LumiraWhat is a consonant blend?
In a consonant blend, two consonants sit side by side and both sounds are still heard. Blends trip up a lot of readers because the sounds run together quickly — the fix is slowing down and stretching each sound in turn, not memorising the pair as a unit.
cr blend words — word list
Every word below appears in the decodable book on this page, so a reader who practises the list will meet the same words again in context.
- crab
- crabs
- cram
- crash
- crib
- cribs
- crisp
- crop
- crops
- crush
Free decodable book: Decodable Blend CR
This is an original Lumira decodable reader, written so that a child can sound out nearly every word using patterns they have already been taught. The full text is below — read it here, or open it in the app to read it together with the words highlighting as you speak.
Mia has a crab. Leo has a crab too. Mia and Leo like the crabs.
Mia can cram the bag. Leo can cram the bag too. Mia and Leo cram and cram.
Leo had a crib. Mia had a crib too. Mia and Leo like the cribs.
Mia had a crop. Leo had a crop too. Mia and Leo had big crops.
Mia did not crush it. Leo did not crush it too. Mia and Leo did not crush the crop.
Mia had a crash. Leo had a crash too. Mia and Leo did not like the crash.
Mia has a crisp hat. Leo has a crisp hat too. Mia and Leo like a crisp hat.
Crab cram crib crop crush crash crisp. Mia and Leo like them all.
How to teach it
- Say the sound on its own first, several times, before showing any letters.
- Show the spelling and name it explicitly — tell the reader what it says rather than asking them to work it out.
- Blend two or three words from the list together, out loud, slowly.
- Read the decodable book above, where the pattern repeats in real sentences.
- Come back to it two or three days later. Cumulative review is what makes it stick.
Lessons that practise this pattern
Build words: cr blends
Blend CCVC words with initial cr blend — one sound per box