A blend, or a consonant cluster, is a group of consonants that stand together in a word such as cl, br, or st; there are no vowels between the two consonants.
Words, Words, Words- Consonant Blends and Digraphs, Triple Consonant Blends, Short Vowels, Long Vowels
Consonant Cluster Word Lists and worksheets

Why are Syllables important? Well, pronunciation. If you can’t properly divide the word into the correct syllables then you can’t pronounce the word correctly.
Take for example the word marry (as in, to marry someone).
1. ma-rry
2. mar-ry
In the first example the pronunciation is May-re but in the second it is mar-ee, which is correct.
Now, to learn how to find the number of syllables and to count them please head to this site on Syllable Rules (because I can’t summarize the entire thing without copyright issues).

The estate of A.A. Milne has authorized a sequel to the original Winnie the Pooh books, and will publish “Return to the Hundred Acre Wood” on October 5. This is the first authorized sequal to the 1926 book, Winnie the Pooh and will be written by novelist David Benedictus and illustrated by Mark Burgess.
Benedictus and Burgess have captured the “spirit and quality of those original books,” stated Michael Brown, the trustee of the estate.
Look for the book in early October from Penguin Young Readers. As Jeffrey A Trachtenberg of the Wall Street Journal said today, even Eeyore might smile about …read more

Making predictions does not come naturally to all of us but it is a necessary step to becoming a good and successful reader. To be able to predict means being able to use cause and effect and cognitive thinking skills.
When I was teaching middle school I would incorporate predictions into every reading log and students would predict at the end of each chapter or reading session, even if it was as simple as “the girl will go into the house”.
Another activity you can do is make predictions on what will happen in the story based just upon the title. This …read more

Do you know Big Words?
Do your kids?
Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell have teamed up again to write Big Words for Little People, a Big Book to help kids learn Big Words.
With grown-up words like cooperate, respect, patience and considerate, a big, boisterous and zany family celebrates the power of language and discovers that words—big or little—are the bridge that connects us all.

I was never a spider lover myself but for some reason little boys live spider webs and they certainly love spiders. In fact, Google has even named their search engines after spiders because of the creepy crawly legs that reach out to all parts of the Internet.
But, when did we, as children, start learning spider tales? Well, there are the pre-school versions of the Itsy Bitsy Spider, There was an old lady…, etc.
And apparently, October is the month for SPIDERS! Classrooms all over the country are building webs, singing spider songs, and counting legs. Over the next few days watch …read more

Dr. Seuss is the master of all Rhyming and children’s books but what you may not know is that he is also a fabulous teacher. Most of us know that Seuss was not the most responsible adults, dropping out of college to travel Europe and contributing political cartoons in his early career.
His first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, published, however, required a great degree of persistence – it was rejected 27 times before being published by Vanguard Press. The Cat in the Hat, perhaps

First, lets review what word families are…
Word families are words which end the same forming a chunk that the children can learn to say altogether rather than sounding out each letter sound. For example can: sound out the c and add the chunk an forming can.
Word families also encourage children to find patterns in words so they can recall this information in a timely fashion.
Word families encourage children to spell better as you guide them to search for a word in the family that they already know how to spell. …read more

Hispanic Heritage Month recognizes the contributions that Hispanic Americans have made to the United States and it it is a time wherein Americans can celebrate Hispanic heritage and culture. The month it starts September 15 and runs until October 15.
Why the strange dates? Well, it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries including Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
For a Mayan Craft today see A Child Chosen. For some great children’s reads check back tomorrow.

Oprah and the American Library Association (ALA) have teamed up to provide parents and readers with a Kids Reading List on “The Oprah Winfrey Show’s” website.
The list is divided in to give age groups, from infant to ages 12 and up and contains an annotated bibliography of librarian recommended reading. There is also a Classics section.
“One of our goals as librarians is to provide all children with quality reading materials,” said ALSC President Pat Scales. “By teaming up with Oprah’s Book Club, we’re able to connect with a wide range of people we may not have reached otherwise. Whether children …read more