog as a frog. A word with 2 or 3 consonant clusters that they memorised can puzzle them and they’ll start guessing due to nervousness. |
Read: 5+ Activities For Kids To Learn Segmentation Sounds
Difference between blends and blending
Consonant blends are two or more words placed adjacent to each other with no vowel in the middle. Each consonant has a separate sound; for instance, ‘sp’ has s/p sounds. Blends are useful in the context of reading and spelling.
On the other hand, blending is the process of pushing the individual sounds together, specifically orally. While reading, the students follow the mapping sounds to the letters, allowing the learner to decode the written word. What happens while reading and teaching blending sounds are that both consonants and vowels get blended with each other to make the pronunciation of a word. Therefore, blending and blends vary in their reading, writing, and decoding aspects.
A vowel and a consonant together (for instance, ba) sound similar to two consonants together (for example, st). However, the consonant clusters with two or three consonants each represent their own sound and do not lose individuality.
Therefore, consonant clusters differ from double consonants like mm, nn, ss, etc. The two identical consonants represent one sound. Similarly, consonant digraphs, such as ch, sh, wh, and th, are two unidentical consonants, also representing one sound. Therefore, while learning how to teach blending, you need to stay clear on all these concepts.
How to teach consonant blends?
Now that we have covered the basics of teaching blends let’s dive into how to teach blending sounds to students as follows:
1. Create a common understanding of blends
As mentioned above, there can be confusion regarding consonant blends and consonant digraphs. Since both concepts use two consonants together, this misunderstanding may arise. However, the difference lies in the sound these words produce.
Consonant clusters or blends have separate sounds for each word. For instance, the word stamp has ‘st’ and ‘mp’ consonant blends with each consonant sound heard separately. On the other hand, consonant digraphs are two individual consonants making one sound. For instance, smashing has ‘sh’ in the middle that blends and makes one sound.
2. Carefully attend to phonemic awareness skills surrounding blends
Video Credit: Read Like a Rock
Children must be able to segment words accurately with blends into their individual sounds to accomplish decoding and spelling purposes. Phonemic awareness activities can get enriched with consonant blends at the segmenting and blending level. Whether it is short and long vowels or manipulating phonemes into blends at various levels, it serves the purpose of teaching consonant blends to toddlers.
Kids mastering blending will gain proficiency in reading and writing blended words. Moreover, they will be able to complete advanced-level phoneme manipulation tasks easily with them.
3. Multisensory techniques for the win
Video Credit: Sarah Z Reads
While learning how to teach blending sounds, appeal to the various senses of the learner. Use tools and techniques like sand trays or tactile surfaces for students to trace blends. Further, let them touch and push the objects as they segment the sounds.
Some multisensory tools and techniques include snap cubes, poker chips, and Elkonin boxes. As the students move the manipulatives, let them make sounds simultaneously for better learning.
4. Introduce blends in a thoughtful sequence
While introducing consonant blends to students, be aware of the sequence. Although it is not necessary, it will help you strategise how your students remember consonant blends. Do not force the kids to memorise the various consonant blends and words. Instead, focus on the fundamentals so they can learn and apply strategies when the not-so-common blends appear in front of them.
An older and proficient reader may be capable of handling two or more letter initial blends simultaneously. However, the ones that need more practice can get taught one by one of l, r, and s blends. Let them know of the blend formation and application, so they can start doing it themselves with ease.
5. Consider each child’s challenges and hindrances
Not every student can grasp the concepts of reading and writing thoroughly. Therefore, stress on the blend formation and mouth positioning using a mirror to help in segmenting. Children facing challenges with a particular blend pattern should get adequate time and attention to develop an awareness of the tricky blends. Help them by being an adult model who says the word and let them listen to you as carefully as possible and mirror these actions.
6. Tap the sounds heard
Let the students listen to the blend words and tap out the sounds they hear. Listening carefully will help them make out the words with blends and differentiate them properly. Separate a blend into individual phonemes for flexibility and fluency in developing advanced phoneme skills.
Under tapping sounds, you can differentiate a word into how many sounds it contains For instance, space is s/p/a/ce – four taps and sloth is s/l/o/th – four taps. Tap using fingers, book, playdough, counters, or anything engaging and fun.
7. Use visual aids and games
With visuals, you can ease the working memory load and make the lesson more engaging. Incorporate games, flashcards, and other fun games to enhance consonant blend learning.
Show the kids images and animations of words and pairs and let them read the word aloud, identify the consonant blending sounds, and tap them. You can also review their skills using worksheets with fun games and more for them to finish.
8. Tapping, segmenting, and blending tip
Carefully emphasise the sound of each letter in the blend by tapping an object or a box etc. For instance, take a word and segment it into pieces based on its sounds. For instance, if the word is shred, the consonant clusters will include the sounds sh/r/e/d.
After segmentation, understand the sound made by each letter and what it represents and learn how to blend it while reading out aloud. It will help them grasp the concept of various l-word, r-word, and s-word patterns and make them understand how to implement it on gw, sw, and such uncommon blends.
9. Gestures and motions
Your gestures and motions play a considerable role in understanding consonant blends. Therefore, teach consonant blending by using gestures and motions. For instance, put your hands up for two letters that come together but sound separate. These motions will trigger children’s memory and help them recall the learned information.
10. Miscellaneous tips
You cannot leave consonant blending by teaching it for the sake of it. Building a robust foundation in these skills is necessary for kids to master pronunciations and words with various blends. Reading more and more words, playing games, and speaking aloud can considerably help students advance in consonant blend words.
If you’re child is having problems with reading, check out this blog.
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Conclusion
Students need to master the underlying segmenting, sequencing, auditory memory, and related skills to grasp the concept of consonant blends. The reading skills improve with these words, and students become more capable of differentiating between bed and pat, blend and plant, etc. To help your them read and understand better, you can enroll them in phonic classes for kids.
Hema Dave
Stemming from the aspiration to nurture and inspire young minds, Hema started her professional journey into education 20+ years ago. She founded 'Phonic Smart' as a trained educationist, an institute committed to equipping children with phonics skills and helping parents and teachers implement them effectively. Her diverse skill sets, encompassing teaching, teacher training, and coaching allow her to contribute valuable insights to the education industry.
