Sound Blending

How to Practise Sound-blending

Your children will be ready to blend sounds together to read words once they have learnt the first set of sounds: m, a, s, d, t, and can say them in and out of order at speed.

1. Cut up a piece of paper into 5 parts and write the first 5 sounds on each piece to make sound cards. Put the cards m, a, t on the table and push them closer to each other as you say the sounds. Point to each card as you say the sounds.

2. Repeat a few times saying the sounds more quickly and then the word, with your children. Repeat with: mad, sad, dad, sat, at.

3. Silently make m-a-t with the Speed sound cards. Point to each letter and say the sounds. Then say 'mat'. Ask your children to do the same.

4. Then put the cards back with the other cards (s and d) and ask your children to use the cards to spell the word mat.

5. Now ask your children to ‘sound out’ the word and read the word by blending again. Repeat with: mad, sad, dad, sat, at.

6. Explain to your children that in order to read words s/he needs to practise saying each sound in a word and blending the sounds together.

Below is a list of ‘Green Words’ sets. They are called green words because your children should now be able to read them independently, having learnt all the sounds in them and how to sound-blend them. For each of the words, ask your children first to ‘sound out’ the word and then to blend the sounds together, e.g. m-a-t = mat.

This is the sequence for teaching your child the sounds and the corresponding green words.

1. Learn: m,a,s,d,t
   Read: Green words set 1.1

2. Learn: i,n,p,g,o
   Read: Green words set 1.2
   

3. Learn: c, k, u, b
   Read: Green words set 1.3
   

4. Learn: f, e, l, h, sh
   Read: Green words set 1.4
   

5. Learn:r,j,v,y,w
   Read: Green words set 1.5
   

6. Learn: th, z, ch, qu, x, ng, nk

Read: Green words set 1.6

7. Learn: nk
   Read: Green words set 1.7
   

Set 1 Green Words

‘Green words’ are words which your children should be able to read independently as they are made up of the speed sounds that they will have learnt.

The dots and dashes below each sound are called ‘sound buttons’. A dot represents a single letter sound; a dash represents a digraph (two letters that make one sound) or a trigraph (three letters that make one sound).