How to Make a Whisper Phone

I first encountered "whisper phones" when I was student teacher.  My (amazing) mentor teacher used them during her small group time.  It was love at first sight... I instantly knew that I wanted an entire class set.  I went home, looked them up online, and balked at the price tag.  

Way to break my heart, whisper phones.  Luckily, Home Depot was there to pick up the pieces.

I was pretty sure that I could DIY a whisper phone with PVC pipe.  I showed a picture to my dad, and he said that a piece of PVC and two elbows would do the trick.  You can see the pieces that I used above.  Each bit was under a dollar, and the total cost was about $2.50 per phone, if I recall correctly.

Once you have your pieces, all that is left to do it fit them together.  Instant whisper phone, and a very durable one at that.  This will be the fifth year that I put my DIY phones to use.

Of course, if you like to make your projects more Pinteresting...

You can add some patterned masking or duck tape.

I only did this to one of my phones.  We'll see how it works out.  While I think it's super cute, I'm not sure how practical it will be.  I like to take my phones home often to run them through the dishwasher.  First-graders are germ factories, so regular washing is necessary.  I just pop the pieces apart and arrange them in the top rack.  I'm pretty sure that the masking tape is not going to hold up to washing, so you might want to keep that in mind.

I intend to use the decorated one myself during modeling sessions.  I learned the hard way that I have to model, model, model, have them model, and then model some more.  They're just so fun, you know?  It's hard for a first-grader to resist using one as a megaphone.  After a few modeling sessions, I let my students use the phones under supervision during small group sessions.  Once I'm sure they can handle it, I move some to our reading stations.

For anyone wondering what all the fuss is about, here's why I think these phones are wonderful:

1.  They force students to listen to themselves.  It's easy for a student to ignore their own voice or let it fade into the background.  These put their own voice right in their ear, so they can hear what their own reading sounds like.

2.  Quiet.  Students need to read aloud, but it can be very distracting to their neighbors.  The phones allow reading aloud and a quiet environment to coexist.

Does anyone use these in their classroom?  Did you splurge on a store-bought version or DIY it?  Made it pretty or kept it simple?