Routine · Phonological awareness
Phoneme blending
Hear a word said one sound at a time and put the sounds together into the word.
- Time
- 2 to 4 minutes
- Skill
- Phonological awareness
- In a session plan
- Warm-up
When to use it
When a student can say the sounds of a written word but cannot turn them into the word.
Materials
- Spoken words with two to four sounds
Steps
Get ready
Explain that you are a slow talker and the student is the word finder.
I do
Say three sounds, pausing between them, then say the word.
Say: /s/ /ŭ/ /n/. I push them together: sun.
We do
Say the next sounds and blend with the student on your signal.
Say: /f/ /ĭ/ /sh/. Together.
Student: Fish.
You do
Give six to eight words. Start with two or three sounds and end with four.
Student: Listens to every sound and says the word.
Check
Give two words with a blend, like /s/ /t/ /ŏ/ /p/, and listen for all four sounds in the answer.
If the student...
Says only the first sound and guesses the rest.
Say the sounds again, then repeat them faster and faster until they join. Say the word together, then ask for it alone.
Say: Listen to all of them: /s/ /t/ /ŏ/ /p/. Faster. Stop. Now you.
Tips
- If pauses lose the student, stretch the sounds with no gap first, then add gaps once blending is easy.
- In a group, have students hold the word in their heads until your signal, then say it all together.
Original routines written by Literacy Trail. In the app, every routine is filled with your student's lesson.
Related routines
- Say it slow, say it fastBlend spoken sounds into a word, then break a spoken word back into its sounds.2 to 4 minutes · Warm-up
- Stretch and readHold each sound and slide into the next without a break, then say the word.2 to 5 minutes · Word reading
- Clap the syllablesJoin spoken syllables into a word, then clap a word back into its syllables.2 to 4 minutes · Warm-up
- First sound plus the restJoin a first sound to the rest of a word, and split a word after its first sound.2 to 4 minutes · Warm-up
Have this routine filled in for every lesson
In Literacy Trail, the session plan picks a routine for each block and fills it with the words, sounds and sentence from your student's lesson. Every plan starts with a 15-day free trial.