Multisensory Monday: Fun Blending Activities

The third part of the 3-Part Drill, blending, increases fluency. The goal for Blending is to be able to read these syllables as whole units. Working toward this goal is an important step to successful Syllabication. 

Make Blending fun with the following activities:

• Rhyme Time: place a VC rime on the Blending board and change the initial consonant to practice rhyming. This is a supportive way to encourage students to read whole syllables and work toward fluency, as their main focus would be on the beginning consonant.
• Echo: ask several students to become Echoes. Explain how echoes work in nature when you say a word or sound loudly and then hear it repeated back to you. Students read Blending syllables, and your Echoes will repeat. In this way, all of your students can participate and receive the practice they need to advance.
• Voices: give the students a voice or expression to read the blends. Ask students to read the blends in different ways: whisper, shout, plug your nose, excited, angry, etc. 
• Building Words: after students read the syllable, ask them to think of a longer word that includes that detached syllable (example: vol would appear in words: volume, volcano, volunteer, etc.). 
• Blending Warm-Up: Tell students every athlete warms up before an event. Their event will be Syllabication, and the warm-up will be Blending. Set up your Blending board as you would for your 3-part Drill. Ask students to read the blends as a 3-minute warm-up for Syllabication.

Written by Ingrid Hartig

Ingrid is a Master Instructor with Brainspring’s Educator Academy