BL/BR Blends: the sound, the words, the books

Blue, block, bread, bridge — BL and BR blends. Five decodable stories and twenty flashcards, each child’s copy starring that child. This guide maps the pack onto the components of systematic, explicit early-literacy instruction (the ones Wisconsin’s 2023 Act 20 names: phonemic awareness, phonics and decoding, letter–sound knowledge, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension).

1. The sound

Target: BL/BR Blends. Spellings tinted in the books: bl, br. Say the sound in isolation, then in the twenty words, then find it in the captions.

2. The words

Sight words used in the captions: a, the, has, in, on, and, to, is.

3. Phonemic awareness (5 minutes)

• Blend: say the sounds of a pack word slowly; children say the word.
• Segment: say a word; children tap out its sounds.
• Swap: change one sound (cat → hat → hot) with the flashcards face down.

4. Decoding with the flashcards (5 minutes)

• Picture side up: name it, find the tinted sound, say the word.
• Word side up: sound out, blend, check with the picture.
• Speed round: the child reads the word side of ten cards as fast as accuracy allows.

5. The stories (10 minutes each)

1. “the child’s name Makes Breakfast” — Gran is still asleep, so [NAME] makes breakfast: up goes the blind, in goes the bread, and pop, out comes black toast. [NAME] sweeps up the crumbs with the broom, tries again, and carries brown toast and a hug to Gran in bed. (10 pages; uses blue, blow, blind, blink, blush, blanket, bread, broom, brush, bright, brown, breakfast; with Gran)
2. “the child’s name is Brave” — The little bridge over the stream rocks, and [NAME] cannot make it across. A brown dog trots over to show how, and step by step [NAME] follows: holding on in the wind, looking down at the bright blue water, and making it to the other side. A lick on the cheek says well done. (10 pages; uses blue, blow, blink, blush, bright, bridge, brave, brown)
3. “the child’s name's Blank Page” — [NAME] paints a blue lake, a brown bridge and a red bloom on a green branch. Then a crow lands on the page and hops through the wet paint. Its red foot-dots turn into fish in the lake, and the blank page becomes [NAME]'s best painting yet. (10 pages; uses blue, blank, blink, bloom, brush, bright, bridge, branch, brown)
4. “the child’s name's Block Bridge” — The blue blanket is the sea and the toy train cannot cross, so [NAME] and Sis build a bridge of blocks and bricks. Crash! It falls, and falls again, and Baby claps every time. The missing blue block was in Baby's hand all along. (10 pages; uses block, blue, blow, blink, blanket, brick, bridge, brown; with Sis and Baby)
5. “the child’s name's Blue Kite” — On a windy hill [NAME] and Dad fly a bright blue kite, until the wind blows it into a big brown branch. Tugging does not work, so Dad lifts [NAME] up, up, up to set the kite free. (10 pages; uses blue, blow, bloom, blush, bright, branch, brave, brown; with Dad)

First read: the child decodes every word; wait, do not rush in. Second read: fluency, with expression. Then talk about the pictures in any language the child has.

6. Checking progress

• Accuracy: words read correctly on the first pass of a story (aim for 95%+ before the next pack).
• Letter–sound knowledge: the tinted spellings named in isolation.
• Comprehension: retell the story in three sentences; the pictures are the prompt.
• Engagement: how many re-reads the child asks for. Personalised books are re-read more; count it.

7. Families

Send the flashcards home; the word side is a two-minute routine.

Story Petal books are generated by an image model from instructions we write, checked by a person, and never used to train anything beyond a child’s own order. What our art must get right.