Bringing Phonics to Life: Consonant Blends

If you are the teacher (or parent!) of early readers, you know that the struggle is real when it comes to helping kids decode words with 4 sounds instead of just 3. This big jump typically happens when students begin to learn about consonant blends.

So what are consonant blends and how can we help our growing readers be successful decoding words with blends? Let's dive in!

What are consonant blends?

Consonant blends are combinations of two or more consonants where each sound is still pronounced, such as "bl," "cr," "st," or "fl." Consonant blends can be divided into several groups: beginning blends, ending blends, and 3 letter blends.

When should you teach consonant blends?

Consonant blends are typically taught after digraphs. Up until this point, students have been learning to blend 2 and 3 letter words. When consonant blends are introduced, though, they make the jump to blending 4 or more sounds together. For many students, this is no easy task. We'll get into ways to support these students later in this blog post!

What order should I use to introduce blends?

Start by teaching beginning blends. These are two consonants that are found together at the beginning of a syllable. Within the category of beginning blends, there are 3 groups: s-blends, r-blends, and l-blends. 

S-blends: sc, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw
R-blends: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr
L-blends: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl

I like to introduce consonant blends by using s-blends first. Because the letter <s> is a continuous sound (we can hold the sound in our mouth), it makes it easier to blend the two consonant sounds together. One way to help students is to use an image of a slide. 

Using a printout of a slide, place a letter <s> at the top of the slide and another consonant (that makes an s-blend) at the bottom. Demonstrate how to make the /s/ sound while sliding down the slide. When you "hit" the <p> at the bottom, add the /p/ sound. Have students notice how you can still hear each sound, they just blend together when you say them fast!

You can use this image of the slide with all of the s-blends, but also with the <fr> and <fl> blends since the /f/ is also a continuous sound!

After introducing the concept of blends with the s-blends, you can have students practice both l- and r-blends. Just make sure that you're not having students memorize the blend. There are a LOT of consonant blends, and if we ask students to memorize them, it can be overwhelming. Remind them that all they need to do is say each consonant sound and then blend them together!

Ending blends are usually introduced next and then 3-letter blends (spr-, spl-, str-, etc.) can be taught down the road when you feel students are ready. Words that have 3-letter blends at the beginning have 5+ sounds, so you'll wait to save these until your students have mastered blending 4 sounds.

How can I bring phonics to life with consonant blends?

A fun way to introduce blends is with the idea of blending flavors! Take peanut butter and jelly, for example. Peanut butter has it's own flavor, and so does jelly. When you put them together, the flavors blend but you can still taste each one! Contrast this idea of consonant blends with consonant digraphs. Digraphs are when two consonants work together to make a brand new sound, but with consonant blends, you can still hear each individual sound.

How do I help students who are struggling to decode words with 4+ sounds?

As we mentioned earlier, decoding words with consonant blends requires students to blend 4+ sounds together, and this can be especially challenging for some of our readers. Below are some ideas to help support these students!

Phonemic Awareness Activities

More than likely, if your students are struggling to blend 4+ sounds, there are some gaps in their phonemic awareness skills. Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize, think about, and manipulate the individual sounds, or phonemes, in spoken words. Work on building up these "sound skills" and you will notice a big difference in their decoding skills! Below are some phonemic awareness activities that you can use.

(If you'd like to download a document of these 4 activities, along with examples to use with your students, just click on the image below!)

➡️ Phoneme Blending

Give your students 4 unifix cubes (or other manipulatives). Have them place the cubes in a spaced out line in front of them. Use the following script:

Teacher: "Listen to these four sounds: /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/". Let's touch each cube while saying each sound.
Teacher & Students: Touch the first cube while saying /s/. Touch the next cube while saying /l/. 3rd cube= /i/. 4th cube= /p/
Teacher: Now, let's blend these sounds together to make a word. Watch me. (Teacher demonstrates how to slide the cubes together slowly while blending the sounds.)
Teacher: Let's try together now.
Teacher & Students: Slides the cubes together while blending the sounds to make the word "slip." Repeat with other words that contain consonant blends (both beginning and ending blends!)

➡️ Phoneme Segmentation

Have your students place 4 cubes in a spaced out line in front of them. Use the following script:

Teacher: "Say FLIP"
Students: "FLIP"
Teacher: "The word FLIP has 4 sounds. Let's break up FLIP into its 4 sounds. We'll push up a cube for each sound."
Teacher & Students: Pushes up the first cube while saying /f/. Pushes up next cube while saying /l/. Continue this for all 4 sounds.
Repeat with other words.

(NOTE- telling your students how many sounds the word has is an additional scaffold. We've all had students who segment the word FLIP like this: /f/ /i/ /p/. Telling them that the word has 4 sounds and giving them 4 cubes is a visual reminder to really stretch the word out and listen for all of the sounds.)

➡️ Phoneme Substitution

Have your students place 4 cubes in a spaced out line in front of them. Use the following script:

Teacher: "Say FLIP"
Students: "FLIP"
Teacher: "The word FLIP has 4 sounds. Let's break up FLIP into its 4 sounds. We'll push up a cube for each sound."
Teacher & Students: Pushes up the first cube while saying /f/. Pushes up next cube while saying /l/. Continue this for all 4 sounds.
Teacher: "Now, change /f/ to /s/. Let's sound it out- /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/. What's the new word?
Students: SLIP
Teacher: "Now, let's change /s/ to /c/. Let's sound it out: /c/ /l/ /i/ /p/. What's the new word?
Students: CLIP
Repeat with other words (brag/drag, slop/plop/flop, clap/slap/flap, flash/clash)

➡️ Phoneme Deletion

Have your students place 4 cubes in a spaced out line in front of them. Use the following script:

Teacher: "Say FLIP"
Students: "FLIP"
Teacher: "The word FLIP has 4 sounds. Let's break up FLIP into its 4 sounds. We'll push up a cube for each sound."
Teacher & Students: Pushes up the first cube while saying /f/. Pushes up next cube while saying /l/. Continue this for all 4 sounds.
Teacher: "Now, take away /f/. (removes the first cube) What's the new word?
Students: LIP
Repeat with other words (brag/drag, slop/plop/flop, clap/slap/flap, flash/clash)

Successive Blending

Successive blending is a unique type of blending that can help students who are struggling to blend words with 4+ sounds. Here's how it works:

• The reader looks at the first letter and says /s/
• The reader looks at the next letter and says /l/
• The reader blends the first two sounds together and says /sl/
• The reader looks at the next letter and says /i/
• The reader blends /sl/ and /i/ together to make “sli”
• The reader looks at the next letter and says /p/
• The reader blends /sli/ and /p/ together to make "slip"

A benefit of successive blending is that students don't have to remember all 4 sounds individually and then blend them together. They are blending in succession, creating a larger unit each time.

A Done-For-You Resource!

If you are looking for a unit on consonant blends that is already created for you... you're in luck! Our "Digital Science of Reading Phonics Lessons" have everything that you need to teach your students about beginning blends, ending blends, and 3-letter blends. Just pull up the digital lessons on your smartboard, print off the coordinating materials for each lesson, and you are set!

These lessons are HIGHLY engaging and include the following for each concept:

Digital lessons, decodable word lists, student encoding pages with teacher guides & decodable readers... All ready to go for you! Check them out below ⬇️

Beginning Blends Lessons

Ending Blends Lessons

3-Letter Blends Lessons