The following idea is not a toy and is not for children under the age of five. It is a game that requires adult supervision and interaction. It is not intended to be used by a child without an adult present. PLEASE NOTE – I have an alternative jewel idea below for younger children and for children who might like their own bag of word jewels.
Instructions for Adult Supervised Word Jewel Game:
The first thing you will need to do is make the word jewel pieces. This is very easy to do! You will need the large glass discs (1 1/2 inches or more in size), mod podge, foam brush, and a print out of the sight words (I used chalkboard font in size 16).
Cut words out in squares.
With foam brush, apply a coat of mod podge on top of word square.
Press your thumb on top of jewel till the word shows up dark.
When dry, cut around the jewel to remove excess paper.
Seal jewel by applying a coat of mod podge to back of paper. Let dry.
How to use:
The Sight Word Jewel Game for teacher small groups:
Provide each student with a white paper square (I use index cards). This is their place to gather jewels.
- Each student picks a jewel out from the bag without looking.
- Let everyone pick a jewel.
- Next, each student reads the jewel. If they get it right, they put it on their white square. If they do not know the sight word – practice reading it (you say it, they say it). Then put the jewel back into the bag.
- Repeat this process until all the jewels have been distributed. I do not count to see who has the most as this is too competitive. I like to keep the process fun.
Paper Jewels and the Treasure Bag Game
This is the child-friendly version of this idea. You can make enough paper jewels for each student.
Print out a copy of the sight words. Link is here: Paper Sight Word Jewels
With foam brush, gently paint a thin coat of glue over the top. Do not use too much or your paper will curl and wrinkle.
Sprinkle a fine glitter over the paper of jewels. Martha Stewart has a great light glitter that will not interfere with reading the words. It only takes a tiny bit.
I put a single little silver star on each word jewel. Then laminate and cut out! The paper jewels are ready to be collected!
Paper Sight Word Jewel Game
Only use the paper version of the jewels for this activity. Make enough paper jewels so that every child can ultimately have one. I plan to store mine in a craft box that has dividers.
I will set the stage for this activity by building up the treasure of our sight words. As a class we will search for the word jewels in the shared reading we do and in small groups. The wonderful world of word jewels will be built up for a good week before I introduce their opportunity to gather their own collection. In my own teaching I have found that children are much more invested in the process if I build excitement around the idea.
- As a child learns their sight words, I will give them the corresponding word jewel. I will review the words already in their bag as we add new ones.
- I will have their word jewel bag as I work one-on-one in reading workshop to reinforce fluency.
- I will make new word jewels as we progress through the year (including word families).
- I have a bag for each child that I found at Michael's very reasonably. I tied a laminated name tag on to each bag.
I love this idea even for my older students!!!!
Great idea, thanks for sharing this. Do you know if the large glass pieces are sold in different colors?
I love this idea! Did you get the large glass discs at Michaels?
Pat
Yes, I did find mine at Michael’s Craft Store. They do come in different colors. I thought that I would use different colored papers as the clear is the best for seeing the words.
What a wonderful, magical idea for supporting literacy…I can see my 4 and 6 yo getting very excited about collecting jewels! One suggestion would be to use a circle punch for the words so you don’t have to cut them out. Much easier!
Thank you for this wonderful idea! I have made lots of word jewels after seeing this. I used the small discs (because I couldn’t find any larger ones locally) and have found that they can be used to transform just about any board game into a word game. Just put the word gems on board spaces–and have the children read the word before they move to the space. Lots of possibilities!
Susan! What a grand idea -transforming board games into word games with just the word gems! Thank you so much for sharing it. I love, love, love it!
This is such a fabulous idea! I’m already thinking of all of the ways I want to use and adapt it!
So beautiful. Your blog is sweet.
Kat
Aww thank you Kat!
Download of sight words not working for me. I don’t have a google account. I use hotmail.
I love how you make learning fun for the kids. They could be fairies and hide the words for other friends to find .
Now, THAT’S Fairy Dust for you! I think the children will be delighted hiding the words! Magical idea!
Your blog is fantastic. I will use it and adapt it in my future classroom.
Thank You.
Bertha M. Gonzalez.