Multisensory Activity: Toss it, Read it, Think it

One of my favorite items to use during tutoring sessions was always plastic cups. They are inexpensive to buy, and you can use them in many ways to practice skills and concepts! 

Materials:

Plastic Cups

Ping-Pong balls or Cotton balls

Permanent Marker

Steps:

Grab a bunch of plastic cups to use for this activity! Then, write the graphemes for whatever concept or skills you are working on inside the lip of the cup. Before playing, loop a small piece of tape together, place it on the bottom of the cup, and then stick it on the surface you are playing with. This will help the cups not fall over! 

Once everything is set up, have your student(s) throw a ping-pong ball or cotton ball into the cups. Whatever cup it lands in, have them say the sound that matches the letter(s). Or have them think of a word that includes that sound. It’s easy to incorporate more phonemic awareness into your phonics activity! 

Extension:

Take it further! After students have thought of a word that contains the sound that was written on the cup, have them write the thought of the word on paper or in their sand tray! It’s another excellent way to get more writing practice into your lesson! 

Written by Tony Puente.