Flip Sticks

This is an activity I use for nonsense word fluency.  First, you will want to make popsicle sticks to go with this activity.  For the sticks, you can use popsicle sticks or tongue depressors.  You will write one vowel at each end of the stick.  Students will hold one end of the stick in the slot of the missing vowel on the card.  Then, they will flip the stick and read the new word.  I made a set of flip sticks for each vowel pairing, so I have a/e, a/i, a/o, a/u, e/i, e/o, e/u, i/o, i/u, and o/u flip sticks.  I make six of each stick so that each student will be working on the same two vowels in a given lesson.  I have a set of cards for CVC words as well as CVCe words.  On the CVC Flip Sticks cards, you will see consonants that students often confuse with each other and need extra practice with.  There are many cards with b/d combinations.  There are also g/j combinations and c/s combinations.  You could also create additional cards to go with your flip sticks.  On the CVCe Flip Sticks cards, you will see words that are regular CVC words but change with the addition of a silent e on the end.  When creating the flip sticks for these cards, I write an e at one end and a black dot on the other end of the stick.  When students place the black dot in the blank, they simply read the CVC word.  So, the card "cut_" would be read as cut and cute.