jollyphonics4u.com provides products that help to teach literacy and reading. They have a product called Can Do Cubes as well as Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar. I just reviewed Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar on my blog here. The Can Do Cubes are wonderful to use by themselves or with a synthetic phonics and grammar program like Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar.
 |
| Can Do Cubes Stage 1 & 2. |
Can Do Cubes is a multi-sensory way of teaching synthetic phonics, a simple to complex approach to teach and learn alphabetic code. They are small wooden cubes that you can hold in the palm of your hand. These are six sided and most have a phoneme laser engraved onto each side. These are very hands-on and tactile-kinesthetic. These can be used for teaching: spelling, letter recognition, letter sound awareness (phonemes), blending, digraphs, building words, and later building sentences. Each letter, blend, or digraph has a very faint line under them so the child knows how to position the letters even if they are not yet reading. Each block in Stage 1, which represents simple alphabetic code, has a small number in the lower right hand corner to signify where to put them back into the cardboard tray when they are done being used. Each block in Stage 2, which represents complex alphabetic code, is put back easily where they go in the cardboard tray by looking at each individual block and matching the code on the tray.
 |
| Can Do Cubes Starter Set |
We Received The Can Do Cubes Starter Set Which Includes:
- 1 Tray of 27 Cubes in Stage 1 which represent the transparent (simple, basic) alphabetic code
- 1 Tray of 30 Cubes plus 2 cubes connected with a string to represent split digraph sounds in Stage 2 Cubes which represent the opaque (complex, extended, advanced) alphabetic code
- Handbook for Stage 1 and Stage 2
- DVD: Teaching, learning and 'sounding out' with Debbie Hepplewhite
- DVD: of PDF files for Teacher's Guide and Template Book
- Phonics Chart
- 2 At-a-Glance Word Charts
The cubes themselves come with all sorts of extras in the starter set we received. There is a spiral bound Handbook for Stage 1 and one for Stage 2. These help you teach synthetic (systematic) phonics at home with Can Do Cubes. One DVD goes through an introduction of Can Do Cubes, a demonstration for teaching with Can Do Cubes, Hepplewhite 'sounding out' the simple alphabetic code, an introduction to synthetic phonics, synthetic phonics for Can Do Cubes Stage 1 and Stage 2. It is all introduced in a British accent. The other DVD has PDFs of Teacher's Guides and Template Books. These have fun workbook pages for Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness & the Alphabetic Principle; Blending, Segmenting, Dictation, Handwriting & High Frequency Words. The Phonics Chart teaches a simple and complex alphabetic codes overview. There are also two At-a-Glance Word Charts showing a cumulative word chart for the Stage 1 Can Do Cubes: one for 1-5 and another for 6-8.
How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
I have been using Can Do Cubes with my daughter Zari. She just going into Kindergarten next year, is not yet reading, and doesn't know her letters or letter sounds very well. We have been doing one lesson a day in the Jolly Phonics book and using Can Do Cubes along with it. We also tried some of the PDF worksheets in the Teacher's Guide and Template Book and some of the other activities they recommend with them.
 |
| Can Do Cubes with Jolly Phonics |
In the first Jolly Phonics Book Zari has been finding the cube phoneme that matches the phoneme being taught in the book. For example on the first page is has the letter "s". So I had her find the letter "s" in the tray and on the cubes and say the sound the letter makes as well as everything else it says to do in the book. When we got to page 4 in the book she found "t" and "s" and "a" and make those sounds. Then she would make the letters and words in the word bank with the Can Do Cubes, blend the sounds of the letters in the words together slowly...and then faster to make the word.
 |
| Can Do Cubes PDF worksheets in the Teacher's Guide and Template Book |
We had some fun with these too. My eight year old daughter spelled some things and I spelled my nick name finamoon :) You can do all sorts of neat things with these cubes besides learning phonics. We liked that the Stage 2 tray had symbols for punctuation too so we could spell out whole sentences. We did wish these were laser-engraved darker, because some of the phonemes were very hard to read... especially since the letters were quite small already.
 |
| Fun with Can Do Cubes! |
The Can Do Cubes are a fun multi-sensory, interactive way of learning phonics. We highly recommend them with any synthetic phonics curriculum. These are perfect for teaching literacy, phonics, and reading. Great for Pre-K and Kindergarten age students trying to master the English language.
 |
| Building words with Can Do Cubes |
BUY IT (these are prices out of their current catalog as of this post)
You can purchase these from jollyphonics4u.com from their catalog. The Can Do Cubes for Synthetic Phonics STARTER SET is $95 + applicable tax & shipping costs.
Follow Them on Social Media:
Twitter: www.twitter.com/jollyliteracy
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/jollyliteracy/
Hashtags: #hsreviews #literacy #reading #phonics #interactivelearning
Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for jollyphonics4u.com and just2ducks LLC Can Do Cubes...
