Learning Center
reading
Build phonics skills with Word-Maker Cups
may 22, 2008
Throw away those construction paper sliders, primary teachers! Instead, try Word-Maker Cups. Stack two large Styrofoam coffee cups so their lips fit together and can be rotated.
The lip of one cup contains the beginning consonant blends, and the lip of the other cup shows rimes or word families.
Students rotate them so that all the combinations of consonants, blends, and rimes can be read. Word-Maker Cups are faster to create and a lot less fragile than construction paper sliders.
The goal is to read the words more quickly in text, not isolation. So after practicing a word family or rhyme with Word-Maker Cups, be sure students read a short text that includes those words and other high-frequency words in context.
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