Montessori Inspired Blue Series - Learning about Consonant Blends

With Vito reading CVC words and sight words, we are now moving to the Blue Series.  The Blue Series is a Montessori approach in learning consonant blends and digraphs.  I made an entire set of blue series materials for Vito to use in the course of his learning.  We will work on these materials  and move on to the next set as he progresses.  In this post, I will give you an overview of the materials and how we are going to use them.

It is important to note that the blue series (blends and digraphs) comes after the pink series.  Once the child is familiar with letter sounds and can basically read CVC words (pink series) then he/she can move on to the blue series.

Blue Series Activity: Sorting Picture Cards

We started off by exploring one blend at a time.  Here you can see that we are learning about words with R blends.  The activity is pretty simple, name the picture in the card, emphasize the beginning sound, then place the card on the column of the correct consonant blend.  We are using our black Montessori moveable alphabet in forming blends and digraphs.  We used this is to isolate and differentiate the blends to the phonetic letter sounds.

The picture cards used in this activity are from the picture and label card set that we have from our shop.

Blues Series Activity: Matching Pictures and Labels

In this activity, the child matches the picture cards to their labels.  This is similar to the CVC Pink Series activity that we had in the past (Introducing the Montessori Pink Series for Beginning Reading).

Here is the link to the Word Blends BUNDLE or you can click the image below for more details of the activities and a preview of the material.

Blues Series Activity: Blends and Digraphs Clipcards

In this activity, the child will identify the picture in the card and will mark the beginning consonant blend or ending digraph that correspond to the picture.  You can use any manipulatives available to mark the correct blends.

Blue Series Activity: Word Clipcards

This is a word clipcard version of the blends and digraph clipcards.  Instead of identifying the blends or ending digraphs, the child has to identify the word that matches the picture.  This activity is perfect for kids who are more confident with their reading skills.

Blue Series Activity: Tracing and Coloring Strips

Do you have a child who loves to color, trace, and write letters?  Vito is into writing and coloring these days and this is why I'm adding these coloring and tracing strips in the bundle pack.  I included two sets: one set has colored pictures and the child will only need to trace the words and the other set has the black and white version for kids who love to color as well.  This hands-on learning activity will also help the student remember the spelling of words.

I will be adding blank strips as well in this bundle.  The blank strips are for more advanced students who can write the matching words without the tracing letters.

Blue Series Activity: Reading Booklets

Booklets for reading practice has worked for us for years so I made a set for our Blue Series Learning Material.  By default, each blend has 5 words in the booklet but I will include three more words as an option.

Blue Series Activity: Word List and Word Families

I made these word list - word family cards for Vito for the Pink Series CVC practice.  I made this for personal use and these were another set of fantastic reading tools that has helped him improve his reading skills, especially with word families.  I will be making a similar one for the Blue Series and will be available in the bundle pack soon.  Below is a sample picture of what we currently have for the Pink Series.

And that's about it! All these reading materials and sets will be yours in just one purchase.  Our WORD BLENDS BUNDLE is a perfect companion for learning blends and digraphs and has all the necessary reading tools and activities for your child and student needs.  For other montessori inspired reading learning materials, you can also check this link in our shop, Literature CVC and Early Reading Materials.

If you would also like to check our pink series activities I've listed them below:

• Introducing the Montessori Pink Series for Beginning Reading


• Beginning Letter Sound Activity Sheets


• Beginning Letter Phonics Cards


• Building Words with the Moveable Alphabet and Objects

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