step 1 of 6
You know the sound every letter makes. Now the sounds join together to crack the code. Mia sees the word sun and says s, u, n one by one.
What does Mia do next to read the word?
به انگلیسی
Blending Sounds to Read Words
Apply phonic knowledge to blend sounds in unfamiliar words containing taught grapheme-phoneme correspondences; respond speedily to graphemes for all 40+ phonemes
What a learner can do afterwards
- Sound out and blend unfamiliar phonically regular words (e.g. /sh/-/o/-/p/ → 'shop')
- Read words containing taught GPCs without excessive sounding out
- Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying differing letter sounds (e.g. 'big' vs 'bag')
1 · Read
You know your letter sounds. Now you will blend them into whole words. Say each sound fast, one after another, until they join together.
Try it together
Mia sees the word sun. She says s, u, n one by one. Then she blends them fast: sun.
Good to know
Some words look almost the same, like big and bag. Listen closely to the middle sound so you read the right word.
Sound by sound, then blend fast to read the whole word.
More to read
Word Detectives: Blending Sounds to Make Words
You can be a word detective! Words are made of sounds hiding inside them. Say each sound slowly, one at a time. Then push the sounds together fast, and a word pops out. Try it. Say /c/ /a/ /t/. Now say the sounds fast together: cat. You just read a word. Try shop. Say /sh/ /o/ /p/. Push them together: shop. The more you practice, the faster you get. Soon you will read lots of words all by yourself, just like a real detective solving a case.
Foundational Literacy LS.6.1: a_e, i_e, o_e
Some letters team up to make new sounds. Look at the word cake. The e at the end is very quiet. You do not say it. But it has a magic job. It makes the a say its own name. So you read cake, not cack. The same trick works in bike and home. The quiet e makes the vowel say its name. Now try to read these words: cake, bike, home. Say each sound slowly, then blend the sounds together. Listen for the vowel saying its name. That is the quiet e doing its job.
Phonics In Context
The letter u can say /u/, like at the start of up. You can hear it in sun, run, and fun. When someone reads you a story, listen for that /u/ sound. Then try to read u words yourself. Look at sun. Say each sound: /s/ /u/ /n/. Now push the sounds together: sun. Try run and fun the same way. Hearing the sound in a story and then reading it in words helps your brain learn it fast.
2 · Watch
به انگلیسی3 · Play
به انگلیسی
Take it off screen
Print a worksheetA4 with an answer key page for grown-ups. No screen, no internet.
Where it sits
Then practise
24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.