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Alphabet Book
Overview
Children will each be making a page to add to the alphabet book. Each child will get a letter and will have to write that letter on construction paper and then add pictures that start with that letter to their page. Once each child has completed their page, the pages will all be put together to create the alphabet book.

Literacy: Writing Kindergarten

Materials
Magazines Printed clip art pictures Scissors Glue Markers/Crayons Construction paper String 3 hole punch

Standards
Derived from WMEL standards: C.EL. 2: Develops alphabetic awareness. Specifically, in this lesson children will recognize beginning letters in familiar words.

Classroom Management
Material Distribution: Have children all sit together in a circle around a table so that materials can be easily shared. Behavior: If a childs behavior gets out of control, have them move to spot by themselves with their own materials. Time: If short on time keep the children on task and focused so that the activity moves along. Groups: Depending on the size of the class children may work in groups if there are more than 26 students. Students with the same letter could then work together. Transitions: Transition the children to the carpet area for the prior knowledge/motivation activities. Then have them transition from the carpet to their desks after those activities are completed so that they can begin working on their page for the book.

Prior Knowledge/Motivation
Children will have had practice with the alphabet and writing capital letters. They will also have practice with identifying pictures with words and knowing what the first letter of the word that represents that picture is. To assess their prior knowledge, first sing the alphabet song to make sure that all children know the letters of the alphabet and also so that the children can practice and review letters. To assess whether or not children are able to identify the first letter of a word by looking at a picture they could do an activity like whack-aword. In this activity have several different pictures of various objects laid out on the floor or tacked up on a board. Then give each child a flyswatter and have them take turns whacking the picture of the word you call out. Once they whack the picture have them tell you what the first letter of the word that represents the picture is.

Goals and Objectives

Remembering: Children will remember the letters of the alphabet and how to write them. Understanding: Children will understand how pictures represent words and how pictures can be associated with letters of the alphabet by what letter they start with. Applying: Children will apply this knowledge by playing the whack-aword activity. They will also apply this knowledge while they look for pictures to put on their page that start with their letter. Creating: Children will create a page to an alphabet book using their

Alphabet Book

knowledge of associating pictures with words and knowing what letter the words start with. As a class the children will create an entire alphabet book together.

Steps and Procedures

1. 2. Begin with the activities described in the prior knowledge section (sing the alphabet, whack-a-word). (15 minutes) Next, explain to the children that they will be making their own book and they will all get a copy of it to take home. Tell them that it will be an alphabet book and that they will each get assigned a letter to use to create one page of the book. They will have to write that letter on the piece of paper they get and then they will have to find and cut out pictures of things that start with that letter. They will then glue these pictures on the paper with their letter. (1-2 minute explanation) Have children sit in a circle around a table and lay out construction paper, markers, glue, scissors, magazines, and clip art pictures in the center of the table. (2-3 minutes for transition and set-up) Have children pick a piece of construction paper. Tell them that before they can start cutting out pictures they have to write their letter and have me check it over. (3-5 minutes) Once their letter is checked and okayed by me they can begin to work on finding pictures to cut out and glue to their page. (10-15 minutes) When the children are finished with their page, have them wait patiently until everyone is finished. Students who finish early can be given a tracing letters worksheet to start working on while the other children finish. (5 minutes) Once everyone is done with their page have students come up one at a time and without showing the class their page, name one thing that they glued on the page. Have the students try and figure out what letter the student who is sharing had by listening to the word the student shares. Once a student says the right letter have the child show the class their completed page. (10-15 minutes) At the end, have the children hand in their page. (1 minute) On your own time, photocopy the pages so that there are enough for each child to get a copy of each page. Use a three-hole punch for each page and then tie the pages together with string to create a book for each child. Bring the completed books to class the next day to give to each student so that they have their own copy to take home.

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Differentiation
To make this activity more challenging, children could have to draw pictures of objects that start with the letter they are assigned instead of cutting out pictures. This would make the children have to think of words that start with their letter all by themselves. You could also have the children write the name of the pictures they glue on the page underneath the picture like a caption. This would make the activity more challenging and would also give the children more practice with writing. Also, since each child is working individually, you could observe the children and help/scaffold those students

Alphabet Book

you see struggling.

Closure
To close the lesson, have the students share their page to the class as explained in step 7 of the steps and procedures. Also, once everyone is done sharing, have the students work together as a class to come up with a name for their alphabet book.

Assessment
Assess by observing the children while they are making their page. Watch to see who is struggling to find pictures and who has an easy time finding pictures. Also observe while the children play whack-a-word to see if children are correctly identifying the word/picture that was called out. While the children are sharing at the end, listen and observe to see which children can name the correct letter that the child presenting has just by listening to the word the child shares from their page. Lastly, the pages the children created will be collected for assessment to see how many pictures that start with the correct letter there are on the page and also to see how well the uppercase letter was written.

Alphabet Book