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Learning to Read with a Cootie Catcher

22 February 2010 13 Comments

Do you remember Cootie Catchers from when you were a kid? I loved them! Here is a cootie catcher perfect for the learning to read kiddo in your life! For our paper we used one of the sheets of Shaving Cream Painted works from yesterday. I was inspired by Jimmie and her daughter Sprite (love their blog). They created cootie catchers for learning history and math facts at Heart of the Matter Homeschoolers. If they can make one for the Civil War, I bet I can make one about “Short A” words!

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Instructions on how to make your own word-learning cootie catcher:

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Using a square piece of paper, bring two ends together and pinch the inside, repeat with the other side. Draw an “x” on your pinches. Bring the corners in towards the “X” and fold.

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Flip the square over and dot the center. Bring each corner into the center and fold. Once you have all the corners in, fold it along the “white” lines or gaps to make the cootie catcher manageable. Insert your fingers into the pockets! You have a cootie catcher!!!

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Using your Cootie Catcher to Learn to Read:

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To write the words I flexed the Cootie Catcher and wrote the halves of the “a” first. We then filled in the rest of the word. The words we used are: bat, sad, ran, cap. I wanted each word to have a different beginning and ending, and be able to match when moved so the letters would form a new word.

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We took apart the catcher and finished drawing the “a” and made the rest of the words: bad, cat, sat, pad, rap, van, can, & tap. Optional: You can open the flaps and add sentences.

Matt the fat rat sat on a mat. As he sat he pat his bat.
Gran and Dan ran to the van to get a pan.
Rap, tap, tap, clap your lap.

Or you can write a group of similar words to practice together:

ap, cap, gap, lap, map, nap, rap, sap, tap, clap, etc.
at, bat, cat, hat, fat, mat, nat, pat, rat, sat, tat, chat, flat, etc.
ad, bad, dad, had, lad, mad, pad, sad, tad, glad, brad, etc.
an, can, Jan, fan, man, pan, nan, ran, van, gran, plan, etc.

Have fun working and learning to read with your cootie catcher!

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Here are some other learning resources that might help your youngster learn to read:

Fun Ways to learn letters!

Flip Chart for sounding out words.

Make Your Own Chalkboard to write words.

Don’t want to make your own Cootie Catcher but still want to be part of the fun? Check out Cahootie Catcher they have several varieties and can also be found in Target.

13 Comments »

Marie {Make and Takes} said:

What a fun way to incorporate reading. My son would love this as he’s eating up words right now. I’ve bookmarked it. Thanks!
Marie {Make and Takes}´s last blog ..Donuts and Chocolate at the Winter Olympic Medal Ceremony

# 22 February 2010 at 10:51 pm

chris said:

LOVE THIS! I’ll make one for my great nephew (4 1/2 and teaching himself to read)…he’ll just love it!

Thanks!

# 26 February 2010 at 9:30 am

Christine said:

Wow! What a great idea. I just found your site and it is filled with wonderful learning activities! I love how you gave step by step instructions along with pictures to show the details. You have given me inspiration and a few ideas of my own to try. I am definitely bookmarking this site and plan to visit often. Thanks for sharing.
Christine´s last blog ..Childrens Learning Activities Free Resources for Parents

# 1 March 2010 at 8:57 am

Jimmie said:

Yep! They work for most anything. Great application! And such pretty paper, too.
Jimmie´s last blog ..It’s Entropy, Sweetie

# 2 March 2010 at 10:12 am

St. Patrick’s Day fun for everyone said:

[...] Momma presents Learning to Read with a Cootie Catcher posted at quirkymomma.com, saying, “This is a learning-to-read cootie catcher that my [...]

# 2 March 2010 at 12:10 pm

Trish said:

I had no idea what a cootie catcher was until I saw the pcitures. Is that what that’s called:)?

I do think it is a wonderful idea and very creative. I can remember playing with those when I was young–all those years ago!

Thanks.

# 3 March 2010 at 6:19 pm

Croq Zine – The Blog » Blog Archive » St Patrick’s Day Ideas from All Things Family Blog Carnival said:

[...] Patrick’s Day poems at Classroom Jr. (Not St. Patrick’s Day, but a great idea): Learn to Read with a Cootie Catcher at Quirky [...]

# 6 March 2010 at 4:17 pm

Jenn said:

How fantastically creative! I love it!
Jenn´s last blog ..Beautiful Mess: The Story of Diamond Rio by Diamond Rio with Tom Roland

# 8 April 2010 at 2:59 pm

Holly L said:

This is great. I have not seen this in awhile…my son recently came home with one…I want to make these for my daughter (the son already knows how to read).
Holly L´s last blog ..I’m Tickled Pink No. 5

# 30 April 2010 at 8:19 pm