Master Blending: 3 Simple Tips for a Strong Science of Reading Foundation

Have you ever had a student who can accurately say each sound in a word but struggles to blend the phonemes together to make a word? It’s a common challenge in the early grades, and it’s a huge focus of the Science of Reading. Every year I’ve worked with at least one student who needed a different approach, and I know many of you are in the same boat. In this post, I’m going to share three practical tips to help you build a solid foundation for blending sounds and creating confident readers in your classroom. If you prefer to watch or listen, a video version of this post is available below.

Tip 1: Start with Two Sounds First

It’s tempting to jump right into CVC words, but starting with just two sounds can set your students up for success. This method, often used in phonemic awareness activities, focuses on blending without the visual distraction of letters.

You can start by having students blend two sounds orally. For example, say the sounds “/i/ /n/” and have students blend them together to say “in.” After they’ve practiced this a few times, introduce the letters. You can use simple letter cards, a blending board, or a whiteboard to display the letters as you say the sounds, creating a stronger connection between the letter and its sound.

Successive Blending Slides

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Tip 2: Choose Your Words Wisely

When selecting words for students to blend, being strategic can make a huge difference. I always recommend starting with words that begin with a continuous sound and end with a stop sound. This helps students learn to stretch out the sounds and connect them smoothly.

Continuous Sounds: These are sounds you can hold for a few seconds, like vowels and consonants such as /m/, /s/, /f/, and /l/. When students blend, they can continue making the first sound and slide right into the next. All vowels are continuous sounds!

Stop Sounds: These are sounds that can only be made briefly because airflow is blocked, such as /b/, /d/, /p/, and /t/. Ending your words with a stop sound provides a natural end to the blend.

You can see some examples of these types of words below to get you started:

Tip 3: Use Successive Blending

This strategy is a game-changer for building decoding skills and reducing cognitive load for beginning readers. Instead of blending all the sounds in a word at once, students successively blend them, adding one sound at a time. This method is backed by the Science of Reading because it supports students’ working memory.

Here’s how it works with the word “cub”:

Students say the first sound: “/k/”
They add the next sound and blend the first two: “/k/ /u/” becomes “cu”
Finally, they add the last sound to the blend: “cu” + “/b/” becomes “cub”

To make this easier, you can start with just the sounds, and then move to letters. When using letters, be sure to reveal them one by one to keep the focus on the blending process. I have an entire unit of Successive Blending Slides that are ready-made and organized by phonics skill. The bundle includes CVC words, blends, digraphs, silent e, vowel teams, r-controlled vowels, and diphthongs.