The Candy Class: Blending those Blends & Free Blend Posters

Hi everyone! I wanted to share some ideas for teaching blends in the classroom and a freebie to be able to do just that!

Idea #1: Incorporate phonemic awareness in the morning through fun chants.

These posters I've included below each have a chant at the bottom. It's a simple chant, where I say, fluttering fly fl-fl-fl, plucking plums pl-pl-pl, clustering clouds cl-cl-cl. Chants have been something that have been a part of my classroom since my first day teaching, but I started off with a different chant format that I have improved over the years. I think it also has been a great way to get me to wake-up in the morning, lol! If you got a projector, you can actually project the pdf on the board instead of holding up the posters!

Idea #2: Play a quick game of memory with the blend cards during guided reading.

While these are the size of a full page, did you know that you can actually adjust your pdf printer settings to print 4 to a page? Yes, you can! I've included directions to do this. This means you can use these for a quick game of memory during guided reading. Easy, peasy.

Idea #3: Have a "What Begins With…." literacy center.

These can be set-up in a center, and students can write words on a blank sheet of paper that begin with the letter.

Idea #4: Blend up words with the class.

While either projecting the pdf of these on the board or using the blends poster, you can have students write a word on a sticky note that begins with the blend and bring it up to the classroom.

Another idea, you can record words on the board that students blend-up.

Idea #5: Introduce new blend words during guided reading.

During guided reading, you can use the posters (or mini-posters) to introduce any new words that start with the blend.

Idea #6: Ring it up.

You can print 4 to a page, put them on a ring, and have students use them as a writing reference in a writing center/station or for review.

Idea #7: Go on a blend hunt.

Students can use the a mini-version of the blends poster as a reference tool while they are reading. They can then record any newly discovered blend words in a journal or on a piece of paper.

Not only do these activities work great for blends, but they work great for short vowels, long vowels, ending blends, digraphs, and other graphemes!

Click on the Image to Link

For those who don't use HP's Instant Ink program (where you never have to worry about printing pages head-to-toe in color ink again!) and are concerned about ink usage, I also have this option without the backgrounds to conserve that ink.