A couple days ago I shared my Jolly Grammar and Jolly Phonics Review. We have had also had the opportunity to review another great product from jollyliteracy.com – Can Do Cubes. This great resource from just2ducks LLC is a great companion to Jolly Phonics, and we’ve been using them well together!
The Can Do Cubes are a great hands-on supplement for phonics. They work particularly well with Jolly Phonics because the letter sounds are presented in the same order. They would definitely work as a resource for any synthetic phonics program, though. They were created based on many factors including various research on reading instruction, activities which are commonly used in successful programs, and teaching experience.
What is Synthetic Phonics?
To be honest, this is the first time I’ve heard the term “synthetic phonics,” so I, for one, was curious what it means. I know now Jolly Phonics is one, but when it mentioned it can be used with any synthetic phonics program I wanted to know what that meant.
On jollyliteracy.com Synthetic Phonics teaching is defined as “a simple to complex program where learners are taught the alphabetic code.” So they first learn the basic alphabetic code (one spelling for the basic sounds) and progress to the more complex alphabetic code (multiple spelling variations for these sounds).
Can Do Cube Review
The Can Do Cubes Starter Set Includes:
- 1 Tray of Stage 1 Cubes
- 1 Tray of Stage 2 Cubes
- Handbook for Stage 1
- Handbook for Stage 2
- DVD
- Phonics Chart
- Word Chart
Amazing, right? Honestly, I would have been thrilled just to have the hands-on cubes, but I was impressed with all it includes. I love all the additional, helpful resources. As we progress I plan on adding the charts to our wall.
Because Chaz started Jolly Phonics at the beginning we have been using the Stage 1 cubes. The Stage 1 cubes are further broken down into groups called Cubes. So we started with Cube 1 which included the first 6 letter sounds “s, a, t, i, p, n.”
Chaz has been doing well and having fun building words. What I find so fascinating is he was already familiar with many of the letter sounds, and he could sometimes read the short words but struggled putting them together himself. Since using this hands-on approach with the Can Do Cubes, he’s been putting together many different words! Plus he’s having fun doing it!
With the Can Do Cubes they will naturally progress to building longer words and working with more letter sounds at a time. The Stage 2 Cubes even include capital letters and basic punctuation.
Overall, Can Do Cubes has been a great resource for our son! In fact, our oldest son is a delayed reader due to his special needs, and I’m going to start using them for his phonics as well!
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Different members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew shared their Can Do Cubes review. Check them out by clicking on the banner below!
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