Blending Boards

I haven't posted in a while because I've been busy getting my classroom set up; it is finished and school started about three weeks ago!  I'm already in love with this class, and I'm excited about this year!

So...what is a blending board?  It's a way for you to quickly have children take their knowledge of individual letter sounds and practice putting them together to read whole words (real and nonsense).

For example - /c/ /a/ /t/ = cat and /t/ /o/ /x/ = tox

NOTE: nonsense words ARE important!  I've had a lot of parents ask questions about why they matter.  Here is my response: learning to read nonsense words HELPS children read multisyllabic words later.  So, tox is a nonsense word, but toxin and toxic are real words.  It is a spring board that helps students read bigger and harder words as they grow and learn!

The board holds three cards: a beginning, vowel, and ending.  When using a blending board, go as quickly as possible and flip through the cards while the children sound out the words.  I usually flip one section at a time.  By going quickly you help the child not only become better at sounding out words, but also at becoming fluent with their reading.  The goal is that they eventually do not need to sound out the word, and can read it as a whole.  You can find the blending board cards here at one of my favorite sites Make, Take, Teach, and can buy a blending board at my Teachers Pay Teachers store!



Next week time (who am I kidding, life can get CrAZy!)  I will talk about a strategy that helps children who seem to struggle with the blending board practice.