Consonant Blends

Kala and Dee are heading into the woods for a long walk. To make sure that they don't get hungry whilst walking, they are making smoothies to take with them and are blending different fruits together to try out new flavours. Each fruit brings it's own special flavour to the drink much like consonant blends. What are consonant blends? You might already know that consonants are any letter that isn't a vowel and that vowels include the letters a, e, i, o and u. Consonant blends are when there are two consonant letters in a row that blend together to make a new sound. In this new sound you can hear the sound that each letter makes, kind of like the fruits in a smoothie! Let's see what Dee and Kala are blending together first. It looks like they are blending together blueberries and lemons! But what's this? There are the letters b and l on the fruit! We need to find out what sound these consonants make when blended together. To do that, start by making the sound for each letter. Here, we have the letter b which makes the sound /b/ and l which makes the sound /l/. Next, say the sounds quickly together to find the new blend! If we blend the letters b and l together, what sound do you think it will make? The letters b and l blend together to make the sound /bl/ like in the words blue or block. Dee wants to make his own smoothie now and is blending figs and raspberries together! His fruit has the letters f and r on them. What consonant blend do the letters f and r make together? Remember to start by making the sound for each letter. Then, say the letter sounds together quickly to find the new blend! The letter f makes the sound /f/ and the letter r makes the sound /r/ which means the letters f and r make the blend /fr/ like in the words frog or friend. Finally, Dee and Kala are mixing together star fruit and tangerines! These fruit have the letters s and t written on them. What consonant blend do the letters s and t make together? When blended together, s and t make the sound /st/ like in the words stop or star. Before we see how the smoothies turned out, let's review. Today we learnt about consonant blends which is when two consonant letters in a row blend together to make a new sound. We learnt that to find the new blend first, make the sound for each letter then, say the letter sounds together quickly to find the new blend! Now, let's see how those smoothies turned out! "This is it, Kala! This is the one!" "It is pretty tasty." "It wins first prize!"