Blending Sounds for CVC Mystery Words

In recent years there has been a tremendous push to assist students with special needs in acquiring pre-literacy and literacy skills. One important skill is the ability to blend individual sounds together to make a word.  

The Blending CVC Mystery Words Animated Step-by-Step resource addresses the child's ability to identify a word, based on hearing its component sounds and the ability to associate those individual sounds with individual letters.

This activity is conducted in a game-like format. 

This resource is conducted using 7 sets of CVC words that systematically vary the initial, medial and final letters of those words.

 Set 1: (initial) cat hat rat

Set 2: (medial) hat hot hut

Set 3: (final) cap can cat

Set 4: (initial) jar, car, bar

Set 5: (medial) cut cot cat

Set 6: (final) cut cub  cub

Set 7: (initial) ham tam jam

Step 1 for each set: 

Three pictures are introduced that will represent 3 possible CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words in the set.

Each picture is introduced in turn and is announced with it’s spoken CVC label.

 As each picture is also ‘loaded’ with sound (using action setting feature of PowerPoint) the facilitator has the option of informally quizzing a student for their comprehension of the three pictures in the set e.g. ‘Find cat’, ‘Find rat’, ‘Find hat’ before the blending exercise is introduced with the next slide.

Step 2 for each set: 

Three numbered squares are present on the next slide. Touch each square in turn (1 – 2 – 3) and the student will hear the three components of the CVC ‘mystery word’, (e.g., ‘k’ - ‘a’ - ‘t’). The time between each activation can be reduced to help facilitate this blending ability.  

Step 3 for each set: The student is required to indicate  (touch/click) which picture (e.g., cat, hat, rat) reflects the segmented mystery word that they just heard, (e.g., “c” - “a” - “t”

 If the student selects the correct picture, the picture will be verbally labeled (e.g., “cat”)

 If the student selects one of the incorrect pictures, a generic negative comment will be heard, “ nu-ahh”.

Step 4 of each set: The student is encouraged to select the red arrow which triggers a series of animations. First the correct target picture is pulsed and announced (e.g., ‘cat’). Simultaneously the non-target pictures (e.g., hat, rat) are dimmed … then the letters corresponding to each sound in the mystery word appear in their  corresponding sound blocks e.g.,  c – a – t  in conjunction with their associated sound. 

As the target picture and the sound blocks are all ‘loaded’ with sound, the entire process can be manipulated to promote understanding for each individual student. 

This is a a great visually-supported task. It can help students better appreciate that spoken words are made up of individual sounds and those individual sounds correspond to specific printed letters. 

…’til the next post …  (new posts every Monday)

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©2017 Carol Goossens’, Ph.D.

Augmentative Communication Consultant

Speech-Language Pathologist

Special Educator