Need a word work center that will last forever for under $5? One of my favorite new DIY crafts for word work is wooden letters. Walmart has a ton of different ones for $2.50/pack. They also have the rectangles for about $2.50. I painted the letters and wooden rectangles in under 15 minutes. Then I cut out circles on my Cricut to represent sound boxes. You could draw boxes or write CVC, CVCE, etc. The letters and sound boxes fit perfectly in a pencil box. I also store them in a large paper tray from The Container Store when I want to add word lists. See below for a twist on the idea and a link to another workstation that costs under $5.
If you want to spice up your centers you can find play dough sets with letter stamps for about $6. The set below came from Walmart and it fits perfectly with my sound boxes.
For you higher students use the blank back of the rectangles. They can build longer words without boxes.
Click below for another DIY word building workstation.
