Here are three simple activities to help a child to learn to blend (updated from advert). I wrote them for an 8 yr old child whom I tutor. He has a smattering of phonic knowledge, but having not learned to blend properly is now guessing and unable to read fluently. This is a common problem, but it must not be allowed to persist or the child will not learn to read fluently, or will take a very long time to do so. These activities are listening activities. This is a deliberate act to limit the amount of exposure a child has to seeing CVC words, before working on blending with him/her, and so further limiting the possibility that a child will memorise the words before having learned to blend. By all means use ‘robot’ talk as you do these activities with your child. Before doing these activities with your child: Do ensure that a child can give the correctly pronounced sounds on sight of the letters of the alphabet. Remove any distractions/background noise. Have the child’s full attention. Full instructions and black and white pictures provided.

This ck reading book is a sample of my graded, systematic, phonic reading books with nearly 100% decodable words for the sounds: ck,oo, ee, sh, ch, th, ng, ing, ar and or. Suitable for use with any phonic programme, including Letters and sounds Phase 2 and RWI Speed Sets 1+ 2, once a child cna blends words with a short vowel sound, including those with consonant blends. You can find the complete Red Level Set 1 books in a package with the simple lesson notes and all you need to help your child learn to read, including the necessary flashcards and phonic word lists here, saving you time and effort: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12863669 Special Features of these graded phonic reading books: As each new phonic sound is introduced, words from that phonic family are practiced and words met in previous readers revised, while new words from phonic sound families already taught are gradually introduced. Because of this highly structured nature they are suitable for all children to enable good progress , but particularly for those who are struggling to learn to read. The books should be read in sound order as above. They only use the sight words: he, we, me, be, she, so, give, have, says. they, are The pictures are minimal and do not encourage guessing so that meaning has to be gleaned from the text. Each book tells a simple story with humour where possible They have been tried on tested on many children now, including some with profound difficulties. Matching workbooks consolidate and revise learning. Vocabulary repeats so aiding reading fluency and building security and confidence. They are based on the latest research and evidence based methods. If your child is struggling to learn to read for whatever reason, these books can help. Who are the graded phonic reading books for? These books can be used older struggling readers with dyslexia, or any with a processing difficulty of any kind. Teaching reading Reading intervention They were written for Reading MadeSimple but can be used with Letters and Sounds Phases 3 and 4, and RWI Speed Set 2. You can help a struggling reader today!

Read Match and Spell is an activity to help children to read (sound out), find a matching picture and then spell CVC words with a short vowel sound using magnetic letters. Great for Literacy centers, or for group/individual work Great for EYFS/Early Intervention/Special Needs You can use this Read, Match and Spell activity as a worksheet and let the child copy the word + picture and write the letters in the boxes, but I prefer to use the picture and word cards. This makes the activity more fun and stress-free. Included are 6 words and pictures for each short vowel sound. Print as many baseboards as you require. Start by limiting the child to words and pictures from one vowel sound, and as confidence grows, extend the choice to other vowel sounds. You can target the ones the child needs the most practice with. I made it for a pupil who lacks confidence: by having the word already in front of him he felt safe to sound the word out to spell it. The activity acted as a bridge to him being able to spell CVC words by himself. In addition, the picture served as a reward for having correctly sounded out the word. .

A bumper pack of teaching resources with everything you need to teach initial sounds. For use in class, for private tuition and for home education, ESL/EFL/ Special need. This Initial Sounds Teaching Pack contains (all a-z with vowels in yellow): Alphabet chart for display/for a child to practice the sounds/check and see progress Cards with both pictures and initial sounds, Cards with just a sound with room for the matching picture to be inserted above Two sets of matching pictures cards A set of lower-case letters A set of upper-case letters Vowel strips with and without pictures: these should be said daily, once learned, as the child moves on to learn to blend. Over 170 cards altogether! Simply print, cut and laminate for durability. Suggestions for use are provided, but you are only limited by your imagination!

20 spring vocabulary cards, all phonetically coded. Use for: display Word walls Language development Reading and spelling phonic work Make picture dictionaries to go with your topic work Use them in pocket charts - children just love these! Science work and much more… Use your imagination!

31 ‘ng’ fully differentiated worksheets, for use with any phonic programme, catering for the needs of the average class and special needs. Written for those at the early stages of phonics, e.g.: Letters and Sounds Phase 3 and Read Write Inc, Set 1 Special Friends and for catch up work, extra practice, ESL/EFL and special needs. The worksheets give practice in: Reading and spelling ‘ng’ words Tracking the ‘ng’ sound in words and sentences Proofreading Comprehension rhymes Writing sentences using ‘ng’ words. These worksheets are simple, but effective. For use by teachers and private tutors. Find activities suitable for all abilities Assume no knowledge of other digraphs (except on two stated worksheets where ‘th’ and ‘ck’ are used in higher level worksheets) Two worksheets for most activities: one without consonant blend words, and one with consonant blend words. Suitable for Special Needs/intervention work/homework.

A colouring page for every letter of the alphabet. Colour the things that begin with each sound. One object on each page (except A) starts with the previous initial sound. Can the child find it? Encourage neat colouring to aid pencil control. Correct phonic ‘i’ sound and ‘q’ written with ‘u’. I made these sheets for one of my pupils who is delayed in speech. He loved colouring and this was a way to motivate him. They helped him to successfully learn all 26 initial sounds. They can be used by all children and though suitable for use with all schemes, do progress in order - so if the phonic programme your child/ren is/are using does not follow the order of the alphabet, then maybe wait until all of the sounds have been taught. If you are teaching your own child, you may be interested in our totally FREE, phonic, reading and spelling programme, Reading Made Simple.

First reading books for those just learning the initial sounds with an Initial Sounds workbook to reinforce learning. Say the letter name and/or sound Trace the letter Find the things that begin with that sound These Initial Sounds reading books can be used in two ways: You can look at each letter as it is introduced and use the page as part of the lesson for that sound. You can wait until all of the sounds in each book have been taught and use it for revision. I prefer this last way, as when the child has learned 5 sounds, s/he will be so glad to recognise the sounds that have been taught in the book and it will give him/her a real confidence boost and a feeling of success. Try it and see for yourself. As you present each book, make it a moment to mark progress. “Now you have learned some more letters, you can read this book!” These books can be followed with our popular CVC Words reading books: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12636791 For more help teaching phonics, please see Reading Made Simple, a 100% free phonic reading and spelling programme, written by two teachers with many years experience teaching children to read, especially those with special needs.

36 pages of fun consonant blend activities arranged in 2 little workbooks to accompany our Consonant Blends reading books. The first book covers mainly initial blends while the second book mainly covers final blends. Common CCVC words with a short vowel sound are introduced. Each booklet 18 pages long (A5 size prints as a booklet). Suitable also for special needs pupils. Suitable for use at home/for home-education. They can be used alone or with our Consonant Blend Reading Books: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12645240 These books give extra reading and writing practice, using the vocabulary introduced in the reading books, building confidence. These books are compatible with Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics and Read, Write Inc, but were written for Reading Made Simple.

This game practices spelling words with ee or ea. Suitable for use with Read, Write inc. Set 3 words, or Letters and Sounds Phase 5 words. Be the first to pick all the apples on your tree as you decide whether a word is in the ee or the ea sound family. This game helps children to learn which combination of letters to use to spell common words in the ‘ea’ and ‘ee’ sound families. Excellent for reluctant learners, special needs, and just about all children. Full instructions and teaching notes included. For use with any phonic programme, including Read, Write Inc. and Jolly Phonics.

This game will help children to hear the sounds ‘sh’ and ‘ch’ in words. The child is not expected to read the words, just to listen for the sounds. Some children, especially those with a speech delay, have difficulty differentiating between ‘sh’ and ‘ch’. This game will help to focus the pupil’s attention on the difference between them. Games can be very effective when helping such children to progress to the next step, taking the fear of failing away and making it alright to make mistakes. They are wonderful for already de-motivated learners.

A simple phonic board game to practice reading words containing the phonic sounds: ck,oo,ee and sh. As your pupil has fun, his/her confidence will get a boost! Use with any phonic programme provided the above sounds have been taught. Great for any pupil, but especially those with a special need. *Written especially for use with Reading Made Simple, a 100% FREE reading and spelling programme of systematic phonics, for use by home-educators, parents and schools. So systematic it works even for those who have failed with other programmes.

This is a listening game to help the child to hear the ‘ee’ sound in words, as different to the ‘e’ sound as some children have difficulty hearing the new ee’ sound as their brain is trying to say 'e. One of my pupils has a speech delay. When I introduced him to ‘ee’, he tried to sound out the words saying ‘e’ instead of ‘ee’. It was as if ‘ee’ was a foreign sound to him. So, I devised this game to help him to hear the ‘ee’ sound in words he uses frequently in speech. After playing it a few times he is now happily sounding out to read and spell words with the ‘ee’ sound. In addition it helps the pupil to understand that the sound ‘e’ does not change as some children will start to say ‘ee’ every time they see ‘e’. Find more help with teaching the ee sound at Reading made Simple, my FREE Phonic reading and spelling programme that is really simple and really works! https://readingmadesimple.weebly.com/level-1---ee.html

This is a listening game to help the child to hear the ‘oo’ sound in words, as different to the ‘o’ sound as some children have difficulty hearing the new ‘oo’ sound. One of my pupils has a speech delay. When I introduced him to ‘oo’, he tried to sound out the words saying ‘o’ instead of ‘oo’. It was as if ‘oo’ was a foreign sound to him. So, I devised this game to help him to hear the ‘oo’ sound in words he uses frequently in speech. After playing it a few times he is now happily sounding out to read and spell words with the ‘oo’ sound. This game uses only the ‘oo’ sound as heard in ‘moon’. For more help teaching phonics, see my FREE Phonic reading and Spelling programme, Reading Made Simple. https://readingmadesimple.weebly.com/level-1---oo.html

A colourful chart to show the sounds of Levels 1 and 2 of Reading Made Simple - a 100% FREE phonic reading and spelling prgramme that works where others have failed. Use as handy prompt, to help the pupil find the correct digraph when spelling Use to practice saying the sounds made by each group of letters Laminate and use as a place mat, or pin it up as a poster! Learners will enjoy tracking their progress each week and testing themselves! Reading Made Simple: https://readingmadesimple.weebly.com/ Find the FREE word lists to accompany the Level 1 teaching programme here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12889313