Blending Phonemes Mystery Match Reading Center

It’s no mystery that young learners need multiple opportunities to practice blending sounds and building words. Our Blending Phonemes Secret Message task cards are designed to give your students the practice they need to grow into readers and writers.

To play, place the task cards into a stack, and lay the single picture cards out face-up. Students choose one task card from the set. They look at the pictures and identify the initial sound of each picture shown. They then take those initial sounds and blend them together to create a new word. The new word is then matched to one of the single picture cards.

Through this activity, students will develop their blending skills and apply them to CVC words.

Tips for Differentiation + Scaffolding 

A team of dedicated, experienced educators created this resource to support your reading lessons.

In addition to individual student work time, use this phonics game to enhance learning through guided reading group or whole class lessons

If you have a mixture of above and below-level learners, check out these suggestions for keeping students on track with the concepts: 

🆘 Support Struggling Students

Help students who need help understanding the concepts by providing them with a letter/sound wall to assist in the identification of the initial sounds of the pictures on each card.

Have students write down their responses before choosing the matching image card.

➕ Challenge Fast Finishers

Challenge students to use each word in a sentence, or encourage them to create their own secret message cards using sentence strips.

Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the color or black and white version of this resource. 

Print on cardstock for added durability and longevity. Place all pieces in a folder or large envelope for easy access. 

To keep the task cards out of pockets or under desks, punch a hole in the corner of each to place them on a binder ring. 

This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a teacher in Michigan, Teach Starter Collaborator. 

Don’t stop there! We’ve got more activities and resources that cut down on lesson planning time:  

teaching resource

Break It Up! 3-Phoneme Word Segmentation Task Cards

Practice breaking down words with 3 phonemes into their sounds with this set of 18 task cards.