What Are Consonant Blends?

Consonant blends are groups of two or more consonants in a word where each consonant’s sound can be heard. Examples include “bl” in “blue,” “str” in “street” and “cr” in “crab.” Blending is an important skill as it allows children to become more proficient decoders when they encounter an unfamiliar word.

To familiarize your students with some of the more common consonant blends in the English language, Teach Starter has created this fun, bee-themed consonant blend sorting activity. To play, students must match the words on the cards with the correct “blend hive.”

The 12 consonant blends features in this resource are: fl, tr, br, cr, fr, cl, dr, sl, st, bl, gl, sc.

This resource downloads as a full-color or black-and-white PDF. Each file contains 12 beehives and 72 word cards for sorting.

This hands-on, interactive activity will help your students recognize and learn common consonant blends in a playful, memorable way.

Activity Ideas Using Consonant Blends

This consonant blends activity is a fun and engaging way to teach students about blending sounds when decoding new words. Here are some creative and enjoyable activities you could incorporate into your lesson plan:

1. Group Activity – Use the sorting activity as a group rotation during your phonics lessons. Place the beehives on the table or floor, then have the students evenly distribute the word cards among themselves. Students take turns to read each word card and determine which beehive it belongs to. They then place the card on the correct beehive.
2. Blend It! – Choose a word card, then call on a student to decode it using their blending skills. This oral practice strengthens their ability to recognize and pronounce each distinct phoneme (sound) within a word correctly.
3. Creative Writing – Encourage students to write sentences or a short story using as many of the sorted blend words as possible. This helps integrate their phonics knowledge into broader language skills.

Download to Sort Consonant Blends

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the full-color or black-and-white version of this resource.

Print on cardstock for added durability and longevity. Place all pieces in a folder or large envelope for safekeeping.

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