1-2-3 Come Do An Alphabet Craftivity With Me

Woo hoo for me; woo hoo for you!  As some of you know, I just opened a shop on TpT May 6th  We've reached our 1st "milestone" of 100 followers.  In celebration of that, here's a special little FREEBIE great for anytime, but especially nice for back-to-school.

So that I could get a handle on where my new kiddos were at, I always liked to do some fun assessing the first week of school. 

Testing and assessing students can be tedious and overwhelming for young children, as well as time consuming for teachers.  Keeping that in mind, I designed Alpha Bird.

Precut "Alfie's" body parts from a variety of colors of construction paper.  Students choose the pattern pieces that they want, and glue them to their paper plate bird body, which is simply a folded paper plate.

To expedite things, I'd fold and staple them shut ahead of time, leaving the bottom middle open so that students can insert the birds "legs".  For extra pizzazz, I added several feathers for a tail.  You can buy a bag at The Dollar Store.

Students cut and glue the alphabet strips to make Alfie's legs. When everyone has completed their alpha bird, play "I Spy" by calling out a letter.  Because the legs are long, and to increase upper body strength, have children lie on their tummies.

Students find and trace both the upper and lowercase letters.  When they  have done so, children raise their hand, so that you know that everyone is done. 

With just a glance, you can see who is struggling, either trying to find a letter, tracing the wrong one, or peeking at others to see what they're doing.  

Jot yourself a note, so that you can work with these children later. Call on a child to choose the next letter.  Play 'til all of the letters have been traced.

Alfie offers a simple, quick and interesting way to whole group assess, while providing a nice review of upper and lowercase letters. 

The birds also make a stunning hallway wall border.  Simply tie a yarn loop at the top and suspend from the ceiling.  Caption: "We know our letters and that's something to TWEET about!"

If you don't want to do this craftivity with your students, but like the different assessment idea, simply make your own alpha bird, hang him on a wall, and use Alfie to individually assess, in a non-threatening fun way. Click on the link to grab a copy of this fun FREEBIE: Alfie the Alpha Bird.  

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by, and a very special thank you to all of my loyal followers!  Wishing you a warm and wonderful summer.

"If plan B doesn't work, don't give up; the alphabet has 25 more letters!"  -Unknown