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?
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.
2 · Watch
3 · Play
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.