R Blend Words

A consonant blend is a series of consonants that appear together before or after a vowel in a word. 

In a consonant blend, each letter retains its own sound. For example in the word grab, you can hear both the /g/ and /r/ sounds. In the word breath, you can hear both the /b/ and /r/ sounds.

Pro Tip: Notice that in the word breath you cannot hear the /t/ and /h/ sounds separately. When two consonants work together to make a single sound, or phoneme, that is called a digraph. The 8 digraphs are CH, CK, PH, QU, NG, SH, TH, and WH. 

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

Consonant blends that appear at the beginning of a word are called beginning blends. Some examples include the consonant clusters BR, GR, and TR. Three-letter consonant blends include SCR and THR. Note that THR blends a digraph and a consonant.

Pro Tip: The letters WR are not a true consonant blend because they don't both make individual sounds. Instead, the W is silent, and the combined letters make the sound /r/.

Consonant blends that appear at the end of a word are called ending blends. These include consonant blends such as RD, RF, and RM.

R-blend words are one of the trickier blends for children, due in large part to the placement of the /r/ in the word. The /r/ sound is typically one of the last to develop in a child’s speech, with most children learning how to properly pronounce the sound by the age of 6 or 7. For children with speech delays, however, properly pronouncing the /r/ can prove especially difficult, and learning to blend it with other letters even more so.

Because the /r/ is challenging to blend, most teachers find that more explicit instruction is needed for R-blend words than for other consonant clusters. This requires repeated exposure to the blends through the use of worksheets, decodable passages, and decodable stories.

When the letter R is paired with 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.

Although these words do contain ending R-blends, they are not typically taught as R-blends. Rather, they are introduced later in a child's reading journey, once children have a stronger basis in phonics sounds.

R-controlled vowels appear as stage 6 of the Charge into Reading Decodable Reading System. 

R blends are consonant clusters that feature the letter R as the second letter.

Beginning R blends include:

Below is a comprehensive list of beginning R blend words. Words that children should be able to decode when first learning R blends have been italicized for ease of use. When practicing R blends, it is advised to start with these and work up to the more challenging words as children’s phonics skills advance.

One of the best ways to practice R blends is with a dedicated R Blends book. Grub Grab: An R-Blends Decodable Reader focuses specifically on words that feature R Blends.

BR words are R blends that begin with the letter B, followed by the letter R.

Below is a list of 30 beginning BR-blend words:

CR words are R blends that begin with the letter C, followed by the letter R. Below is a list of 30 beginning CR-blend words:

DR words are R blends that begin with the letter D, followed by the letter R. Unlike most R blends in which it is easy to hear both consonants, the two unique sounds in the DR blend can be more challenging to hear. Often these two letters come together to form a /jr/ sound. For this reason, many parents and teachers find that more time is needed to teach the DR sound than other R blends. 

Below is a list of 25 beginning DR-blend words:

FR words are R blends that begin with the letter F, followed by the letter R.

Below is a list of 25 beginning FR-blend words:

GR words are R blends that begin with the letter G, followed by the letter R.

Below is a list of 30 beginning GR-blend words:

PR words are R blends that begin with the letter P, followed by the letter R.

Below is a list of 30 beginning PR-blend words:

SCR words are R blends that begin with the letters SC, followed by the letter R.

Below is a list of 15 beginning SCR-blend words:

STR words are R blends that begin with the letters STR, followed by the letter R.

Below is a list of 25 beginning STR-blend words:

As with the blend DR, the blend TR can be challenging for children just beginning to read consonant blends. This is because the blend TR sounds like the digraph /ch/ + /r/, as in the word train. Students must be explicitly taught that the sound /ch/ + /r/ should be written as the letters TR.

Below is a list of 30 beginning TR-blend 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 advanced vowel team ea. Instead, focus on decodable text that includes consonant blends at the appropriate time. Decodable text is text that contains only the sounds and spelling patterns a child has already learned.

Below is a sample of an R Blends decodable passage:

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

Encourage children to find consonant blends within written words BEFORE trying to read the words. One way to do this is by practicing scooping. Ask your children to look at a list of written words. Then encourage them to draw a scoop mark under the R blends, as in the image below.

Another way to find blends is by highlighting them. Rather than giving children individual words, provide them with full sentences or paragraphs. Moving one word at a time, encourage them to highlight the R blends they see. 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.

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.

Encourage children to read through fluency grids, or charts featuring each R blend separately. 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.

Once a child has mastered each R blend separately, offer a fluency chart that mixes the R blends together, like the one below:

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 reading R blends will become second nature.