Blends...

[KinderBelle]

How do you teach and introduce blends? What's the correct order to teach them? I've already taught ch, sh, wh, and th (which are usually the only ones we teach in K) but my class is really bright this year so I thought it was appropriate. THANKS!

[MsBee]

Just realized to teach kindergarten...oops. Maybe some of my ideas can be adapted.

[teacherstudent1]

Let me apologize up front for being anal ...

Consonant blends, technically, are those where the individual phonemes retain at least a portion of their individual sound, such as s, l, and r blends (st, bl, tr, etc).
Consonant diagraphs, however, produce a different single phoneme that is different than the individual letters would seem to indicate, such as sh, ch, th, and wh.

All of that useless (and unsolicited) information aside, I never have been convinced that there is a "best" order for introducing either consonant blends or consonant diagraphs. Different programs promote different orders of progression, and I haven't yet seen any convincing independent research to make me believe that there is an overriding or compelling philosophy to govern this.

As long as you are giving the students adequate initial instruction and time for practice, I doubt if the order will matter much.

Actually, I am genuinely very impressed that you are teaching this to your kindergarten students. I wish more teachers would follow your example ... actually, I would be happy if they just adequately taught the basic phonemes and their corresponding letters.

[kinderK27]

Originally Posted by teacherstudent1

Actually, I am genuinely very impressed that you are teaching this to your kindergarten students. I wish more teachers would follow your example ... actually, I would be happy if they just adequately taught the basic phonemes and their corresponding letters.

I am also working on the diagraphs: sh, ch, th and wh. "th" I think is the most difficult because some of my students don't have the speech capabilities to say "th" but it does still help them read and recognize some words that include it.

I have a fast moving class who will be entering first grade curriculum in the spring and as a kindergarten teacher, I am curious what you think is the way to "adequately teach the basic phonemes".

[kinderK27]

oh also, I play a game similar to MsBee, but it is adapted for kindergarten. Right now we are only doing basic beginning sounds but it could be used for blends as well.

Each child has a picture of a word and they find the student with a "match" a picture that begins with the same sound. The picture could just be a blend rather than only the beginning sound.

Also, you might want to check http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/stude...Activities.htm they usually have something that will help or at least give you an idea for some activities.

[TeacherGroupie]

The word is "digraph", by the way: di 'two', graph 'symbol'. The prefix dia means something like 'across' or through'.

[kater07]

I introduced them using The Talking Words Factory leap frog video accidentally. We were watching it for extra spelling help. They loved it so much they caught on quickly. We aren't to blends in our curriculum yet, but we will talk about them every time we come across them.

[Kinder Preppie]

I use Hooked on Phonics. My kinders have completed all five books and are now reading The Magic Treehouse series. It really works !!

[czacza]

Originally Posted by Kinder Preppie

I use Hooked on Phonics. My kinders have completed all five books and are now reading The Magic Treehouse series. It really works !!

Interesting...how is their comprehension of Magic Treehouse?

[Kinder Preppie]

Their comprehension is great. I started with small comprehension sheets for the class, and then began copying their readers (not Magic Treehouse, but their school readers)in paragraph form with comprehension questions at the end of each paragraph. Now they can read and comprehend at the same time. I am in a private school, so I can use whatever material I choose. My readers are ABEKA. I started with the first book of Hooked on Phonics, and then added in ABKEA readers. From there, we have done both at the same time. We just completed ABEKA kindergarten readers for the first 1/2 of the year, and will do ABEKA grade 1 readers (which involve additional comprehension) for the second 1/2.