Word Blending and Segmenting Activities

Hello Everyone!  It's Brittany again, from Precious Steps Preschool.

Spring has finally sprung here in Western Pennsylvania!  Recently while looking through some spring themed clip art, I came across a cute little snail image from My Cute Graphics.  I just knew that I had to use it on something springy, so it inspired me to create these "Snail Talk" flash cards for Pre-K!

This is an easy activity to throw together with graphics of your choosing.  If you're not familiar with this blending activity, it's very simple.  In "Snail Talk", you sound out a word very slowly, letter by letter.  Place the flash cards in front of your children before choosing a word to sound out.  Let's use 'sun':  /ssssuuuun/.  The children will listen to the sounds that you are saying and in their heads will blend them together to figure out what word you are saying.  When they have their answer, they can grab that card from the pile and hold it up.  To keep children engaged, alternate between having the children raise their hands to answer and then calling on them one by one with having the whole group shout the answer whenever they know it.

This is a great activity to help children develop and strengthen their phonological awareness.  Doing so is a critical part of developing a reader.  Many research studies indicate that students who have a weak phonological awareness also have weak reading skills.

Another fun blending activity that will get your students excited is very similar to Snail Talk, called Robot Talk.

I'm sure you get the idea already.  In this activity, children hear segmented sounds and then blend the into words.  You can do this activity without flash cards by simply choosing items you see from around the room.  Using your best robot voice, ask the students:  Can. You. Tell. Me. What. I. See?  I. See. A. /h/a/t/.

Again, students can shout the answer out loud together, or you can call on them individually and let them each take a turn answering.  In going with my flash card theme for this post, I used the exact same images from the Snail Talk activity and made a set of Robot Talk flash cards as well.  This way you can turn them into a learning center or just break them out anytime you need to fill a few minutes time.

Grab these Snail Talk freebie (and editable) flash cards at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store, here, and the Robot Talk flash cards here.

Thanks for stopping by!