Aleph Beis Checker Game

Yesterday we had loads of fun making a Checkers game that will help our kids in the Aleph Art Room practice their letters.

This idea can be made in so many ways, using paper, felt or fabric like I did here.

Each child got a piece of fabric (which I cut using pinking shears to avoid fraying). Then I had pre cut another design of fabric into squares (you will need to work out how big your squares are based on your “board” size) to fit on the “board”.

Each child made their board and using a glue stick (which actually worked quite well although they did need to hold one hand down on the fabric to glide the stick on.) If this would have been a longer project (I wanted the kids to have it for winter break) I would have used fabric glue and possibly one that requires ironing to make all the edges stick perfectly. All in all, it was a quick project and the kids had so much fun!

The “pieces” used for playing were the letters Aleph – Yud and although there were not enough squares on our checkerboard, it doesn’t really matter as the kids could choose the letters they wish to use to practice with.

(experiment with sticking letters on buttons or bottle caps etc. …loads of options!!)

The kids stuck the letters, which I printed at home on my avery round labels, onto colored card stock and cut them out. Using two colors of card stock will allow two team players to play.

The instructions were to set up your board, play as you would any checkers game and say the name of the letter which you are moving as you make your move!

Just a great way to get parents involved too. (which is why I included a little piece of paper as a key code with the letter and it’s name.)

The hardest part was cutting out the squares but I invested in a rotary cutter which looks like a pizza cutter (only sharper:) and this truly made it a breeze!

Hatzlocha!