It can be hard for pre-readers to hear the difference between single consonants and blends. Try this free Bingo game to help your early reader master blends and digraphs!
My Four knows his beginning sounds without any trouble, but hearing the two distinct sounds in a blend is difficult for him. When he worked on our beginning blends clip cards, I could see that we needed to take things back a step.
And that brings us to…
Blends and Digraphs Bingo
It’s a giant set of 27 free bingo boards to help your child hear the sounds of beginning blends (fr, tr, cl, pr, etc.) and digraphs (sh, ch, th, wh, wr).
I played this with my Four, Six, and Seven. Each time I pulled a calling card I had my Four read the beginning blend. At first I had him read the cards the way I teach letter sounds… without a voiced ending. By this I mean that “sn” would be “sssnn” rather than “snuh.”
As we played, though, I began to see that it was easier to hear the blend if it was more pronounced. So “pl” became “pluh” and “sn” became “snuh.” While I don’t recommend doing this with beginning letter sounds (letter m should be “mmm” and not “muh”), it really helped my Four hear the blend in each word.
(If you do this, as I did, you should phase this out as soon as possible.)
If you’re playing this game at home rather than the classroom, you’ll only need a few boards. You might be surprised at how much older siblings enjoy this game. My Six and Seven were anxious to play and played a few more rounds after my Four had moved on.
If it’s just you and your early reader, print two boards and play with him.
My favorite thing about this game is that every single blend and digraph on the calling cards is represented on every single board. This way your child can’t give up, saying, “I don’t have that one.” He’ll have to keep hunting, because he knows it’s there somewhere.
I hope you enjoy these!
I recommend printing on cardstock. If you expect these to get a lot of use, laminating is a good idea.
Looking for more free printables for learning sounds?
- Beginning sound blackout
- Beginning blends clip cards
- Rhyming clip cards
- Rhyming bingo
- Beginning sound clip cards
- Beginning sound coloring pages
- Beginning sound cover worksheets
Get your free BINGO games!
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Melanie
Thank you for your generosity with your materials.
They are fantastic.
Anna G
You’re very welcome, Melanie!
Nayana Chadichal
Hi Anna,
My son is able to identify short vowels in a small words of 3 letter or 4 letter words. And he is doing ending sounds and beganing sounds in a word, and even trying to learn middle sound of small words,he will be turning 5 in March, I need ur suggestion to what to teach him further,I m from different country, I learnt English in different way, since from last 2 years I m in USA my kid was learning in a US preschool he learnt lot in that school, unfortunately I moved to new place in US, but I don’t find same kind of School here, so I thought to teach him further in home, but I don’t know what to continue now, and also he started to learn about long vowels,blends also but still he is not so use to it, pls suggest me what I continue him teaching .. pls reply as soon as possible.. !
Thank you
Anna G
I sent you an email. 🙂
Jennifer
Thanks for making these available! Working on spelling with 6 year old. He wasn’t getting that multiple letters make certain sounds. We did Bingo and Roll a Blend today. Worked great!
Anna G
You’re very welcome, Jennifer!
Jessica
Thank you so much for including free printables! These are great resources that will help me greatly in the classroom! You have saved me hours!
Anna G
You’re very welcome, Jessica! I’m glad it works for you!
Janeen
Hi Anna! ! I have one more week until I finish your ABC book – the letter of the week. It was been so great! I’d like to know what you’d suggest next. I checked out your free printable site and it overwhelmed me. I guess a book with more specific instructions is better for me like your ABC book. I tried to download your blends and digraphs clip sheets but when you click on it the bingo game comes up again.
Thanks for any advice you can give! It’s exciting to see my daughter know all her letters and their sounds!
Janeen
It’s called the beginning blend clip cards. I had to go back to see the name of the fee printable that didn’t download.
Janeen
I got your blend clip cards! Thanks!
Anna Geiger
Yes – sorry about that. I had the wrong link on the free printables page. You asked what to do next. If your child knows her letters and sounds, I recommend checking out Reading the Alphabet. You can learn more about it here: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/teach-your-preschooler-to-read-yes-you-can/
Emma
Thank you SO much for all your free resources. I am a first year teacher and your website has been so helpful and inspirational. Thank you so much x
Anna Geiger
I’m so glad to hear that, Emma! Thank you so much for your comment. 🙂
Christine
I can’t download the free printable:( Can you help me?
Anna Geiger
Try these tips! One of them usually works. https://www.themeasuredmom.com/how-to-download-free-files/
Jennifer Morse
I love this! Thank you for sharing!
Anna Geiger
You’re very welcome, Jennifer!
Nat
This is great – thank you! My son, my mum and I played it together and he found it great fun. 🙂 I It’s inspired me to put together more bingo style games for other learning topics. Before I try to reinvent the wheel, I was wondering if there’s a program you use to generate the bingo cards? Thanks
Anna Geiger
Hi, Nat!
I just create a table in Publisher or Power Point and insert images. 🙂
tina
My son is in Sr. Kg. He found difficult writing digraphs. Even he only gets problem with a, e, I and digraph ai. I tried so many times to make my son understand this. But I cnt
Anna Geiger
Do you have a question for me, Tina? I couldn’t tell exactly what problems your son has with digraphs beyond ai. I might be able to direct you to some free resources.
Janelle
Do you teach consonant blends to four year olds? This is usually done in second grade at ages six or seven.
You may be rushing your four year old.
Anna Geiger
For now we’re mostly working at the listening part of it – to help him distinguish between the sounds of single consonants and blends. Since he can do it, I don’t think I’m rushing it. However, if he struggles, I don’t push. My older two kids were reading fluently before kindergarten, so they obviously had a good grasp of blends before second grade. Personally, I think “developmentally appropriate” depends on the individual child, not grade level.
karen
In Montessori education (3-6) we teach blends to our 5-6 year olds (kindergarteners) they’re all fluent readers and love to writ, this makes writing more successful for them.