Beginning Blends

My students are all doing really well spelling cvc words and we are moving on to practicing blends.  We will still be working on stretching out words and recording the sounds.  I have a morning activity that we will do each morning to practice this skill using blends now instead of cvc words.  Blends are not listed as a kindergarten common core skill however, the books that students are reading in kindergarten contain words with blends.  Since my kids know all of their letters and sounds now, this is the next logical step as far as phonics instruction.  I think of blends as a shortcut for sounding out a word.  We also start to work on digraphs during this time.  I have created a video that has all of the blends we work on.  Students make up a motion to go with each blend.  This has proven to be helpful for some students who are kinestic learners to remember the sound. 

I have created a blends folder that we will work on each morning.  Blends are reviewed during this time and the movement and sound is practiced.  Students also write words that contain a blend in the beginning of the word.  All of this is done with students having their own folder with visuals to point to each blend and a space to write the word.  I have included the link to the activity, this packet also includes posters to hang as visuals in the classroom and several games partners can do to practice blend sounds.