CVC Words and Blending Board

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Like I said in my last post, it is that time of year in Kindergarten when CVC words are crucial for your kids to start blending to develop their reading skills. As I introduce each letter to my kids, I add it to my blending board. I start building their blending skills at the beginning of the year even if it only starts with the letters they know or 2 sounds I have introduced. In this blog post, I will show you how to make your own blending board!

Our kiddos that come to us as emergent readers have ALOT of work to do to jump up reading levels before the end of the school year. CVC words are just the beginning of the phonics skills they will need to decode those tough words they will start to see as they get into level D books (Fountas & Pinnell levels). It is SO important to get them use to blending letters as they learn the sounds so that it just becomes second nature to them while reading.

As I introduce each letter, I add it to my board, so there are very few letters at the beginning. Depending on the order of letters you teach, the word they are able to read first will vary. The beginning of our order is C O A D G M L…. So some of the first words that my kids know how to read are cod, cad, gad, mag, lad, lag, etc. We practice blending daily using the I do it, We do it, You do it method:

I do it. (I point to each letter and make the sound then blend them all together to make the word) For example: /m/ /a/ g/ mag
We do it. (They do it with me)
You do it. (They do it by themselves and I only point)

The blending board is also GREAT for RTI kiddos. Letting them manipulate the cards and point to the cards themselves has some real power. Most of my RTI kids usually aren’t even ready for blending the 3 phonemes, so I may stick to just 2 until they master that.

After teaching all the letters, I introduce digraphs and add them one by one to the board. By that point, they are blending like pros!

These are the cards that I use for my blending board. They include all vowels and consonants as well as the digraphs sh, ch, th, wh, and ph. Keep reading to see how I made my board!

Blending Board Cards

UPDATE! I have now added beginning blends, magic e, vowel teams and nk and ng endings to these cards, along with EDITABLE pages to add any sound you want! 🙂

First you will need a binder like these I found on Amazon. I used a 1 inch binder.

Go ahead and put some of the letters on the rings so that you can see how far down they will hang and where you will need to fold the binder back.

Fold the binder back about an inch below where your letters hang. Binders are usually just cardboard inside so they can bend with a little force. 🙂

Next you will bend the other side so that the two sides meet up.

After bending both sides, it should sit up like this.

I used hot glue to glue the sides together.

And there you have it! Your blending board is ready to go! 🙂 I would recommend making a few for your classroom. You will want one for yourself, one if you have an aide or someone who pulls your students for RTI, and one for centers that your kids can use independently. The resource I mentioned above includes a recording sheet that can be used in a center for students to record the real and nonsense words they make with the blending board.

Another favorite way to teach CVC words is with hands-on centers. I like to use these as “Write the Room” and put the pictures around the room for students to write on their recording sheets. Answer Keys are included for self checking.