Word Contraption

Today, I wanted to review the Bob Books we covered last week.

Joe wanted to build a contraption.

He was holding a shoestring at the time and twining it around and through his fingers saying, “Look at my contraption!”

So…we compromised.

I grabbed a piece of elastic string, a hole punch and the sight word flashcards for Bob Books 1, 2 and 3.

After punching holes in the corner of each card, I spread them out on the mini trampoline and handed Joe the piece of string.

I picked Book 1 up and started to read. As we came to each word, I asked Joe to pick the corresponding card out and thread it on the string. We did this for all three books.

I did not show him the word. Instead, I said the word phonetically so that he could hear the sound each letter made. He was able to pick out most of the words on the first try!

He got a little bored stringing the words together so he handed me the string and started rolling a tiny bottle of bubbles on the trampoline.

I could easily have gotten frustrated. But before exasperation hit, I thought of a way to incorporate the bottle into the game.

We switched gears and I asked him to roll the bottle to the right word and then pick it up.

He got a little crazy with his rolls, but he cheered for himself when the bottle rolled to where he was aiming.

This activity took a little longer than others and I could tell that I was losing his attention toward the end. Once all the words were on the string though, he had fun making his contraption.

After he played with that for a little while, I asked him to sit with me and read the cover of each book: Mat, Sam and Dot.

I knew better than to try and force him through all three books…even as short as they are. 

“Sound it out,” I said, pointing to the cover.

“Mmm. ah. tuh.”

And, after a few more rounds…

“Mm. a. tuh. Mat!”

He smiled.

I beamed.