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What is a blend?
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What is a blend?
Sound Waves 6/9/15
Please note: A new and improved Sound Waves Years 3–6 program is on its way for use in 2027! Information in our professional learning articles may differ in the updated edition.
Blends, also known as consonant clusters, are sequences of two or three consonant sounds. The words snap, clip and split begin with blends. The words jump, desk and milk end in blends.
When orally segmenting words with blends, separate the sounds within the blend. Snap is segmented as /s/n/a/p/, not /sn/a/p/.
Split is segmented as /s/p/l/i//t/, not /spl/i/t/. When segmenting blends in writing, place each grapheme in its own box to show that it represents an individual sound.
Blends shouldn’t be confused with digraphs and trigraphs.
Digraphs are two letters representing a single sound, such as sh in ship. Trigraphs are three letters representing a single sound, such as tch in patch.