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When you find yourself blending the word c-a-t and your child says ‘’Shopping cart’’. The question of how can I teach my child to read? pops up again. In this scenario, you might want to revisit blending .One of the most important and difficult skills to teach in reading is blending. Blending usually takes a lot of practice and phonics activities to get right. It takes a child a while to learn how to blend.
Here is some advice on how to get there quicker:
Blending phonics activities 1: Identify the object
- First, choose two objects or pictures and lay them out in front of your child.
- Then, Soundi out the words of one object, ask your child to pick out the object you have sounded out.
- Do this a few times until your child picks the correct object.
Tips:
- Blending is an auditory (listening) skill, your child does not need to know how the letters look to do this activity.
- If your child cannot sound out words or is new to blending activities, start with just the first letter of a word. For Example; Can you find the object that begins with the sounds ‘b as in buh’.
When your child is confident with the first letter, then work with the end letters and finally the middle letter. You can also sound out the whole word if your child is confident with all the sounds in a word.
The best resource for this are alphabet blocks; they contain objects that represent each letter and can be used for sounding out words and blending activities when teaching your child to read.
Blending phonics activities 2: Start with two sounds (Learning to read letters)
Many children struggle with blending when it comes to reading the letters and connecting the sounds. This is when children start sounding out letters and trying to put them together. If your child is struggling to read 3 letter words, my advice is to begin with just 2 letters at a time.
For example: Start with the vowels a, e, i , o , u and create two letter words like ba, de, bi, bo , bu and practice them on a daily basis until your child builds fluency. Then move onto 3 letter words and so on…
This is a small breakdown on how to teach your child to read but if you’re looking for more then you might be interested in taking a phonics course that helps you break down the steps and provides resources for your journey,
Blending phonics activities 3: Decodable Readers
Many people underestimate the power of decodable readers.
The effects of decodable readers for learning to read are that they build confidence in children; Work at their level; Guides you to know what letters or reading rules you should be teaching your child at the time and give you a clear idea of how your child is progressing.
Many of these books support children learning to blend and can be used from one child to the next if they have siblings. The best aspect is that decodable readers often help build fond memories of learning to read.
Here are some of the sets I recommend: Ruth Miskin set. Jolly Phonics Set and Biff and Chip set. My advice is to pick one set and use it throughout your reading journey.
Blending phonics activities 4: Change the middle sound to make new words
How do you know when your child has mastered blending? The best way to find out is to swap out sounds. For example; Ask your child to change the word ‘’pin’’ into ‘’pan’’. Talk to your child about what sounds have changed? Swapping middle and end words help your child learn to decode longer and newer words with confidence.
Once your child is blending this flip chart will help make sure they can practice on their own. Children tend to enjoy creating new words in this interactive way without adult input. This means it’s less of a struggle to get them to practice this alone or at home.
I recommend you use the spin and read edition or the Junior Learning flip board to get working on mastering blending with letters. Below is flipchart provided by the school, however, the two mentioned above can be used at home with one or two children.
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