What is the difference between blends and consonant clusters

The term cluster refers to the written form and the term blend refers to the spoken form. Consonant clusters consist of four major categories:. You can teach beginning consonant clusters as soon as children have learnt the single consonant sound-spellings. The consonant clusters thr, chr, phr, shr, are made up of a consonant digraph and a consonant.

Ending blends: ct, ft, ld, lp, lt, mp, nd, nk, nt, pt, rd, rk, sk, sp, st teach these last. Digraphs consist of two consonants that when blended make one sound: sh , ch , th , wh , ph , gh , ng You need to teach and practice this with beginning readers.

Most other consonant clusters will almost always stand for the blended sound of each consonant, which makes them very reliable and worthy of teaching. Would love to hear the fun things you use to teach clusters and blends in the comments. Remember to "Teach Magically!

Posted by Debora Marines. Labels: blends , clusters , phonics , Teach Magically. No comments:. Many kids have difficulties reading words with adjacent consonants as they are present in words with 4, 5 and 6 sounds, e. For beginner readers, adjacent consonants are difficult to blend!

A consonant team is when two adjacent consonants in a word spell one sound. Another term for a consonant team is consonant digraph. Digraph means two letters that spell one sound.