The Blend three letter words by Friday Challenge begins today!

On Day 1 we will look at the following sounds with our children:

p

a

t

i

You will work on sounding out each individual sound correctly and ensuring that your sound is saying the pure sound.

Once your child is able to identify each individual sound with accuracy, you can move onto blending. It is worth mentioning that some children are very good at memorising the pictures and linking them to the sounds so do ask them to say the sound with and without the picture to help them.

When you do the blending, it is worth showing them one word at a time so that they don’t get overwhelmed with the amount of words on the page.

Get creative with this and do a treasure hunt! Hide the words around the house and when your child finds the word, they need to read it out to you. If your child struggles with blending, help them. Model to them how you would sound it out. Ensure you sound out each individual sound correctly and then show them how to blend it. I love to use robot arms for this and most of my students love this too. You will often see my students using their robot arms to blend words.

On Day 2, we will look at these sounds:

n

s

Again see if your child already knows how to sound these out. If they don’t then model it to them and ask them to repeat it after you.

Follow the same instructions as yesterday.

The same thing with the blending. Remember that we are not asking children to read digraphs (2 letter sounds) until they are confident with the single sounds. So only ask them the words with the single sounds. Digraphs are in green.

On Day 3, we will look at these sounds:

m

e

We will have fun sounding them out and again have a go at the blending.

Please don’t be disheartened if your child finds the blending aspect challenging. It is! IT takes time, patience and practise. But I promise you with consistency, your child will be reading all of the words on the page. Keep modelling it to them and asking them to repeat what you are saying. Point to the sounds in the words as you read them.

On Day 4, we will look at these sounds:

d

o

g

Spend time looking at the pictures and asking your child to explain to you what they can see. Then ask them is they know these sounds, if they do move straight onto the blending.

On Day 5, we will look at these sounds:

u

b

This will be the end of the challenge and you should see amazing results!

To join the challenge, click here!