And We're Blending!

The first step in teaching children to read phonetically is to teach them letter-sound correspondence.  They've been doing great with that! (Click here to re-visit my prior post on one of our phonics strategies.)  Next, the students must learn how to blend these sounds together to make words.  I am always looking for ways to have the students be hands-on with their learning.  Thanks to Pinterest, I found a use for some leftover plastic eggs and created these:

The short side of the egg creates rotating beginning sounds.  The longer side of the egg holds the ending sounds.

This student is copying the new words she is creating with each turn.

Here two students are working together with their blending eggs.  The dots under each letter represent them  reading each sound as they decode their words.

It took a little practice, but the students in my guided reading group were blending words with different beginning sounds in no time!  Awesome!