Stretchy Blend

What Stretchy Blend practices

Stretchy Blend gives a child a model for joining sounds into a word. Letters sit along a track: moving from left to right plays each sound, then the whole word. The word on the screen changes between rounds, so check its sounds before you start.

Sounds such as s and m can be held; sounds such as t and p are brief. When you model a blend, keep the sounds joined without adding an “uh” after a consonant. The game supplies the sounds, so finishing a round is guided practice rather than a check of independent reading.

Who it suits

Try this together when your child can say the sounds in a short word but gets stuck joining them. If a sound in the displayed word is unfamiliar, pause the game and practice that sound together first.

How a round goes

First, look at the word on the screen together. Ask for each letter’s sound, rather than its name. Model joining those sounds while moving your finger from left to right, then let your child copy you. For example, in map, hold m and the short a, then say p briefly: “mmmaaap … map.”

Your child can drag the bead along the track or tap the letters in order. Let each sound finish: a quick swipe may stop partway through the word. At the end, the letters join, the word is spoken, and a picture appears when there is one.

Try one or two words, then pause for a word on paper. Another game word can appear automatically; you do not need to keep going. Stop sooner if your child is frustrated.

A tip for home

Write a different short word whose sounds your child knows and which you have not just practiced, such as sit. Ask them to slide the sounds together before you model it. If they need help, show them and try together. This is a chance to notice what they can try without the game’s spoken model, not a reading-level assessment.

Try next

• Picture Pick — blending without the track, checked against a picture.
• Word Family — blends in two chunks, a new first sound onto a familiar ending.
• Build the Word — runs blending in reverse, from a spoken word to its letters.
• Say the Sound — practices the single letter sounds that blending depends on, said out loud.

More from “Blending sounds into words”

• Change a Sound — Swap one sound to turn a word into a new word.

Read more

Knows the sounds but can’t blend them yet: the sliding trick, step by step, for a child who knows the sounds but cannot join them yet.