A short, decodable story embedding r-blends words. Students read the passage then highlight all the target words.
Chad's Brick Tower
Skill: R-Blends • Sight Words: the, is, a, and, to, was, it, she, he, they
Coloring page included in PDF
Chad had a big stack of red brick. He had a plan for Dan. Dan was in his crib and was sad.
Chad set a brick up. Then he set up the rest of his big stack. The stack was so tall.
Then, Chad had a trick to get a grin. He got a brush. Chad got some green slop and put it on his brush. He put a spot on the top brick, and then two dots. It was a frog!
"Look, Dan!" said Chad.
Dan sat up in his crib. He got a big grin for the frog on the brick.
Circle or highlight all the words that start with a consonant blend. How many did you find?
Next step: once your child can sound out these words, have them read a matching decodable mini-book. Each R-Blends reader is a printable story + coloring page using only sounds they've learned.
R-blends, like br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, and tr, are consonant blends where the 'r' sound immediately follows another consonant, creating a single, smooth sound unit. This skill often follows CVC words and introduces children to more complex word structures. Young learners frequently struggle with articulating both sounds distinctly and smoothly together. For instance, "brick" might be pronounced as "bick" or "rick," missing the blend entirely. Similarly, "crab" could become "cab" or "rab," and "drum" might be heard as "dum." The 'r' sound itself can be challenging for some children, and blending it after another consonant requires precise mouth movements and auditory discrimination. They need to hear and produce both the initial consonant and the 'r' without adding a vowel sound in between, which is a common error.
To effectively use these R-blend worksheets, begin by having your student carefully trace and say the blend sounds. When working with the "Chad's Brick Tower" story, encourage them to identify and circle all the R-blend words they find. The decodable passage is perfect for repeated readings, focusing on smooth pronunciation of words like "grab," "trick," and "truck." Utilize the word sort activity to help students categorize words by their initial R-blend, reinforcing visual and auditory patterns. The phrasing cards are excellent for building fluency; have them read the phrases aloud, paying attention to how the R-blends flow within sentences. Finally, use the Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN) chart to build speed and accuracy in recognizing and saying R-blend words quickly, solidifying their mastery of this tricky sound pattern.
