Whisper Phones

I've known about whisper phones for a long time, but this is the first time I've made them or used them.  

Whisper phones are just short pieces of PVC pipe with PVC elbow joints attached to either end. When a kid puts one up to their ear, like a phone, they can whisper into it and hear themselves loud and clear. These are great for reading, especially kids who still read out loud but don't want everyone to hear them or in loud classrooms. 

This year in ASP (After School Program) I decided to put a much heavier emphasis on reading. I really believe the only way to get better at reading is to do a lot of it. And the students' reading scores from this past year didn't reach our expectations. So every day, for half an hour or more, it's pretty dedicated reading time. 

Ashmita using a whisper phone to read a book on her phone

But kids do not love to read, so I am working on making things more fun, and whisper phones are one way to do that. Typically they are used in classrooms of very young children learning to read, but I've found that here, kids of all ages like using them, and because they are neat and fun, it's not embarrassing for older kids to read out loud to themselves if they need to.  

I just found the instructions online, google "whisper phone instructions".  I think I got 3/4" PVC and they folks at ACE cut it into sections for me for free. I think the sections were like, 3 1/2" long, and then I bought a bag of 10 3/4" elbow joins. Popped them together, and wrapped some colorful duct tape around the center section for flair.

My whisper phones, with scissors for size reference.