CR/CL Blends: the sound, the words, the books

Crab, crown, clock, cloud — CR and CL 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: CR/CL Blends. Spellings tinted in the books: cr, cl. 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 Crumb Clue” — The floor was clean a moment ago. Now there is a crumb, and another, and another: a trail. Detective [NAME] creeps along the crumb clue, past the clock, up onto a chair by mistake, and on to the closet in the hall. Inside sits Baby with the cracker box, crunching. [NAME] claps, Baby claps, and they share the last crisp cracker. (10 pages; uses clap, climb, clock, crisp, crack, clean, creep, clue, crumb, closet; with Baby)
2. “The Crab and the Clip” — Below the tall cliff, [NAME] climbs the rocks to a rock pool. A crab creeps out, then another, then a whole crew, and one bold crab snips the shiny clip out of [NAME]'s hair and creeps off with it. The gulls cry. [NAME] sits still as a rock, the crab creeps back and drops the clip, and the whole crew claps its claws. (10 pages; uses crab, cloud, clap, climb, cry, clip, creep, crew, cliff)
3. “the child’s name the Clown” — [NAME] finds a clown wig in Gran's closet, adds a red nose and a paper crown, and puts on a show for Gran and a crew of toys. The big trick goes wrong: a crash, a cracked crown, a wobbly lip. But Gran claps loudest of all, because falling over and getting up again is what clowns do best. (10 pages; uses clap, crown, cry, clock, crack, creep, clown, crew, closet; with Gran)
4. “the child’s name's Clay Crab” — At school, [NAME] makes a crab out of red clay and gives it a crown. It dries on the sunny windowsill and cracks: a leg drops off, and [NAME] nearly cries. The teacher brings wet clay, a clip holds the leg while it sets, the class claps, and the crab goes home in [NAME]'s bag with its crown on. (10 pages; uses crab, clap, crown, cry, clock, clip, clay, crack, clean)
5. “The Crane and the Crown” — [NAME] wears a paper crown to the park, where a crew and a tall crane are lifting crates next door. A crisp gust takes the crown up, up, up and lands it on the crane's hook, high in the clouds. [NAME] nearly cries, but the crew sees, the crane creeps down, and the crown comes back a little bent. [NAME] claps for the crew and the crew claps for [NAME]. (10 pages; uses cloud, clap, crown, cry, crane, crisp, creep, crew)

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.