Easy and Fun Activities that Teach What Are The Glued Sounds

Stuck wondering “what are the glued sounds”? Talk about things they don’t teach you in teacher college! When I got into the K/1 classroom phonics baffled me, especially higher-level phonics skills. Letter sounds, I got. Vowels making two sounds? A little tricky, but I’ll get there. Now, you’re telling me multiple letters can make one sound? I’m out! Not really, but it is challenging to teach a concept you’re not familiar with yourself. That’s where I come in. Read more to learn what are the glued sounds along with easy ways to teach them to your students!

Low on time? Want effective, small group lessons to practice glued sounds? Be sure to check out these AN, AM, ALL activities and lessons that are perfect for teaching in the K-2 classroom or special education setting! Featuring week-long lesson plans for each sound, take the guesswork out of teaching these sounds and know that your students will soon master reading and writing an, am, and all.

What Are Glued Sound Words?

Various phonics programs use different language to describe the sound multiple letters can make when stuck together. They may classify words differently. Glued sounds are when multiple letters come together to make one phonetic sound. Typically these include the sounds: an, am, and all. Notice the vowel slightly changes in the glued sound and the a does not make its typical short a sound (think like the word apple!)

Cream text on a blue background reads: glued sounds are when multiple letters come together to make a single sound — Welded sounds are when multiple letters come together to make one phonetic sound. Typically these include the sounds: an, am, and all. Notice the vowel slightly changes in the glued sound and the a does not make its typical short a sound (think like the word apple!)

Glued sounds may also be referred to as “welded sounds” but the concept is the same. Individual letters come together to make one sound. These letters are stuck together and cannot be pulled apart with segmenting words, or saying words by their individual sounds. In addition to an, am and all the -ng and -nk endings are also considered glued or welded sounds. You may find some add the vowel to the -ng and -nk endings. This would make the following chunks glued sounds: ing, ang, ung, ong, ink, ank, unk, onk. The vowels say their typical short sound in these word endings, which is why there is some debate on if the vowel should be included in the word ending or not. Easily learn and teach these sounds with these week long lesson plan and activities.

am-word-family-activites — Low on time? Want effective, small group lessons to practice welded sounds? Be sure to check out these AN, AM, ALL activities and lessons that are perfect for teaching glued sounds in the K-2 classroom or special education setting!

What Are Glued Sounds in Phonics?

Teaching sounds is a critical phonetic skill when supporting students reading and writing. Before teaching these word chunkings, students should have mastered the 26 individual letter sounds using short vowels.

Blue text reads teaching phonics in small group helps increase student success. — Teaching glued sounds is a critical phonetic skill when supporting students reading and writing. Before teaching glued sounds, students should have mastered the 26 individual letter sounds using short vowels.

When your students ask “what are the glued sounds?”. You can easily answer: these sounds are when letters are stuck together to make one sound. Repeat this statement often during your lessons as students learn best from explicit, repetitive instruction. It can be helpful to add movement to your glued sounds lessons! Clap your hands when you say “stuck together”, then pretend to pull your hands apart but leave them clasped, demonstrating the sounds being “stuck”. You can also hold up 1 finger when you say “make one sound”. Adding in little bits of movement triggers a different part of the students’ brain helping them make connections when learning new concepts in phonics!

Use these week long an, am, all sound lesson plans to effectively teach welded sounds during your phonics time, while providing independent practice to students!

Teaching Glued Sounds

When answering your students question: what are the glued sounds, use various mediums to meet the needs of all learners. Read more about how to easily differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all your students.

Elokin & Sound Boxes

Using elokin boxes, or sound boxes, are a great way to introduce and teach new sounds. This helps solidfy the idea that multiple letters are creating one sound. Use the boxes and coins to havee students show where in the word the glued sound falls. Beginning level glued sound words only feature 2 boxes. After your students identify where the glued sound falls, have them identify which glued sound they hear. This is often the most challenging part of learning glued sounds, as it requires students to focus on the vowel sound hidden within the ending.

Review Short Vowels

As glued sounds are often paired with short vowels, it is recommended to review short vowels when teaching this new concept. These digital and printable activities are perfect for students to review the short vowel sounds independently while you build upon their knowledge.

Word Lists

Word lists are amazing when teaching and practicing new phonics skills. Keep a word list by you at all times to make teaching glued sounds easy and effective. Play word games breaking and making various words, identifying which sound you hear, writing and reading words…the possibilities are endless with word lists!

Words with Glued Sounds

Words with glued sounds are any words with the following component: ill, all, an, am, or an -ng, -nk ending such as: ang, ank, ing, ink, ong, onk, ung, unk. You should start with shorter words such as: ring, link, pan, ram etc…When teaching your students new sounds be sure to have a word list handy! These An, Am, All lessons feature a printable word list you can hang on your easel, keep by your desk, and put anywhere and everywhere you might teach glued sounds. Having a word list handy makes it easy to play word games and practice reading and writing glued sounds. Give your brain a break and keep a word list of your current phonics skill at your desk at all times!

Text reads: use sound cards to teach new phonics sounds! — Having a words with glued sounds list handy makes it easy to play word games and practice reading and writing glued sounds. Give your brain a break and keep a word list of your current phonics skill at your desk at all times!

Glued Sounds vs. Welded Sounds vs. Digraphs

Glued sounds are the same as welded sounds, but slightly different that digraphs. While both welded sounds and digraphs use multiple letters to make one phonetic sound, digraphs use the letters to make a new sound while glued sounds you can still hear the individual letters but they are hard to separate. While this difference is small, it is important! There are several words that feature both digraphs and welded sounds such as: think and thing. The t and the h create a new sound /th/ while the ink and ing endings you can still hear the /i/ /n/ /g/ although its typically noted as /i/ /ng/ because the /n/ and the /g/ are difficult to pull apart.

Using Word Families to Teach Glued Sounds

Word families are a great way to teach new phonics skills because they allow students to practice the sound in an explicit and repetitive manner. You can use one word family to pratice a single glued sound and increase fluency, or you can mix multiple word families together and have students sort by glued sound. Having word family cards are perfect for teaching and practing glued sounds. The games you can play are endless! These glued sound lesson plans come with printable word family cards and games to play. These games are perfect for small group instruction or, once taught, independent practice to support student mastery of the glued sounds.

AM Word Family Games

Many students are overwhelmed when learning new phonics skills – to help this teach one glued sound at a time. You can start with the more a familiar glued sound, such as /am/, and move on to /an/ and /all/ once students have demonstrated an emerging knowledge of /am/. It is important to move on before students have mastered the one glued sound because otherwise your students may burn out and experience boredom. I suggest moving onto the next glued sound once students are 60-75% accurate with the intial sound taught.

Use various word activities to teach the glued sound AM. These word activities should balance both reading and writing to support students learning of the glued sound. Students can practice chunking words, identifying sounds in words, using the sounds in sentences, and recognizing the sounds when reading through this all encompassing week long AM Word Family Games.

AN Word Family Activities

Similar to teaching AM words, teaching using AN word family activities are a great way for students to practice finding the sound /an. Providing a variety of opportunities for students to identify the /an/ sound is key for their learning to read and write the sound fluently. Are you utilizing small group instruction when teaching new sounds? Students are 60% more likely to master a skill when taught in a group of 3-5 of their peers. Small group instruction is key to your students success, but it doesn’t have to be time consuming! Learn more about the benefits of small group when teaching phonetic skills.

Blue text reads: Use movement, word lists, word cards and games to teach your students the glued sounds to improve their reading and writing. — Use movement, word lists, word cards and games to teach your students the glued sounds to improve their reading and writing.

Now that you know what are the glued sounds, the only way to figure out what works best for your teaching style is to try it! Use movement, word lists, word cards and games to teach your students phonics skills and improve their reading and writing. Have you already taught these sounds? Share your experience below!