These blending lines are phonics-based and are a great way for students to practice decoding and fluency at the same time. Blending lines can be used in whole group and small group settings and allow for differentiation during independent practice because you can give students the phonics patterns they need to work on.

How do these blending lines help students?

Blending lines help scaffold students’ fluency by prompting them to decode words in isolation first, then in short phrases, and lastly in complete sentences. Students should practice reading these aloud to develop their fluency. When using these with students, it is important to model how they work, but then pass the work on to them so they can do most of the decoding themselves.

How do you use these in the classroom?

Each page is set up in the same way with 7 lines to practice reading.

• Line 1: students will practice decoding words with the focus skill and the initial phoneme will change
• Line 2: students will practice decoding words with the focus skill and the final phoneme will change
• Line 3: review – students will practice decoding words with the focus skill and the initial, final, and medial sounds will change
• Lines 4 & 5: students will practice decoding and reading short phrases fluently
• Lines 6 & 7: students will practice decoding and reading complete sentences fluently

What is included in this unit?

• Currently, there are 46 unique blending lines pages. Each skill below includes 1 practice sheet set up in the above way for students to practice:
  • CVC, short a
  • CVC, an/am
  • CVC, short e
  • CVC, short i
  • CVC, short o
  • CVC, short u
  • CVC, mixed
  • -ck
  • sh
  • ch
  • th
  • wh
  • mixed digraphs
  • s blends
  • l blends
  • r blends
  • mixed blends
  • silent e, a
  • silent e, i
  • silent e, o
  • silent e, u
  • mixed silent e
  • ee
  • ea
  • ee/ea
  • ay
  • ai
  • ay/ai
  • oa
  • ow
  • oa/ow
  • ie/igh
  • ui/ue
  • ar
  • or
  • ir/er/ur
  • mixed r-controlled
  • oy
  • oi
  • oy/oi
  • aw
  • au
  • aw/au
  • ow
  • ou
  • ow/ou

• I also plan to add a second sheet to each page to add longer, multisyllabic words for students to practice and add differentiation!

Please note: these blending lines are already included in the SJT Literacy Club.

Enjoy!
Susan