A blend is either two or three consonants standing together but each letter keeping its own sound. Blends are not part of the 42 Sounds of the Alphabet but because they are so important they have their own wall chart. We will address "l" blends now.
There are 6 "l" blends: bl cl fl gl pl and sl. Notice the "l" is always the second letter in the blend and the first of the letters are in alphabetical order. It is very difficult to pronounce blends in isolation because initial "l’s" in English are pronounced differently from final "l’s". So it is best to teach students to slide to the vowel sound right away with blends.
To build a word students simply add a final consonant. So begin with a blend, add a vowel and then add a final consonant.
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