Consonant Blends: Teach Blends with Free Decodable Passages

A consonant blend, also known as a consonant cluster, is a series of consonants that appear together before or after a vowel in a word. In a blend, each letter retains its own sound. For example in the word frog you can hear both the /f/ and /r/ sounds. These individual sounds are called phonemes, and make up all the sounds in the English language. For more information on phonemes, check out my article, Phonemic Awareness: A Guide to Phonemes with Visual Examples.

Pro Tip: Consonant blends are different from digraphs, in which two consonants work together to make a single sound, or phoneme. Examples of digraphs include SH, CK, and TH. For more information on teaching digraphs, check out my article, How to Teach Digraphs.

Consonant blends can be made up of either two or three letters, and can appear at the beginning, middle, or end of a word.

Blends that appear at the beginning of a word are called beginning blends. These include examples such as the consonant blend cl, which appears at the beginning of the word clap, or the consonant cluster scr, which appears at the beginning of the words scrape, screen, and scrimp.

Consonant blends that appear at the end of a word are called ending blends. These include examples such as the consonant blend ft in the word lift and the consonant blend mp in the word bump.

Consonant blends that appear in the middle of a word are called medial blends. Words containing medial blends tend to be multisyllabic, making them harder for children to read. As a result, medial blends are focused on later in a child’s education, once beginning and ending blends have been mastered. Some examples include the blend sk in the word basket and the consonant blend st in the word festival.

Many teachers argue that there is no need to explicitly teach consonant blends, as it is just a matter of blending two sounds. Instead, a reader just needs to be familiar with the individual phonemes that make up a word. That being said, learning to blend letters takes time, and some blends are harder to master than others. At Charge Mommy Books, we believe that practicing letter blends is an essential step in a reader’s success. That’s why the Charge into Reading Scope and Sequence specifically breaks out a stage for practicing and mastering these consonant blends BEFORE learning digraphs.

Before anyone can teach consonant clusters, it is important to understand how to categorize the blends. Our scope and sequence breaks consonant blends into five stages: L blends, R blends, S blends, T-blends, and word-ending blends.

L blends occur when the second letter in a consonant cluster is the letter L. L blends typically appear as initial blends. The six most common L blends are bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, and sl.

 Below are examples of L-blend words:

• BL blends: blob, blimp, blond, blab
• CL blends: clam, clap, clerk, clog, clasp
• FL blends: flag, flip, flop, flask
• GL blends: gland, glint, glum, glad
• PL blends: plot, plum, plant, plop
• SL blends: slop, sled, slam, slug

One way to practice L blends is by writing decodable sentences or stories using these words. Here's one example:

The Flag 
Brad spots a flag. 
The flag flaps in the wind. 
Brad clasps the flag. 
Brad flips the flag. 
Brad slips the flag on a blimp. 
The blimp lifts the flag. 
Brad claps.

R blends occur when the second letter in a consonant cluster is the letter R. R-blend words are one of the more challenging blends for readers to master, as many children do not learn to properly pronounce the letter R until they are a bit older.

Pro Tip: When the letter R follows a vowel, it changes the sound of the vowel. These are called R-controlled vowels and appear in words such as scarf, tart, and harm. Because the vowel sound is grouped into the blend, these consonant clusters are not grouped into standard consonant blends.

The seven beginning R blends are br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, and tr.

Below are examples of R-blend words:

• BR blends: brag, brim, brisk, bred
• CR blends: crisp, cramp, draft, crab
• DR blends: drop, draft, drive, drone
• FR blends: frog, frame, fret, frost
• GR blends: grip, grand, grown, grate
• PR blends: prop, prime, proud, primp
• TR blends: trip, train, trick, treat

Practice R blends with these R-blends decodable sentences:

The Drum 
Grant grabs a drum. 
Grant drags the drum. 
Grant grunts. 
He has a cramp. 
Grant drops the drum. 
Drat!

Want more R-blend stories? Check out Grub Grab: An R Blend Decodable Reader, part of the Charge into Reading Consonant Blends Decodable Reader set.

S-blends occur when the first letter in a consonant cluster is the letter S. S-blends can appear as either beginning blends or ending blends. 

The eleven beginning S blends are sc, scr, sk, sl, sn, sp, spl, spr, st, str, and sw. 

The three ending S-blend are sk, sp, and st.

Pro Tip: The letters SC also form a digraph that make the /s/ sound. These letters only form a consonant cluster when both sounds can be heard, as in the words scan and scar.

Below are examples of S-blend words:

• SC blends: scab, scam, scarf
• SCR blends: scrape, scratch, screen
• SK blends: skin, skit, skim, ask, tusk
• SL blends: slip, slam, slug, slime
• SN blends: snip, snob, snort, snap
• SP blends: span, spend, spun, lisp, wasp
• SPL blends: split, splice, splash
• SPR blends: spring, sprint, spray
• ST blends: still, stop, stem, fast, guest
• STR blends: strong, street, strap
• SW blends: swim, swarm, swish

Practice reading S blends with this decodable story featuring S consonant clusters:

The Script 
Stan spots a script. 
He snags the script. 
Stan skims the script. 
Stan stamps the script 
Stan slips the script on his desk.

For more S blend stories, check out Stan and the Slug: An S-Blends Decodable Reader, part of the Charge into Reading Consonant Blends Decodable Reader set.

T-blends occur when the last letter in a consonant blend is the letter T. The seven T-blends are ct, ft, lt, nt, pt, st, and xt.

Below are examples of T-blend words:

• CT blends: fact, pact, duct
• FT blends: left, raft, drift, soft
• LT blends: belt, felt, halt, tilt
• NT blends: bent, plant, runt, tint
• PT blends: crept, wept, swept
• ST blends: past, list, crust, burst
• XT blends: next, text

Pro Tip: Although T blends typically occur  as word-ending blends, they can also be paired with the letter W to form a beginning blend, as in the word twist.

Practice reading T blends with this decodable T-blend story:

The Nest 
Brent is on a hunt for a nest. 
A draft hits Brent. 
It is a gust of wind. 
A twig drifts past Brent. 
It is a hint. 
The twig is from the nest! 
Brent spots the nest. 
Yes!

And don't forget to check out our upcoming T-Blends book: Prints in the Frost!

There are a handful of word-ending blends that don’t fit into any particular category. These include: ld, lf, lk, lp, and mp, and nd. Below are some examples of word-ending blends: 

• - LD blends: held, bold, gold 
• - LF blends: elf, shelf, gulf 
• - LK blends: sulk, milk, silk 
• - LP blends: yelp, pulp, scalp 
• - MP blends: camp, grump, limp 
• - ND blends: land, fend, grind

Pro Tip: When working with ending blends, beware the silent L. Words such as walk and calf do not qualify as consonant blends as the L cannot be heard as a sound of its own.
 

Practice reading word-ending blends with this decodable text:

Gram and Gramp 
Gram and Gramp tromp past the pond. 
Gram stomps in the sand. 
Gramp stands in the sand. 
Gramp lets Gram grasp his hand. 
Gram and Gramp tromp up the ramp.

For more word-ending blend practice, check out The Bump: A Word-Ending Blends Decodable Reader.

W blends feature the consonant clusters DW, TW, and SW. Below are some examples of W blends:

• DW blends: dwarf, dwell, dwindle
• TW blends: twig, twine, twinkle
• SW blends: swim, swing, swoon
   

Practice reading W blends with this decodable story:

The Swan 
A swan swims in as swamp. 
The swan swats at a twig. 
The swan twists. 
The swan swaps spots with its twin.

Practice makes perfect, and there are many ways to practice consonant blends.

Encourage children to find consonant blends within words by connecting them with a scoop or an arc. Reading words in this way forces children to look at the component letters of a word before reading it, which will help them to identify where the blend sit.

Encourage students to read words with blends in them. Pay close attention to finding the blends and circling or highlighting them. As above, this practice forces them to identify the blends, which assists in reading them.

Create sight cards with pictures that children can identify. Rather than writing out the full word on the card, only include the letter blend. Then encourage the child to say the word aloud, listening for the two sounds the letter blend makes.

Create a chart or grid featuring only words that use one kind of consonant blend. Reading several of the same consonant cluster in a row helps build familiarity and will help readers to understand how the blend is formed and how it sounds in familiar words.
 

Below is a sample fluency grid for GR words:

Keep in mind when working on consonant blends where a reader is in their ability. A word like treat is going to be a challenge because readers need to not only know how to blend tr but also need to be able to identify the vowel team ea. Instead, focus on decodable text—that is, text that uses only the sounds and spelling patterns a reader is familiar with. 

Pro Tip: Remember, children do not need to memorize these consonant blends. They just need to recognize HOW to sound them out in order to be successful in reading them! And the more they practice, the more blending consonants will become second nature.

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