Operation Alphabet DIY Word Wall

I love word walls, and if you aren't familiar with them I'll explain. A word wall is a list of all the letters of the alphabet and words that start with that letter. It allows children to see similarities in letters and match letter sounds. Personally, word walls are more effective when they are interactive, but that's just me. It took me about two weeks to finally plan a word wall and critique how I wanted to use it. It isn't just a spur of the moment, fly by the seat of  your pants type of project.

For my classroom's word wall, I wanted it to be
1) easily accessible to the kids
2) easy to change
3) and low to the ground.

Unfortunately, a few of my set backs were
1) the inability to get tape to stick to my non heat laminated cards
2) the idea that I didn't want to use beau coup amounts of tape
3) and it had to be fool proof.
So, I asked my three year olds if they would like to have a word wall and of course, being three, they loved the idea and tried to think of ways to use it. 

(Like hang beanie babies)

They decided they wanted it to be on the wall by the door. Placement: check. They wanted it to have fun characters: check. They wanted to do it all by themselves: check. They are BIG on independence.

To create my one of a kind wonderful word wall, I used an owl template I downloaded from a teacher on teacherspayteachers.com (it was freebie). I don't remember who, but I do have the download! Did someone just say Freebie? Yes I did!

And I printed these out (in black and white) and laminated them using my awesome EZ laminator from walmart! Then, after a whole roll of masking tap and some clear tape from the Dollar Tree, I finally got them to stick to the wall. It was a small miracle! Next came my dilemma of how to make the cards interactive.
Velcro? It wouldn't stick to the lamination.
Tape? Too much effort to rotate words each week.
Clothespins and ribbon? Again, wouldn't stick to the lamination.
And thus, that left one option: hole punch. I hole punched each and every card and put hooks on the wall! 

Command hooks are kind of expensive, but my good ol' Dollar Tree has them occasionally and Walmart has their own brand (which of course I bought).
The rest is very simple:
1) place a hook under each little owl
2) explain and demonstrate what to do
3) let them explore
4) take a million pictures!

Each week I switch out the word cards to coordinate with the theme of the week. I love to pull words from the books included in the theme along with new fun appropriate words that I want them to know, exp: treacherous, catastrophe, habitat, coordination, etc. It's a great way to expand their vocabulary and learn the alphabet. Even if they do not know the names of the symbols, they can practice matching similar letters, capital and lowercase. To really make it fun for Valentine's day, I made the word cards into hearts! Check it out here: Valentine Word Wall