Here we are, back in the swing! Bet you thought I fell off the planet :).  Our school began two weeks ago, and since then I have DIBELed and assessed for letters and sounds.  Every year, I see a range of littles…from those who have not had experience with letters, to littles who are ready to read.  And each year I use the parent letter form I am featuring as a freebie to help parents stay informed about what letters we still need more practice with.  I  always set an end goal (usually fall conference time) for having everyone knowing their letters and sounds.  I just circle in red the letters that still need work.
Some of the ways we accomplish this are:

1.  Barbara Milne’s “Do You Know the Letter Sounds” video.  Her 
     voice is so sweet, and the tune does not overshadow the letter 
     sounds being emphasized.  Wonderful teaching tool!
     This video helps to reinforce the sound.  

2.  There are so many letter name videos out there, but among
     my favorites is the one by Pete Harry called, “Do You Know 
     Your Alphabet?” Pete also has a new sight word video you 
     should check out!

After assessing for letters and sounds, I like to get a complete class view of who knows what.  This helps me to form my small groups in the beginning, and combined with progress monitoring, will help me adjust groups later on.  
This is a word file that you can manipulate to fit your own assessment order of letters.  I am sharing the one in alphabetical order.  
 
Click the pics to grab your freebies!

The whole class summary is in word, and is completely editable.  I select a cell, then shade it with red or green.  Once you have set the color for shading, you can hold the ctrl key and select multible cells to shade, or you can use red and green markers to achieve the same results.  

In addition to these helpful alphabet tools, I use several items from my TpT Store.  And…here is one last item in my arsenal of alphabet practice tools! It’s a ppt that has a chart as well as poems for each letter to the rhythm of the “Shave and a Haircut”.  

 I hope your assessment year gets off to a great start too! One additional thing that I do is have the struggling learners to trace the alphabet every day as they say the object, the letter name, and the sound.  For instance:  A /a/ apple, B /b/ balloon, etc.  Jan Richardson of The Next Step in Guided Reading “fame” recommends this to help littles learn the letters and sounds by November-December.  It works! I recommend using the alphabet chart of your choice, enlarging the letters and pictures, and making booklets that are large enough to trace! 
I am sure there is more I am forgetting to tell you, but maybe this will help you have some additional resources in YOUR arsenal of letter/sound tools!
I love, love, love, comments, so please let me know if any of these struck the right chord with you too!
Maggie