September 28, 2023
Have you heard about continuous blending? This Science of Reading approach to teaching blending can support your students on the pathway to becoming fluency readers. Keep reading to learn more and grab a free printable blending road!
Keep reading to learn more about continuous blending in kindergarten and grab your free printable below. Or better yet, get it instantly inside Simply Kinder + here.
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Continuous blending is such a simple concept but it may not be how you were taught to teach blending. To do continuous blending we sound out WITHOUT stopping between sounds, so it sounds more fluid or continuous.
Why use this in your classroom?
Continuous blending reduces brain work and makes it easier for students to decode and read the word vs segmenting. Not to mention, when we read fluently we don’t read separate the sounds but blend them together.
Blending is easier when you start with words that begin with continuant consonants, which are types of sounds in which air flows continuously through a constricted area of the vocal tract.
Examples of these sounds are:
These sounds are easier to say continuously than stop sounds such as /p/, /b/, /t/, and /d/.
Teach continuous blending by making sure students do not stop between sounds, as in driving down the road, without hitting the breaks.
Students will say all of the sounds to decode the word accurately.
Practice with word cards, mapping the word, filling out sound boxes, and make sure to teach in context with decodable books too! Learn more about the endless decodable readers & word work activities here.
Here’s one way to use continuous blending in your instruction:
Using a road visual can help students that need extra support!
Learn more about a great strategy with Jennifer as she talks with Dr. Marnie Ginsberg from Reading Simplified. Learn about one simple change you can make that will have a big impact on your blending instruction. Read more here!
Grab this free printable Blending Road to help your students practice continuous blending! Use the printable cars or add some actual toy cars for even more hands-on learning!
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