Blending is one of the many ways new words are made in English. It refers to joining the beginning of one word and the end of another to make a new word with a new meaning. Smog, from smoke and fog, and brunch, from breakfast and lunch, are examples of blends.

Three-letter consonant blends are sometimes called consonant clusters or triple consonant blends. You can find a consonant blend at the beginning or end of a word.

Sound blending is the ability to build words from individual sounds by blending the sounds together in sequence. For example, the learner blends the sounds m, o, m to form the word mom.

Some examples of initial blends are bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl, br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, sc, sl, sm, sn, sp, squ, st, sw, and three letter blends such as spr, str, shr. Ending blends include such consonant combinations as ld, lk, nd, nt, and ft. 2.

Common 2-Letter Blends. The most common 2-letter consonant blends are: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl, br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, sc, sk, sm, sn, sp, st, sw, and tw. Here are some words with 2-letter consonant blends: Bl: blank, black, blue, blister, blight, blast.

An ending blend consists of two adjoining consonants at the end of a word that each make their own sound. So, for example, ck would NOT be an ending blend since it makes a single sound: /k/. Rather, it would be an ending digraph – since a digraph consists of two letters that make ONE sound.

Double consonant blends It’s estimated that teaching Double Letter Consonants: “ng”, “nk” will take 45 minutes of classroom time. Throughout the lesson, students will achieve a number of objectives. They will learn about consonant digraphs and blends, including: “ng” and “nk”.

A digraph contains two consonants and only makes one sound such as sh, /sh/. (ch, wh, th, ck) A blend contains two consonants but they each make their own sound, such as /s/ and /l/, /sl/ (st, fl, sk, gr, sw, ect.)

Phonics blending is a way for students to decode words. With phonics blending, students fluently join together the individual sound-spellings (also called letter-sound correspondence) in a word. Then, they slowly blend those sounds together (“jjjaamm”).

Tip #1: Focus on phonological awareness first.

1. Recognize the alphabet letters.
2. Remember to read the sounds left-to-right.
3. Recall and say the sounds quickly enough so as not to distract from the blending.
4. Remember all 3+ sounds in order to blend them together and read the complete word.

The most common two-letter words are to, of, in, it, is, as, at, be, we, he, so, on, an, or, do, if, up, by, and my. The most common three-letter words are the, and, are,for, not, but, had, has, was, all, any, one, man, out, you, his, her, and can.

In first grade, phonics lessons start with the most common single-letter graphemes and digraphs (ch, sh, th, wh, and ck). Continue to practice words with short vowels and teach trigraphs (tch, dge). When students are proficient with earlier skills, teach consonant blends (such as tr, cl, and sp).

There are many ways to teach sight words—here are just a few ideas!

1. Look for them in books. Draw a child’s attention to a word by looking for it in children’s books.
2. Hang them around the classroom.
3. Help children use them.
4. Re-visit them regularly.
5. Introduce an online typing course.

Common three consonant blends include: str, spl, and spr. When teaching blends, most teachers introduced them in groups. For example, a teacher may choose to introduce the l-blends first (bl, cl, fl, gl, pl and sl) followed by the r-blends.

Final blends appear at the end of a word and are grouped into “s”, “l” and “n” final letter blends. The names indicate the beginning letter of the blend. An “s” final consonant blend would be “-st” in “last” or “-sk” in “mask.” The “l” final consonant blend would be “-ld” in “cold”.

Blending is super important because being able to mentally join speech sounds together to make words helps students to decode unfamiliar words using letter-sound patterns when reading. Difficulties with the ability to blend is a hallmark sign of the struggling reader.

How to Teach Consonant Sounds

1. Assess Letter Recognition. Most teachers begin working on phonological awareness by teaching their students consonant sounds.
2. Appeal to Different Learning Styles. Now that you know what your students already know, you’re ready to work with them on consonant sounds!
3. Focus on Sounds in Context.

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling

1. Show the students the Consonant Endings video.
2. List NK, LK, NT, MP, and ND on the board.
3. Have your students list the words they heard in the video.
4. Ask the students if they know any words that rhyme with the words listed.
5. Categorize the words according to their consonant endings.

Initial and Final Consonant Blend The initial consonant blend is a cluster of letters that makes a distinctive sound at the beginning of the word. Each letter in the word is pronounced individually, but in a way that they blend together flawlessly.

Recognize beginning consonant sounds by reading and listening to a story that highlights select words. Construct a story by actively choosing words. Use picture clues to aid comprehension. Match beginning consonant sounds.

Y is considered to be a vowel if… The word has no other vowel: gym, my. In such cases, the letter y is pronounced as either the long vowel e or short or long i (usually as a long i when ending a word)—and, for all intents and purposes, it is a vowel.

A consonant is a speech sound that is not a vowel. It also refers to letters of the alphabet that represent those sounds: Z, B, T, G, and H are all consonants. Consonants are all the non-vowel sounds, or their corresponding letters: A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y are not consonants. In hat, H and T are consonants.

Words with no vowels Cwm and crwth do not contain the letters a, e, i, o, u, or y, the usual vowels (that is, the usual symbols that stand for vowel sounds) in English. Shh, psst, and hmm do not have vowels, either vowel symbols or vowel sounds.