The Blend Ladder

The blend ladder is used to help the student read two and three-letter syllables. I begin by placing a textured letter on the ladder in front of a vowel we have learned. The child tells me the sound of that letter, then the sound of the vowel and then we blend the two sounds together. We climb the letter up and down the ladder to each vowel we have learned and see how the syllable changes. The next day, we add a letter after the vowel sound as well. And finally, we have a blend ladder worksheet to do. I tell the children a word and ask them to point to the vowel sound that is hiding in the middle of the word. For “sat” they will point to the /a/ at the top of the ladder. Then they have to figure out what letter is at the beginning and write it in and what letter is at the end and write it in. When the ladder is filled in, they practice writing the new words on lined writing paper.
The kids are using this new knowledge to read words all over the place—cereal boxes, seat belts and much more!