[sureads]

anyone have a fun activity for teaching beginning blends?

[loggerteacher]

This past week we reviewed how sometimes 2 letters team up and make 1 sound. I held up two fingers (like the peace sign) when we saw a 2 letter team (-ck, -ss, -ll) and then put my fingers together to look like 1 giant finger....the kids did this too...anyway, so when I introduced two letters teaming up to make a blended sound we still held up to fingers, but then, when I blended the sounds I crossed my fingers togethers so it looks liked they blended into each other (does this make sense, think about what you did a little kid when you were telling a fib??)

Anyway, it totally made sense to them and they even did it when they were blending the letters..so they would hold up a finger for b and then a finger for r..then they would say /b/ and then /r/ and then cross their fingers and say /br/.

I hope this makes sense...it really worked for my kids.

[Lilacs]

Project Read uses a mixing bowl, spoon, and letter cards. Put the letters in, mix with spoon, pull out blend and voila!! You can do this with as many different blends as you want. We do this as a whole group introduction to blends lesson. Then at a center I put mini plastic bowls with blends cards and pictures for a sorting lesson (bowl has bl on the front pictures are black, block, blister). Another center day they have one bowl and lots of blend cards. They pull a card and everyone at the center must say a word that starts with that blend to put it in the bowl. Another day they have the bowls labeled with blends and blend words on flashcards. They read and sort the words. Lots of activities little prep and they use the same stuff in lots of different ways. Seems stupid but the kids do love it.

[Darlenejoy]

I love the 2 finger idea...so simple, yet it makes sense to the kids. I will be introducing 2 letter sounds after Thanksgiving and will use this idea. Thanks!

[krazykaye]

I actually make strawberry shakes. I talk about blending the ice cream and strawberries and milk. Then we blend the letters of l, s, and r blends together.