Review - Jelly Pips

If you have been following our Home School journey you will remember that I did a couple of useful posts that encouraged reluctant writers. This was after William refused to do any activity in Literacy.

Starting back after Easter William has been a little bit more engaging but was still dragging his heels slightly to read, spell or write. That was at least until I received an amazing product to use and possibly review; after using them they definitely needed reviewing!

Jelly Pips

Jelly Pips are reversible wristbands that promote and help teach children the combinations of Graphemes and Phonemes through combinations of letters and related words. 

Before William was Home Schooled he was placed in a local Primary School in a Reception class.

He was given once a week homework that supported his learning of High frequency words and combination of sounds. The work was usually set up as 10 words based upon on digraph grouping (Example: ee; Feet, Feed, Seed etc)

Once William had read the sound and then the subsequent word he had to copy the word out; the main principle behind this was to support reading, writing and corresponding phonetics.

He always seemed to do well with the work but what quickly became apparent was that he struggled to apply his understanding to other activities; something that is very common amongst 4-7 year olds.

Jelly Pips offers a greater way to make learning more fun and engaging to children.

Each brightly coloured band teaches 64 combinations of sounds through the 32 reversible wristbands available. These well designed wristbands are numbered for a suggested teaching sequence which helps any parent follow and support their child.

In the centre of each band you will find the phonic sound positioned with a circle; the reversible side offers either the next sound within the sequence for example: ‘s’, ‘a’, ‘t’, ‘p’ being the first four sounds to be learnt. Or, the similar sounding phonemes i.e. ‘oi’ and ‘oy’

From a Teachers point of view:

These useful bands cover all of the necessary techniques such as Graphemes, Phonemes, Diagraphs, Split digraph, Blending, Segmenting, CVC words and CVCC words; all within a numbered sequence that corresponds with phonetic and reading schemes.

From a Parent’s point of view:

These cleverly designed bands are easy to follow, engaging and helpful for both myself and the Boys.

The enclosed guide shows why learning phonics is important, how to approach using them, an easy to follow chat identifying each band by number, colour and matching sound as well as 14 ways to encourage combining play and learning.

William was incredibly excited about using these! We grouped each band together in number order and he grabbed each one and worked through the first section quite quickly, identifying each sound and the associated word.

The following day we sat down and he was grabbing the bands that matched the sounds that were featured in our High Frequency word list. William was keen on keeping them on and wanted to wear a variety of them throughout the day.

Quickly James wanted to join in; I started him off on some of the first sounds and subsequently for the rest of the day he was walking around pointing to his wrist every time he identified something beginning with the letter.

These really are fantastic and I would recommend them to any parent that wants to support their child through the reading process. They are well designed and suitable for any child who has taken an interest in reading (3+) and at a reasonable price.

If you want to know more please follow the links below:

Jelly Pips:  JellyPips.com

Twitter:  @Jellypips

Facebook:  Jelly Pips

(I was given this product for free. My opinions are my own and I am under no obligations to give a positive review. Please see my full disclosure at the bottom of my blog)