Consonant clusters, or trigraphs, are three letters that combine to create the same sound. You can find them in words like sprint, strong, and even the word through. These free Consonant Clusters Spelling Mats are a fun way for first grade and 2nd grade kids to practice spelling consonant blends.

Consonant Clusters Spelling Mats

The first time a child sees a cluster, they may be tempted to sound out each letter, making the word sound strange or unrecognizable to them. Helping our children recognize these consonant clusters will help them with reading skills, and these Consonant Clusters Spelling Mats give them a fun way to practice.

What do you get?

This freebie contains 8 pages of spelling mats. Each mat has a picture of a consonant cluster word, three blank circles for the child to fill in with the consonant cluster, and the ending of the word spelled out.

Prep Work

I love easy prep activities, and this is one of them.

1. Begin collecting bottle caps. We personally don’t use them, but family members do. I asked them to start putting them aside for us, and before long we had plenty of caps. You can also use magnetic letters if that works better for you.
2. Write letters on the top of your bottle caps. If you have enough bottle caps to write each letter twice, your child will have all the letters they need to complete the spelling cards. You will need…
   • spl – s, p, l
   • scr – s, c, r
   • shr – s, h, r
   • spr – s, p, r
   • squ – s, q, u
   • str – s, t, r
   • thr – t, h, r
3. Print and cut out the spelling mats. For added durability, print on cardstock and laminate.

Working on Consonant Clusters

If you child is new to consonant clusters, you may want to start out with some interactive notebooks and games. This will give them a chance to learn what each trigraph, or consonant clusters is, how to say them, and how to spell to them.

Now it is time to practice with the spelling mats.

Depending on the level and attention span of your child or students, here are a few options.

1. Give out all the spelling mats and bottle caps and let the student solve them all at once.
2. Choose two or three consonant clusters to work on, and give the students all the bottle caps.
3. You could do the same as step two, but only give out the bottle caps that will work with the spelling mats you provided.
4. Only give the student one consonant cluster at a time and provide just a few bottle caps. Maybe throw in one letter that they won’t use.

Children will see consonant clusters throughout their reading, and it is important for their reading skills that they know the sounds of each one. These fun spelling mats will get your little ones on there way to mastering them.

Need more Phonics Activities:

• Blends Clip Cards
• Digraph Puzzles
• Diagraph Interactive notebooks
• Trigraph Readers
• Hershey Kiss Word Families
• Word Family Sliders
• Word Family – erry, eir, air
• Arctic Sight Words game
• 100 Books for 1st Graders to Read Themselves (by reading level)

Don’t miss all our free first grade worksheets and our other printable worksheets for prek-12th grade students.  We have free printable math worksheets, english worksheets, history for kids, cool science experiments, and even fun activities for kids to go with every season and holiday throughout the year!

Download Consonant Clusters Spelling Mats

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• This set is for personal and classroom use only.
• This printable set may not be sold, hosted, reproduced, or stored on any other website or electronic retrieval system.
• Graphics Purchased and used with permission
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