If your students are struggling to blend CVC words, you are not alone. In fact, this is one of the most common phonics problems that arise when teaching students how to read. Your students are able to say each sound of a CVC word, like /c/ /a/ /p/, but when they go to say the whole word, they say a different word. This can be one of the most frustrating things as a Kindergarten or First Grade teacher because they KNOW the sounds. What is happening? Well, I am going to share the main problem behind this issue and 3 ideas to help fix it so you can watch your students succeed!

Lack of Phonemic Awareness
If your students are struggling to blend CVC words, then you need to focus on phonemic awareness. Phonemic Awareness can be defined as the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes (aka sounds) in words. This skill is best taught orally, with an βI say, you repeat, think, and solveβ type of sequence. We use these warm-ups daily from the beginning of the school year to get in our phonemic awareness practice. These warm-ups cycle through both phonological and phonemic awareness skills for your students to learn and practice. It takes consistent practice for a few weeks before you start noticing a difference, but keep going. You will be amazed at how quickly your students start to pick up blending by doing these warm-ups.
Focus on oral blending
One of the main skills included in these warm-ups is orally blending CVC words. Oral blending is hearing sounds (or syllables), and being able to blend them to make the word. For example, the teacher says β/b/β¦/a/β¦/t/β, the student listens, repeats the sounds, then says the word βbatβ. You can read more about oral blending, along with some simple activities here: Oral Blending
This is the skill that your students need more practice with before they are able to visually decode and blend CVC words. Once your students are effectively orally blending CVC words, then you can move onto visually decoding CVC words.
Now that you know to focus on phonemic awareness, what else can you do? I have a few ideas that you can use with your students. Remember, you will need to first focus on orally blending, then you can try each of these strategies when visually blending CVC words.
Using whisper phones to orally blend
When I first started teaching phonics, I had no clue what a βwhisper phoneβ was. It looks like an old school phone that is hollow in the middle. The purpose of this teaching aid is to allow students to hear the sounds they are making. Have your students hold it up to their ear and mouth and repeat the sounds of a CVC word. By doing this, they are able to clearly hear the sounds coming out of their mouth and with some time and practice, start orally blending CVC words.
You can bring out whisper phones during your daily phonemic awareness lesson or during small group instruction. Itβs best if each student has their own to use as part of their βphonics toolboxβ. Find a class set of whisper phones on Amazon.
Incorporating different movements to blend
When teaching blending, most teachers probably use the point and swipe method to blend. Students will point to each sound, then swipe their fingers across to blend. While this works fine for some, others may need a different approach. One of my favorites is to use their arm to slide the sounds down. First, they will point to their shoulder and repeat the first sound. Next, they will point to the inside of their elbow and repeat the middle sound. Then, they will point to their wrist and say the ending sound. Finally, they will go back to their shoulder and blend the word as they slide down their arm. Watch it in action here.
You can also use hula hoops or chalk to jump to each sound, then run across as you say the word. Iβve also used a slinky to stretch as each sound is said, then snap it back together to say the word. Incorporating movements with oral blending is a great tactic to try.
Using Elkonin boxes and counters to blend sounds
Elkonin boxes (or sound boxes) were designed by D.B. Elβkonin, a Russian psychologist in the 1960βs. He created this method of using boxes to segment words into individual sounds, which became a widely used and effective strategy in helping children learn to read.
You can use these to either blend sounds or spell a word. This was another tool I kept in my students' βphonics toolboxβ that they used to help them during phonics instruction. I simply just printed off one of these and laminated them for durability. You can download a free printable here.
During our oral blending practice, I gave each student their sound box cards and three counters. You can use any manipulative such as math counters, pom poms, mini erasers, etc. As you say each sound, students will repeat and move their counters up into each box. Then, they will swipe across saying the word by blending the sounds together. Once students are able to visually blend CVC words, you can write in a word, with one sound per box and they can practice reading CVC words.
Try these strategies to help your students blend CVC words!
If your students are struggling to blend CVC words, itβs okay. You can try these strategies, adjust your focus to phonemic awareness and oral blending, and practice consistently with lots of modeling. They will get it, sometimes it just takes time. I hope this post was helpful as you navigate the ins and outs of phonics instruction. Let me know how these strategies have helped you.
[…] become STRONG readers and writers. You'll find if your students are struggling with things like blending CVC words, then they need more support in phonemic awareness. There are the 6 main phonemic awareness skills, […]