Alphabet Books Revisited

Are you looking for something fun & educational to do with your young ones?  Try making an ABC book with them!  Read all about it in this post I wrote about making your own alphabet book.  My kids had so much fun creating their books.  And recently I started teaching in a Saturday program and once again my students enjoyed this project.  I love the unique  & interesting ideas the kids come up with for their alphabet book.  And it's simple (and inexpensive) to put together.  

I'd like to add a few new Alphabet book titles to your reading list as well.  Whenever I do the Alphabet book project we always start by reading a few ABC books, and here are a few of our favorites:

Peanut Butter & Jellyfishes by Brian P. Cleary

A is for Astronaut by Traci Todd

The Turn-Around, Upside Down Alphabet Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst

**look closely at this picture, this book is great because it makes the kids really look at the letter

Picture a Letter by Brad Sneed

I love love love the illustrations in this book!

Have fun with this project!  It's perfect for your preschooler who is just learning the letters, or for your older student who is looking for an interesting way to write & illustrate their own book.  The great things about this activity is that the possibilities are countless.

making books with children :: create your own ABC book

I am teaching a course right now, to children ages 4-6, called Beyond Books.  In the class we read stories and then do projects based on the books we have read.  I love teaching this class, and I have some fun projects prepared for my students.  My own children do not want to miss out on the fun, so I have promised them that each week will have our own activity time at home based on the projects I did with my class.

This past weekend the theme for the day was Alphabet Books.  I went to the library and checked out a whole stack of ABC books to read to the children.  I love that our library puts a sticker on the spine of the books that says "ABC" so I can scan the aisles and grab a variety of books all about letters.  I did not read all of them during the class, there just wasn't enough time, but my favorite was The Hidden Alphabet by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.  The illustrations were fantastic.  All of the students and my kids loved this one. 

After reading a few of the ABC books and talking to them about the different parts of a book I gave the children their task:  to create their own alphabet book.  I had a great time watching their work develop.  It was interesting to see what approaches they took, and what words they came up with for each letter.  The students in my class weren't able to finish the books in the time allotted, so they took them home to work on, but my kids finished theirs up in a few hours.  I think this is a perfect hands-on learning experience for young kids, anywhere from age 2 (with help) to age 10.  I think the most important thing you can do is to let them write and illustrate this book on their own.  When the kids asked for ideas I was very careful to suggest LOTS of words, or to direct them to magazines to look for ideas.  I hope that you try this project at home with your own children, and if you do, let me know how it goes!

Here's how we created alphabet books:



First I made books out of 2 pieces of card stock, 15 pages of copy paper, three staples and a strip of colored masking tape. 

Then I gathered a bunch of supplies, magazines to cut, construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, tape, crayons and colored paper.

I gave the kids their blank books and instructed them to make and alphabet book, starting with A and ending with Z.  I also made sure they knew that they had to use the front and back of each page to fit all 26 letters in (with a page or two to spare).  These are all the instructions I gave them, aside from the request to think creatively and use their imaginations.

The end products were very cool indeed.  I made extra books so that I can keep a few in the art cabinet, and Ella has been authoring books all week long.  This was a great way for the kids to express themselves creatively, practice fine motor skills (writing, drawing & cutting), become more familiar with their ABC's, and gain confidence in themselves as writers, artists & creators.  This is a perfect project for classrooms and home alike.  And the possibilities with the book is endless...one week it can be the alphabet, the next week it can be fairy tales.  Or it can be a nature journal.  So many options!

This sweet note was written by Ella on the last page of her book, because Mary Pope Osborne puts "A note from the Author" in the back of her Magic Treehouse Books.  Ella is currently seeking publishers to read her work.

**UPDATE to this post:  we have done this project over and over again at our house, the kids get more creative each time!  See this post for more alphabet book ideas to read to the kids!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Magnet Letter Activity

When i taught preschool I often started out the year with activities revolving around one of my favorite books: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. It's an adorable alphabet book, with a catchy song to go with it (and have you seen the dvd?!? My kids love it!). Years ago, when Ella was not yet three years old I made a coconut tree for her on our fridge (at our old house), to play with her magnet letters. And she still remembers that! She has been asking me lately to make another one, so today we did. 

This is a great way to not only decorate your fridge, but to give the kids a new way to explore the alphabet. Sam is not at all interested in singing the abc's with me (his version goes something like this: PQRS, PQRS, PQRS, PQRS), but he will sit and play with the magnet letters, so I am hoping that this will help him learn a few more letters & letter sounds. The coconut tree was pretty easy to make, I just looked at the book for guidance, used paper to cut out the tree, and then used contact paper to adhere it to the fridge (so the edges of the paper won't get torn). This can also be done by making a smaller tree and adhering it to a cookie sheet!  It's a perfect learning activity for home or for a Preschool classroom.  

 

What are your favorite ways to help your children become more familiar with the alphabet?