Blending for reading is a combination of letter recognition and oral blending. Some children need a lot of practice before they grasp CVC blending.
Resources
Words on cards or on magnetic or an interactive whiteboard with sound button
Procedure
This sequence of suggestions will require building over a few days.
Display a VC word (e.g. it, at) and point to or draw a sound button under each letter.
Sound-talk and then tell the children the word.
Repeat, but ask the children to tell their partners the word after you have sound-talked it.
Repeat 2 and 3 with a CVC word.
Repeat 4 with a couple more words.
Display another word, ask the children to sound-talk it with you and then say the word to their partners.
Repeat 6 with a couple more words.
Display another word and ask the children to sound-talk it in chorus, wait for you to repeat the sounds after them and then say the word to their partners.
Repeat 8 with more words.
Finally, display another word and ask the children to sound-talk the word in chorus and then, without your repeating the sounds, say the word to their partners.
Repeat 10 with more words.
This procedure can be ‘wrapped up’ in a playful manner by using a toy or a game but the purpose of blending for reading should not be eclipsed as the prime motive for the children’s learning (see ‘Practising blending for reading’).
Resources
Set of word cards (e.g. words containing sets 1 and 2 letters – see ‘Bank of suggested words for practising reading and spelling’ on page 69)
Set of objects or pictures corresponding to the word cards, hidden in a box
Soft toy (optional)
Procedure
Display a word card (e.g. map).
Go through the letter recognition and blending process appropriate to the children’s development (see ‘Teaching blending for reading’ )
Ask the toy or a child to find the object or picture in the box.
Attach some pictures to the whiteboard using reusable sticky pads or magnets or display some objects.
Display a word card.
Go through the letter recognition and blending process appropriate to the children’s development.
Ask a child to place the word card next to the corresponding picture or object.
The children sit in two lines opposite one another.
Give the children in one line an object or picture and the children in the other line a word card.
The children with the word cards read their words and the children with objects or pictures sound-talk the name of their object or picture to the child sitting next to them.
Ask the children to hold up their words and objects or pictures so the children sitting in the line opposite can see them.
Ask the children with word cards to stand up and go across to the child in the line opposite who has the corresponding object or picture.
All the children check that they have the right match.
Resources
Set of word cards (e.g. words containing sets 1 and 2 letters – see ‘Bank of suggested words for practising reading and spelling’ on page 69)
Set of objects or pictures corresponding to the word cards, hidden in a box
Procedure
Lay out the word cards and picture cards on a table.
Ask the children to match the word cards to the pictures.
Purpose
To motivate children to read the words and so gain valuable reading practice
Resources
About eight cards, shaped and coloured like gold coins, with words and nonsense words on them made up from letters the children have been learning (e.g. mop, cat, man, mip, pon, mon), buried in the sand tray Containers representing a treasure chest and a waste bin, or pictures of a treasure chest and a waste bin on large sheets of paper, placed flat on a table
Procedure
Ask the children to sort the coins into the treasure chest and the waste bin, putting the coins with proper words on them (e.g. man) in the treasure chest and those with meaningless words (e.g. mon) in the waste bin. When children have blended the sounds to read a word a number of times on different occasions, either overtly or under their breath, they will begin to read the word ‘automatically’ without needing to blend.