Catching Consonant Blends with Ily!

A fun, interactive 4-day lesson plan designed for a 7-year-old homeschooler named Ily to master identifying, decoding, and reading beginning and ending consonant blends through engaging activities and games.

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Catching Consonant Blends with Ily!

A 4-Day Phonics Adventure

Overall Materials Needed:

  • Whiteboard or large drawing paper
  • Markers or crayons
  • Index cards or small pieces of paper
  • Letter tiles or magnetic letters (optional, but helpful)
  • Pictures representing words with beginning/ending blends (printed or drawn, e.g., frog, slide, hand, desk, lamp, nest)
  • Simple, age-appropriate storybooks or reading passages
  • Small toy net (optional, for the "Blend Catcher" game)
  • Timer (optional)

Day 1: Beginning Blend Blast Off!

Focus: Introducing beginning blends (bl, st, fr)

Activities:

  1. Intro (5 min): "Hi Ily! Today we're going on an adventure to find 'Buddy Letters' called consonant blends. These are two consonants that stick together at the beginning of a word, and they make a special sound together! Let's meet our first buddies: 'b' and 'l' say /bl/ like in blue, 's' and 't' say /st/ like in stop, and 'f' and 'r' say /fr/ like in frog."
  2. Blend Sounds (10 min): Practice saying the individual sounds and then smoothly blending them: /b/ /l/ -> /bl/, /s/ /t/ -> /st/, /f/ /r/ -> /fr/. Use hand motions to show blending.
  3. Picture Sort (15 min): Spread out pictures (e.g., block, bluebird, star, stairs, frog, frame). Have Ily sort them under header cards labeled 'bl', 'st', 'fr'. Talk about each picture and its beginning sound.
  4. Blend Hunt (10 min): Read a very simple storybook together. Ask Ily to raise her hand when she hears a word starting with /bl/, /st/, or /fr/. Write them down on the whiteboard.
  5. Wrap-up (5 min): Review the words found or sorted. Practice reading a few simple words together like: 'bled', 'step', 'from'. Celebrate Day 1 success!

Day 2: More Beginning Buddies!

Focus: More beginning blends (cl, gr, tr)

Activities:

  1. Review (5 min): Quickly review bl, st, fr using flashcards or pictures.
  2. Intro (5 min): Introduce the new 'Buddy Letters': 'c' and 'l' say /cl/ like in clap, 'g' and 'r' say /gr/ like in green, 't' and 'r' say /tr/ like in tree." Practice the sounds /c/ /l/ -> /cl/, /g/ /r/ -> /gr/, /t/ /r/ -> /tr/.
  3. Blend Building (15 min): Use letter tiles or write on index cards. Build simple words together focusing on the new blends: cl-ap, cl-ip, gr-ab, gr-in, tr-ap, tr-ip. Ily can help put the letters together and sound out the words.
  4. "Blend Catcher" Game (10 min): Say various words, some starting with today's blends and some not. Ily uses her imaginary (or real) net to 'catch' the beginning blend sound if it's one of the focus blends (cl, gr, tr) and says the blend sound aloud.
  5. Sentence Reading (10 min): Write 2-3 simple sentences on the whiteboard using known blends: "The frog is green." "Clap for the tree." Read them together slowly, sounding out the blend words.
  6. Wrap-up (5 min): Ily can choose one blend word learned today and draw a picture of it.

Day 3: Ending Blend Expedition!

Focus: Introducing ending blends (nd, st, mp)

Activities:

  1. Intro (5 min): "Guess what, Ily? Those 'Buddy Letters' can also stick together at the END of words! Let's find some ending blends. 'n' and 'd' say /nd/ like in hand, 's' and 't' say /st/ like in nest, and 'm' and 'p' say /mp/ like in lamp." Practice the ending sounds.
  2. Sound Match (10 min): Lay out pictures (e.g., hand, pond, nest, fist, lamp, jump). Say the ending blend sound (/nd/, /st/, /mp/) and have Ily find the picture(s) that end with that sound.
  3. Word Endings (15 min): Use letter tiles or cards. Start with a word stem (e.g., 'be', 'la', 'ju', 'ha'). Have Ily add the correct ending blend tile/card ('nd', 'st', 'mp') to make a real word (bend, last, jump, hand, lamp). Sound out the completed words.
  4. Blend Bingo (15 min): Create simple 3x3 bingo cards with words ending in -nd, -st, -mp (e.g., hand, sand, lost, nest, camp, jump, lamp, best, pond). Call out words or just the ending blend sound. First to get three in a row wins!
  5. Wrap-up (5 min): Read a short sentence together focusing on ending blends: "The bird is in its nest by the pond."

Day 4: Blend Masters Mix-Up!

Focus: More ending blends (ft, sk, ld) & Review

Activities:

  1. Review (5 min): Quickly review all beginning and ending blends learned so far using flashcards or a quick game.
  2. Intro (5 min): Introduce the final 'Ending Buddies': 'f' and 't' say /ft/ like in left, 's' and 'k' say /sk/ like in desk, 'l' and 'd' say /ld/ like in cold." Practice the sounds.
  3. Blend Sorting Challenge (15 min): Write words with various beginning and ending blends on index cards (e.g., stop, clap, hand, nest, left, desk, cold, green, trap, lamp, mask, hold). Create two piles: 'Beginning Blends' and 'Ending Blends'. Read each card with Ily and have her sort it into the correct pile.
  4. Silly Sentence Creation (10 min): Use the word cards from the sort. Work together to create silly sentences using as many blend words as possible. Write them down and read them aloud with funny voices.
  5. Blend Story Time (10 min): Choose an age-appropriate short story or passage known to contain several blend words. Have Ily read it aloud (or read together). Encourage her to point out or circle the blend words she finds.
  6. Assessment/Closure (5 min): Write 5-6 words on the board with various blends learned (e.g., frog, clip, sand, lift, desk, build). Ask Ily to read them aloud. Give lots of praise for becoming a Blend Master! Celebrate her hard work over the four days.