A Quick Update: Blends!

When students are beginning to grow their reading skills past simple CVC words, blends are one of the next basic phonics patterns to introduce to young readers. They begin to blend the letter sounds together and combine them with short vowels to read more complex words.  Since you say both sounds in blend patterns, they are very easy for students to pick up and master. When you're introducing a new blend pattern, it's important for students to work with the words in a variety of ways - and you don't just have to use worksheets to accomplish that!

When introducing a blend pattern, I always started off by creating an anchor chart for each one. I drew bubble letters and wrote words that began with the blend inside of them. Then I hang them up around the room for students to refer to throughout the year.

This allows students to brainstorm words that begin with each blend to help them become more familiar with the pattern. I drew my own pictures to go with each word, but you could even have students take more ownership of the anchor charts by drawing the pictures themselves!

When introducing different blend patterns, it's always fun to come up with related art projects or crafts for students to create to practice writing and spelling their words with blends. For the FL- blend family, I gave my students a piece of construction paper and they created their own FLags and wrote their blend pattern words onto the flag. So simple and the kids loved it!

If there's one thing students love to do, it is getting to write on the big teacher whiteboard or smartboard! Don't ask me why... I think it's because they love pretending that they are the teacher for a small moment in time! There are so many patterns for S-Blends that I like to introduce lots of word sorts for students to become more familiar with the patterns. I drew a chart on the board and had students brainstorm a word that fit with each blend pattern. Then they wrote their word on the board in the section with the correct pattern!

Of course, there are always times when using a worksheet really helps students identify phonics patterns, spelling words, letter formation, and sentence structure. When introducing a new blend pattern I like to have my students begin by using an activity sheet from my No-Prep Phonics Word Work Pack. With these, students read, write, and highlight the words as well as read sentences to practice fluency and create their own sentences using words from the blend pattern they are practicing.

This video shows a sample from my diphthongs pack, but I use the same format for every pack.

For blends, I currently have packs created for S-Blends, R-Blends, L-Blends and Triple Consonant Blends, which can be found in my SUPER-discounted Word Work Bundle (over 60% off!). Just click on the picture below to find out more!

Changing Up Our Word Work Routine: Long Vowel Teams ai ay

Halfway through my first year in first grade, we have officially gone deep into learning new phonics patterns, especially vowel teams. Each week I am introducing one to two new patterns; and it can be easy to get into a rut of introducing them all the same way with the same activities each week. Read the word. Write the word. Draw the word. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Can you relate? Here's a tip. The easiest way to change it up and make it new and exciting for your students is to integrate a monthly or seasonal theme into the activity they'll be doing. And here's the kicker - it could be the exact same word work activity they've been doing since time began, but once you add in some new fancy themed clip art, the students get ridiculously excited and buy in to what you are teaching.

We began working on long a vowel teams ai & ay; focusing on each phonics pattern for a week at a time. By the time we got through the two weeks, we were ready to compare and sort words with each vowel team. I'm lucky enough to have a smartboard in my classroom this year, so I created a quick snowman sort for my students to interact with. They read the word on the snowman and sorted into the correct vowel team category.

Once we sorted and read all of our words, my students completed their own snowman ai/ay sort. I created two different versions to meet the needs of my learners. Some students had a sort with pictures only; and added their own labeling word. Other students who needed more support had a snowman sort with the actual words on it so that they could visually see the phonics pattern.

If you'd like to use these differentiated sorts in your classroom, click on the picture below to grab it from my TPT store! (Note: The smartboard file is not included due to clip art copyright, but I've created color cards for students to sort in a pocket chart!).

Another new activity I came up with to practice sorting our long a vowel team words used just one simple material: index cards! I gave each student a blank one and told them to choose either one ai or one ay word to write on their card.

On the back, they had to write a sentence using their ai/ay word.

Then, we sorted our words together in the pocket chart.

After sorting our words, we read them together aloud. My students loved it; and so did I - how great is it to have a no-prep, interactive activity like this?

I also love to find fun videos and songs on youtube for my students to get up, move, and sing with. They absolutely loved this surfer themed video for sorting ai/ay words. They laughed so hard at his "Heyyyy duddddeeee!" surfer voice.

I hope this post was able to give you a few new fun, quick ideas to use during your word work routine!