How to use blend ladders

The two main goals when using these blend ladders is to:

1. teach the short vowel sounds.
2. instill that vowels are the most important part of the word.

Always have your child start by saying the vowel sounds first.  Use a pencil or other pointer to guide your child’s eyes to the vowels. You are teaching that vowels are the most important part of the word by saying them first.

Go down the ladder through all five vowel sounds. If your child needs to take it a little slower just focus on one sound for the whole day.  Once your child has said the correct vowel sound, have them say the consonant sound.

Example of short vowel sounds:  When using the B ladder, the vowels should make sounds as in the words

• bag
• beg
• big
• bog
• bug

Finally you will put the two sounds together. Use your pointer in a left to right motion and have your child read the two sounds together.

Bonus:

After your child has mastered all the sounds you can start adding another consonant to the end. We recommend that you cut out these blend ladders and laminate each one. You can then use a dry erase marker to add letters to the end of each blend. Now your child can start reading CVC (Consonant – vowel – consonant) words.

Here is a list of example CVC words:

Download all blend ladders

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