Birdhouse ABC Activity

Inside: a free printable birdhouse ABC activity where kids put alphabet bird cards into a birdhouse. Includes a letter spinner, uppercase letter cards, and recording sheets in both uppercase and lowercase letter versions.

Spring and summertime are for the birds! Here in Texas, we love watching barn swallows build nests over the grandparents’ porch every spring. If we visit at the right time, we even get to see baby birds. As a kid my family had a birdhouse in the backyard that was fun to watch. How do you enjoy watching birds where you live?

Birdhouse ABC Activity

Whether or not you have a real birdhouse or bird nest to observe, this versatile birdhouse alphabet activity is lots of fun. You can engage your little learners with the idea of putting birds in the birdhouse and spinning the spinner. They might not even notice that they’re working on matching uppercase letters!

Skills Covered

Depending on how you set up this activity, you can cover the following early literacy skills:

• Matching uppercase letters to uppercase letters
• Matching uppercase letters to lowercase letters
• Tracing uppercase and/or lowercase letters
• Fine motor skills, especially if you use letter beads (see below)

What’s Included in the Free Printable

The 7-page printable includes the following:

• 1 Birdhouse with cutout marked
• 26 Bird ABC cards
• 5 Bird spinners
• 2 Recording sheets

Materials Needed

There are several ways to set up the activity, depending on your preferences and the needs of your students. Here are all the items you might need:

• Cardstock to print on
• Container to tape the “birdhouse” to
• Small container to hold the bird cards (optional)
• Tape
• Spinner inserts or paperclip and brad
• Plastic letters (optional)
• Pencil or crayon for tracing
• Craft birdhouse – mine is 4 inches tall and cost about $1.50 (optional)
• Small letter beads (optional)

Do beware of using small letter beads with kids who might put them in their mouth or nose, and even for older kids I would explicitly caution them.

Preparation

1. Cut out the birdhouse card and then cut out the circle opening along the dotted lines as indicated on the printout.
2. Tape the “birdhouse” to a small rectangular plastic container or an empty square tissue box.
3. Cut out the bird ABC cards and place them in a small container if desired.
4. Choose a spinner and add a spinner arm to it, or attach a paperclip with a brad for a makeshift version.

How to Play

Here are several ways to do this alphabet activity, from easier to harder:

• Cards only: choose a card, say the letter name, put it into the birdhouse.
• Spin & Match: spin the spinner, then find the card with the matching letter and put that into the birdhouse.
• Spin & Double Match: spin the spinner, find the matching card, and put it in the birdhouse. Then, find the matching plastic letter and place it on the recording sheet. (If you have magnetic letters, you could even set this up as a cookie sheet activity)

• Spin, Match, and Write: spin the spinner, find the matching card, and put it in the birdhouse. Then, trace the letter on either the uppercase or the lowercase recording sheet.

• Real birdhouse version: combine one of the above with a craft birdhouse and letter beads that fit in it. Then, shake the beads out and say the name and or trace that letter on a recording sheet.

Whew! That’s a lot of ways to play!

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