Consonant blends are one of the areas you learn after some of the basic CVC words. These are when you put two consonants together and each makes its own sound.
Today I have some free consonant blend ladders to help with learning those beginning sound blends.
Each of the ladders is a fun way to work on learning the blends sounds and making words.
We have included links to some of the products and resources we have used with this activity. If you purchase via the links we may earn a small commission.
The blends consonant ladders are ways for kids to work on the blend sound of the two letters with vowels.
What is the Consonant Blend?
Consonant blends are when you have two letters together and each still makes its own sound. So an example of a blend would be “bl”. You saw the b sound and the l sound when saying the word “blanket”.
The consonant blends are bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gl, gr, pl, pr, sc, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw, & tr.
These ladders work on one blend at a time. You can see the blend and the vowel on the ladder below.
I like to print on cardstock and laminate these blend ladders to help them last longer.

Things to use with the Blend Consonant Ladder Printables
I always get asked what I use with my printables. And these are the items we have used with the blend ladders or mention in the post. This is to make it easier for you to find those products. The links are to Amazon.
- printer
- white cardstock
- laminator
- laminating pouches
- sheet protectors
- lacing letters
- dry erase markers
- Blends Bookmarks
- Small Blends Wall Cards
- Stop, Drop, and Flop in the Slop: A Short Vowel Sounds Book with Consonant Blends
- Bob Books Set 4 – Complex Words
- Meet the Phonics – Blends
Ways to use the Consonant Blends Ladders
One way that I set up the ladders for a center is to give them just one ladder and several lacing letters. You can have them make sets of words or have them take one letter at a time through the ladder.

If you have laminated the ladder you can have them use dry eraser markers on the ladder to write the words. I like to use the small blends wall cards to help with the words.

If you want to work on short vowel words with the blends you can use the blends bookmarks that has short vowel and short spelled words.

What you fill find the Free Blend Ladders: Consonant Blends
- One picture and blend at top
- The following consonant blends: bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gl, gr, pl, pr, sc, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw, & tr.
- 2 ladders per page
- 10 pages of printables
What is in the Blends Wall Cards & Ladder Selling Set
The set has two options for the cards. You can get just a big picture and word ending or the multiple words on each wall card. Plus there is a new small and easy to print mini wall cards that are perfect for little hands and to use in centers.

What Is In The Blends Wall Cards & Ladder Selling Set contains 43 pages:
- Blends: bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gl, gr, pl, pr, sc, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw, tr
- Blends Beginning Sounds Ladders
- 2 Cards per page or 4 Cards per page options
- Blends Beginning Sounds Large with several words
- Blends Beginning Sounds Large with single image word ending
- Blends Beginning Sounds small with several words
- Blends Cards small with single image word ending
Here are some other Blends Printables:
Cassie – 3Dinosaurs.com