Educational Resource Center

Here are two additional books that have activities for every letter of the alphabet.

Hands-On Alphabet Activities for Young Children: A Whole Language Plus Phonics Approach to Reading by Roberta Seckler Brown and Susan Carey looks impressive at over 500 pages, but unfortunately much of the page count is taken up with repetitive information. Each letter has an art activity to go with a poem that focuses on an object beginning with the letter. There is a reproducible half page book with objects beginning with the letter followed by full page sized pictures of the same object which you are to make into a “big book” to read with a group. The activities for each letter are identical:

• read and act out poem
• identify letter on a card
• name object held up that start with the letter
• complete art project (mostly cutting and pasting with some painting and stamping)
• read big book for letter to child
• the child reads a little book of the same text.

Each step is described in detail for each letter although the format is exactly the same, which makes the book unnecessarily long. The little books are the best part of this curriculum, with repetitive text suitable for young readers and plenty of words that start with the letter being studied. The drawings seem a little crude, but they are friendly.

Jumbo Fun With the Alphabet book has a similar format but with more variety. A two page spread at the beginning of the book describes a variety of activities to introduce any letter or sound. In addition, each letter has:

• a full page picture of an animal and model of the capital and small version of the letter suitable for hanging on the wall
• letter and picture cards for the letter (located in the back of the book)
• a suggestion for a sorting activity
• a bibliography of alphabet books and other books that feature the letter (i.e. for P– pigs and popcorn, for J– jets and jellyfish)
• a recipe or snack
• a simple drawing exercise and oral language experience
• two or three worksheets– usually one for tracing the letter, one in which you cut and paste pictures, and one additional activity
• a “Make It!” project in which templates are copied on construction paper and put together into something (a jet for J, a bear for B, etc.)
• a little book you copy and fold into fourths to read

The activities for each letter are themed around two different objects or animals (quail and quilts for Q, otter and octopus for O) and the pages for a little ABC book (A is for ant, etc.) is in the back of the book. The strength of this curriculum is the variety of activities included and this book would be the one to buy if you wish to work from a single resource.

Many children learn the alphabet simply by being exposed to it through Sesame Street, the alphabet song, refrigerator magnets, and the like. Some families, and some preschool and kindergarten classes, teach the alphabet in a more formal way. There are a number of lines of thinking about what order to present the letters– alphabetically, by reliablity in pronunciation, by frequency of use, or by a child’s personal interest (the letters in a child’s name first, for example). There are many programs for teaching the alphabet in a systematic way, the very expensive Letter People is one popular example which schools often use.

I went searching for other programs. A search for “Alphabet Activities” on Google will bring up scores of ideas. Here are a few that have materials for every letter:

Meet the Alphabet Kids is a free resource from About.com’s website. Each letter is paired with a boy or girl’s name (Albert A, Britney B, Charlie C, etc.) and a little story with several words starting with the letter. There is a link to a coloring/collage page (a block style of the letter to fill in), an “Alpha-craft”, links to several other crafts that start with the letter, and a list of related activities that start with that letter (for instance, play hopscotch while learning the letter H). Each page also has some activities to do with all letters.

Alphabet Preschool Activities and Crafts gives extensive links to free worksheets related to each letter. Most have a choice of D’Nealian or Zaner-Bloser handwriting practice. Color posters, coloring pages, handwriting worksheets, and minibooks are available for each letter as well as links to crafts (mostly the cut-and-paste variety) and online puzzles. I find the website a little confusing to navigate as the same materials are often linked back and forth between pages, but there is a lot of material here to print out if worksheets are what you desire.

ABC - 26 Printable Alphabet Mini-Books A to Z and Learning About the Alphabet (Full-Color and Black & White): ABC Charts & Printables are two resources which you pay to download in a PDF format. The mini-books are half page sized books with a list of words for each letter and lines to write additional words, a number of words illustrated with a capital and small letter to trace next to each picture, and a page of the letter in a variety of fonts. The charts and printables of the second book include small and large sized alphabet charts, cards, and minibooks for display and personal use by an individual child.

Alphabet Art: With A-Z Animal Art & Fingerplays (Williamson Little Hands Series) by Judy Press and Sue Dennen is a book with activities for each letter. A large, block version of each upper and lowercase letter is traced on a paper plate (a clever substitution for tagboard that may be easier to find in your area) and decorated with painted or glued decorations that start with the letter (Dotted D’s, Macaroni M’s, and so on). Each letter also has a simple craft that creates a paper animal that starts with that letter (for example, Miguel, the Mouse for M, Sally, the Snake for S). Most of the crafts use easy to find items such a paper bags, cardboard tubes, construction paper, or more paper plates. The directions for the crafts are general and no templates are provided so they are a bit more open ended than the cut-and-paste projects often found in other resources. Unfortunately, many require the help of a parent to complete. A poem for each letter, an alphabet train sporting words for each letter, and a few activities related to the letter complete the offerings. Scattered throughout the book are some activities to practice all the letters of the alphabet.

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