Teeny Tiny Treasures, too

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I can't get enough of Teeny Tiny Treasures.  Once we finish our Teeny Tiny Alphabet Treasures, we begin our Teeny Tiny Word Family Treasures.  Place magnetic letters (onsets) and a rime label in a small mint tin or other small container.  Students build words in the word family and record the words in their Teeny Tiny Treasures booklet.  

Labels for the boxes, rime labels, anchor pictures, word family lists, and two sizes of booklets are available for purchase.  Click on the TpT button or the link under the picture for more information.  

Don't want to purchase?  These are easy to make!

1. Choose the word families that you would like to use.
2. Type the rime labels.  I used Comic Sans and size 100 font.
3. Collect the magnetic letters for the word family and place in the tin.  About 10-12 letters fit in the tin.
4. Make a booklet for each student.
5. Place in a literacy center.
6. Challenge students to use 1 or more words in a sentence.

Booklet (Quarter Page)

• Cut construction paper cover 4 1/2 X 12
• Fold in half (4 1/2 X 6), but open flat
• Cut 2 pieces of copy paper in half 4 1/4 X 11.  Fold in half, but open flat.  Counting front to back, this will give you a 16 page book.  3 pages of copy paper will give you a 24 page book.
• Stack open pages and cover together.  Staple with long arm stapler in the spine on the fold.

Teeny Tiny Treasures

Teeny Tiny Treasures
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Good things do come in small packages!  Collect small objects from around your classroom or home that begin with each letter of the alphabet.  Place the teeny tiny treasures by letter in a small mint tin or other small container.  (I use Altoid tins.)  Students draw and label the treasures in their Teeny Tiny Treasures booklet.  These tiny trinkets provide big practice opportunities for initial sounds and hearing/recording sounds in words.

I would love to have 26 tins.  However, I decided that if I waited until I collected all 26, I would never get started.  You can do this activity with only one tin.  Students complete one letter per week in a literacy center.  At the end of the week, replace the old objects with the next letter's objects.  If you have more tins and less time to complete the entire alphabet, have your students complete more than one letter per week.

I think that I had just as much fun finding tiny objects to put into the boxes as the kids have had discovering what is inside of each box.  Once you start looking around, you will be amazed at what you can find.  I tried to find at least 5 objects for each letter.  Here are a few ideas of additional places to look to get you started:  office supplies, $1 bins at stores, garage sales, food labels, party favors, seasonal items, tiny erasers, stickers, miniature doll accessories, and collections of plastic animals.  Photos of kids in your class are especially terrific treasures.  The photo company that takes our school pictures provides teachers with several small pictures of each child.  These are the perfect size for the box.  

Available for purchase are two sizes of booklets for students to record treasures for each letter.  Click on the TpT button or follow the link under the picture of the Teeny Tiny Treasure C box for more information.  However, you can easily make your own booklets for free!

Tiniest Booklet (Quarter page booklet)

• Cut construction paper cover 4 1/2 X 12
• Fold in half (4 1/2 X 6), but open flat
• Cut 4 pieces of copy paper in half 4 1/4 X 11.  Fold in half, but open flat.
• Stack open pages and cover together.  Staple with long arm stapler in the spine of the fold.

(This booklet makes enough pages to add ch, sh, th, and wh at the end.)

 

Booklet (Half page booklet)

• Cut construction paper cover 9 X 12
• Fold in half (9 X 6), but open flat
• Fold 7 pieces of copy paper in half, but open flat.
• Stack open pages and cover together.  Staple with long arm stapler in the spine of the fold.

Do you teach Pre-K?  You might also consider a teeny tiny color collection.  Use a larger booklet for students to record or draw the treasures.

Sight Word Books

Click here to find Color Word Mini Booklets



I use these mini booklets at the beginning of the year as a literacy center.  Extend learning by having students highlight sight words and color words, label pictures, or add sentences to blank pages.  Each book introduces a new sight word and text pattern.  They are a great addition to book boxes, but are also a great resource for independent reading practice at home. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rhyme Time

My kids love making word family charts.  It is fun to see their excitement at being able to read and write more words than they thought possible.  For so long, we would make the charts, I would hang them up in the room, and that would be about it.  Yes, they would use the charts in the literacy centers, Read (and Write) Around the Room, but I knew that we could use them for more.  I wanted something to supplement the charts that would provide segmenting and blending practice, have space available for picture clues, and give ongoing skills practice.  The Rhyme Time booklet was just the answer. 

  

 

CVC Rhyme Time Booklet Cover Click here to find out more.

Rhyme Time for Common Word Families.
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I begin in the late fall by introducing one CVC word family per week.  In the beginning, we complete the class anchor chart together (bought at a teacher supply store) and then record those words in Rhyme Time together.  Within a couple of weeks, we still do the class anchor chart together, but the kids are ready to work independently in the booklet.  It then becomes a weekly literacy center and class favorite. 

I love hearing kids segment the onset/rime.  I love seeing their excitement at reading so many words.   I love hearing them sing the list to Dr Jean's song "Rime Time."  (Tune of "Addams Family")  I love the 15 weeks of ongoing practice.  I love that the kids know exactly what to do for 15 weeks.  I love that it is a center with materials ready to go for 15 weeks.  I love that when we finish the CVC Rhyme Time, I have another Rhyme Time booklet for common word families for the end of the year.   I Love, Love, Love these booklets! 

Rainbow Writing

Just the mention of a rainbow brings a smile to a child. Incorporate a rainbow into the mundane task of teaching sight words, and you've made the teacher smile, too! 

Writing with a crayon and tracing over the word in different colors to make a rainbow, adds a bright spot that students love to this skill practice. This booklet not only allows for repeated spelling practice, but space is provided for the student to write the word in a sentence, which also makes it a great tool to reinforce capitalization, spacing, and punctuation.  Rainbow writing provides repeated spelling practice in a format that kids love. 

Rainbow Writing Booklets
Pre-Primer Dolch List, Color Words, Number Words 0-10, Common Core Words
Primer Dolch List, Common Core Words
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Don't want to buy the product?  Reformat the idea to fit the needs of your students.  It is a simple idea that gets big results.  I place the booklet in a literacy center, and the students complete 2 pages each week.  I absolutely love the fact that all of our sight words are in here, so once I get the booklet copied and introduced, this center is ready to go for 12 weeks.