Our youngest learners love popcorn! It’s fun, delicious and we can turn it into learning activities.
There are so many fun games and ways to use popcorn. After all, it’s more than just a yummy snack.
So we find ways to make popcorn science exciting, like with this Popcorn Mass Science Experiment and we create these decorative Winter Crafts with this popcorn snack food.
Popcorn is also perfect to have on hand when learning about our Five Senses because you can see it, smell it taste it, touch it and hear it pop!
There are so many ways to make exploring new things enjoyable!
Food-themed activities are a great way to get kids learning without realizing they’re learning so I’ve created a way to connect popcorn with literacy.
Use this Popcorn Blends Match-Up so students can practice blending together individual sounds within words in a hands-on way.
Looking for a way to incorporate your literacy centers throughout the year? You’ll want to grab this Literacy Stations printable with over 50 pages of station ideas.
Popcorn Blends Match-Up
This is an entertaining way to introduce and practice decoding unfamiliar words using letter patterns!
This center is a great way to help our emerging readers build on their phonological awareness. This popcorn themed printable is ideal for Preschool and Kindergarten classrooms.
It works perfectly with literacy stations, independent work, or in small review groups. Depending on your students’ abilities, it can be used as a review or a challenge.

Inside You’ll Find:
- 20 sheets of popcorn boxes covering common letter blends such as: cr, sk, fl, gr, pr, dr, etc.
- 20 sheets of popcorn, each with 6 different pictures.
- This resource also comes in black and white to save on ink, so it comes with 80 pages total.

Getting the Popcorn Blends Match-Up Ready
This match-up is simple and easy to prep. After you purchase the match-up and download it, you’ll print it out (color or black and white) and cut the pieces using a paper trimmer.
Gather up the activity and place it in a plastic container. I love using plastic pencil cases to store centers like these. It keeps everything in one place and does not take up a ton of space.
Here’s how I keep my Language Arts materials organized throughout the year.
I recommend printing these out on cardstock and laminating them before you cut them so they can easily be used year after year.

Using the Popcorn Blends Match-Up
Students will start the activity by choosing a popcorn box with a blend on it. This student chose the box with the blend /cl./
They will then sort through all of the popcorn with pictures looking for the ones that have the blend /cl./ You may want to have your students work in small groups the first time they try to complete the Popcorn Blends Match-Up.

Once their popcorn box is filled with popcorn representing the corresponding blends, they can move on to a new blend and start again.
Another way you can differentiate this activity is to have all of the popcorn boxes laid out on a table or the floor. Students will then sort through all of the popcorn and place each one on the correct popcorn box.
You can simplify the activity by providing your littlest learners with only two of the popcorn box blends and the corresponding popcorn at one time.
Once they master those, you can slowly add in more boxes of popcorn and more popcorn toppers.
Whether students are working together as a group or showing off their mastery of words on their own, they will have a popping good time!

Download this Popcorn Blends Match-Up Now!
Are you ready to implement this in your classroom or home?
Get it at our A Dab of Glue Will Do Store
Get it here in our Teachers Pay Teachers Store
Your kids can practice blends all year long with our Blends Mega Bundle. It has 12 themed blend activities! Plus, when you purchase them together, you’ll save yourself some money!
Have fun with your students in the classroom and at home with this Popcorn Blends Match-Up Printable Activity.
Want More Popcorn Match-Ups?
Don’t forget to check out our Popcorn Match-Up Bundle!
[…] show what they know with match-up activities like this Flowers Ending Sound Match-Up and Popcorn Blends Match-Up. They are also building their phonetic awareness through practice with these CVC Spelling Digital […]