CVC Nonsense vs. Real Word Gumball Sorting Activity

This fun sorting activity can be used in a homeschool setting, as a small group intervention activity or in a classroom setting as a small group literacy center activity. This sorting activity encourages children to blend sounds together to read cvc words and then to decide if the word they are reading is a real word or a nonsense word.

Combining both real and nonsense cvc words encourages students to blend each sound together to read the word. Nonsense words require the use of the alphabetic principle and cannot be words that students store in their memory bank like other read cvc words that they will attach meaning too. This is good practice for both skills.

This activity contains:
2 gumball machines. One labeled Nonsense Words and the other
labeled Real Words.
It also contains 180 individual gumballs that are a mixture of real
and nonsense CVC words.
In addition to this there is a master copy paper that you can make
copies of for students to record the words after they sort them into the two groups. This student copy can then be collected from the center for you to look at their work and provide feedback.