This is a game I played with Abby while the other kids were napping. It is a game that can help teach your kids blends, but it can also be adapted to younger readers as well. For you non-teachers, bl, cr, sm, st, dr, fl, gr, cr spl, and scr are examples of “consonant blends.” It seems natural to us readers to put these two sounds together, but it’s not always intuitive to your beginning reader. This is a game where you have two game boards. I just took construction paper and folded it to make 6 equal squares. You can also do eight, and that’s what the sets below are geared. Honestly, I just folded my paper wrong and adapted since I knew I didn’t have much time. You write the second half of the potential words on the squares of the paper. Then, I took index cards, cut them up into thirds, and wrote the blends on these cards. Here are some sets you could do (they grow in difficulty). One of my readers put this into a document so that I could provide a printable. What an amazing act of kindness! Thank you so much, Nicole!!!
Set One:
blends: bl, bl, cr, cr, dr, dw, dw, fl, gl, gl gr, pr, pr, sk, sl, sl, sn, sp, sp, st, sw, sw, tr, tr
game sheet 1: ape, oat, ast, ill, ell, and, ash, ide
game sheet 2: ay, ame, ime, ide, im, ob, ib, ed
PDF file of this mat and the blends: Mat and Blends #1
PDF file of this mat and the blends: Mat and Blends #1
Set Two:
blends: bl, bl, br, cl, cl, cl, cr, dr, dw, fl, gr, gr, pl, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, sp, st, st, sw, sw, tr, tw
game sheet 1: at, ack, ake, een, ar, op, ope
game sheet 2: een esh, ip, im, un, am, ine, aim
PDF file of this mat and the blends: Mat & Blends #2
Set Three:
blends: cl, cr, cr, dr, fl, fr, fr, gl, gl, pl, pr, pr, sc, sc, sc, sl, sm, sm, st, st, sw, sw, tr, tw
game sheet 1: ess, ing, ad, esh, ar, ab, all, at
game sheet 2: all, ash, ig, ay, ess, ame, ar, ee
PDF file of this mat and the blends: Mat & Blends #3
Set Four:
blends, dr, fr, gl, gr, pr, sc, scr, scr, shr,shr, sp, spl, spl, spr, spr, squ, squ, st, str, str, sw, thr, thr
game sheet 1: eam, ub, imp, ill, ay, ing, are, eak
game sheet 2: ed, int, ash, ead, ee, eet, int, out
PDF file of this mat and the blends: Mat & Blends #4
You can begin by going over some of the word endings on the board. You can also do the blends if you want, but they’ll pick up both throughout the game. Now it’s time to begin the game. Both of you get a game board. Lay the blends upside down in a draw pile. Grab a blend. Try and figure out where it goes by reading the blend with the ending sounds. You will have a bunch of nonsense words. For example, if you draw a bl in set one, and you have game sheet one, you will read through…blape, bloat, blast, blill, blell, bland, blash, blide. You might decide you’ll match your bl with blast to make an actual words. Set it there, and it’s the other person’s turn. If you can’t make a word with the blend you have, it’s the other player’s turn. Take turns. Whoever fills their game board first wins. This is a game I learned from a great book, “Games for Reading,” by Peggy Kaye that I used a lot when I had my own tutoring business.
I made these into printable word docs if you are interested I can email them to you and you can post them.
Oh wow! That is fabulous. I would love that. Thanks so much!
I tried to click on the links in this post and nothing opens for me. Any chance you would be willing to email me the links to your printable word docs for this blending activity??
I’m so sorry these links didn’t work. I wrote this post in 2012, and it’s one of the many posts I need to update. Here is what I have, and I will at least take a moment to update the links.
https://meaningfulmama.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Blend-Word-Game-1-mat-and-blends-2-pages.pdf
https://meaningfulmama.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Blend-Word-Game-2-mat-and-blends-2-pages.pdf
https://meaningfulmama.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Blend-Word-Game-3-mat-and-blends-2-pages.pdf
https://meaningfulmama.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Blend-Word-Game-4-mat-and-blends-2-pages.pdf
Hope that helps. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Great idea!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!! I hope you are having a fabulous week!
Thank you! Hope you’re having a great week too.
Found you on Sun Scholars! Love, love, love this activity! I’m going to download and keep for my 2nd son is ready for blends. Do you tutor in reading? I used to before baby #4! 🙂 I miss it, but I love homeschooling and sharing about reading on my blog.