Blending Help

 Had a friend ask for some blending help with her child so I thought I'd post some activities because I'm sure some others need it!

From Reading Rockets' website:
When beginning readers sound out words, they slowly say each sound in a word (c-a-t), and then say the sounds quickly together to "read" the word (cat). In reading, teachers call this blending because sounds are being blended together. Blending (combining sounds) and segmenting (separating sounds) are skills that are necessary for learning to read.

Here are a few activities to help master this skill...


 Cut out some pictures from magazines or use pictures in books you have laying around the house. Tell your child you are going to say a word in the pictures using "Robot Talk" a slow way of saying words (e.g., /ssssssuuuuuunnnnn/). They have to look at the pictures and guess the word you are saying.

The following activity (see Yopp, M., 1992) is to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands."
If you think you know this word, shout it out!
If you think you know this word, shout it out!
If you think you know this word,
Then tell me what you've heard,
If you think you know this word, shout it out!
After singing, say a segmented word such as /k/ /a/ /t/ and your child provides the blended word "cat."

Here is a great book to help reinforce these concepts...

Love good ol' Shel, but this book really hits on manipulating phonemes.  All the beginning sounds are reversed.  Your child will have fun trying to read it, but will also be learning how different letters create different sounds.

What other activities have you tried?

Indestructibles

A friend recently introduced me to the greatest invention ever- indestructible books.  Have you heard of these? 
From their website:

Indestructibles™ introduces a revolutionary new baby book invented by a mother of triplets who wanted to share books with her babies, hassle-free. They are water-proof, tear-resistant, and baby-durable, making them the perfect books for babies who "read" with their little hands and mouths.
They are literally the BEST for young babes.  I have so many nice hardback books that are getting demolished by Gentry's little hands. Bath-time has been revolutionized!  Another great thing about them is that they're wordless.  I loved to give my students wordless books and have them tell the story.  With Gentry, I make up a different story everyday, so that it's not monotonous like other children's books.  For older kids, have them create the story.  See how different each telling can be, or have them draw an extra page to the book and tell that story.
Gentry is getting her first tooth and she asked not to be photographed until it came completely through ;)