Rainbow Writing Paint Chip Idea

As a child of the 80s, Rainbow Brite was part of my daily existence-I had the doll, the horse Starlight, and all the sprites.  (Not to mention the Color Kids, t-shirts and a nightgown.)  As I am using the Daily 5 structure this year, Word Work is a daily part of my existence. 

I'm (nearly) constantly looking for new ways to make the Word Work time effective, meaningful and fun for the students. 

(I need to also add I'm looking for something inexpensive, easy to introduce and something that will withstand five year olds manipulating it for two hours on end each day.)

Enter paint chips.  The cheap teacher friendly ones.

After making letter tiles and beads part of my day, I was a little put off by the noise.  So now I have a new tool in my Word Work treasure chest:

I went to Wal-Mart and found the paint chips that will allow indelible ink on them (I have some that have the windows in 'em from Lowe's, but Sharpie won't work on them.  Big, sad sigh.)

I made the executive decision that all of my vowels would be from the red color scheme.  Alternating upper and lower case letters on all the strips, I fashioned a multi-colored alphabet.

I will use these in my Word Work Center as an alternative to the letter tiles and the beads.  A much quieter, vibrant kaleidoscope to be used for the same activities. 

Rainbow Writing?  Rainbow Brite would be so proud.