Creating New Words

GOAL:

• Read short words with different first letters.

MATERIALS:

• A toilet paper tube
• A tongue depressor or popsicle stick
• A permanent marker
• Scissors

LEARNING EXPERIENCE:

With this activity you can help your little one form and memorize words, understand the relationship between letters and their sounds, and increase their vocabulary.

Before you begin, prepare the materials your little one will use to make the words. The educational tool you will be using is very simple to make and the best thing about it is that you can make it with materials that you have at home.

• Take the cardboard tube and write the word “mat” on it covering the entire length of the tube. Now use the scissors to cut out a square where the letter “m” is, leaving a hole in the tube.
• Now take the popsicle stick and write it 3 letters on it. Put a “b” on top, an “h” in the middle, and a “c” at the bottom. And that’s it, the materials are ready!
• Now, invite your little one to make words with you. Show them the cardboard tube with the letters written on it and point to each one and ask them to tell you what sound it makes. If your little one doesn’t know yet you can help.
• Now tell your little one to put the popsicle stick into the toilet paper roll, making just one of the 3 letters visible through the hole. Have your little one point at each letter and say what sound it makes agin. Repeat several times with the same letters, but increase the speed, so that when you say them very quickly they will form a word. What word does it say?

Congratulate your little one for every achievement, and remember that they are learning, so every time they get confused, help them to continue repeating the letters and words. Little by little they will learn.