5 Ways to Boost Early Reading and Math Skills with Poppits

What’s with these poppits, anyway?

I always put pictures of poppits on my flyers, on my website, and in ads on Facebook. At first, it may seem a bit strange. What do poppits have to do with reading?

You may be surprised to learn that I use them in almost every class! I certainly use them in every class I have with my very early readers. Poppits are actually great learning tools, not only for reading but also for early math skills. Here are five ways that you can put your child’s poppit collection to good use this summer in boosting academic skills.

1. Pop the Words: We do this all the time at Kelly’s reading club. We pop out the sounds in the words so that students can hear each sound individually and see how each sound comes together to make the word. Sometimes we’re just one sound away from reading a word and by using poppits to isolate the sounds, we can easily put all the sounds together and read words more fluently.

2. Boost Fine Motor Skills: Popping with poppits requires hand-eye coordination and precision with fingers. It’s great for building fine motor skills that will translate into writing, cutting, tying shoe laces, and more!

3. Skip Counting: Poppits are great for practicing skip counting. Count by 2, 5, 10, or any number by skipping some of the pops. If your child isn’t ready for skip counting, they can count by one and practice one-to-one correspondence with the pops.

4. Story Problems in Math: Create story problems based on everyday scenarios. Let your child use their poppit to represent elements of the story. For example, if the problem is about cookies, use the poppit to represent the cookies you are adding or subtracting.

5. Story Telling and Language Development: If your child has a few poppits, have them turn their poppits into actors in a play. Your child can write or even just imagine the story and have the poppits act it out.

As you can see, there is so much more to poppits than just popping! They are actually great learning tools. If you are looking for some educational fun this summer, get out the poppits and start learning!

To learn more about Kelly’s Reading Club and come pop the words with me, just click here.

Have fun popping and have a great summer!