Overview 

The children will play with pups and cups and practice blending beginning sounds with -up words to spell new words such as pup, cup, and up. 

Literacy Activities

Pop the pup up in the cup 

• Punch a small hole in the bottom of each paper cup and place a straw though each hole.
• Label one cup real cup and the other made up cup.
• Attach the puppy graphics to each straw so they can slide up and out of the cup.
• Assemble the consonant block and the -up block.
• Explain to the children that they will take turns rolling blocks to make -up words.
• Choose a child to roll both blocks, put the beginning consonant next to the -up ending, read it, and decide whether the word is real or made up. 
  • If the word is real, have the child choose the real cup, and push the pup up out of the cup while the other children say, "Up, pup! Out of the cup!"
  • If the word is made up, they will do the same with the made up cup.
• Each time the blocks make a real word, have the children write the word down on a piece of paper.
• Repeat the activity with different children.

More Practice

Clap out sounds in words

• Have the children take apart the word cup and clap once for each sound in the word (/c/ /u/ /p/).
• Ask the children how many times they clapped for the word cup.
• Clap for each sound in the word cup again to reinforce the model.
• Repeat with other -up words (e.g., pup, up).