Alphabet activities

As I have been going around to different schools relief teaching, I have come across some innovative and clever ideas, strategies and resources. I thought I would share some of the ideas I have seen. My favourite would have to be an alphabet activity journal. The class was a prep class and each student had their own journal. They were working their way through the alphabet and keeping a record of their writing and activities. I have adapted the idea with a few of my own resources.

1. Start with an A3 visual diary available in Office works and other education and stationary stores.

2. I found this website and I love it! If you go to the page  there are alphabet books for every letter! So I was thinking you could have a page for every letter and the children could paste in an alphabet book in each section with their writing. I browsed this website for hours as the resources are excellent!

3. I have found that charity shops have some great children’s books which are relatively cheap and in quite good condition. I often purchase the books that are really well worn and loved as you can remove the pages, laminate them  and give them new life! I found an alphabet book in a charity shop recently by DK publishing. I took out the worn pages, laminated them and now they are ready to display in a classroom. As I was looking at the photos for each letter, I started thinking about all the activities you could make and add to the journal.  I have to say I am a bit over a for apple and b for ball!!!

4. This is how the diary would look!

(a) A for avocado ,make avocado dip and eat it of course!

(b) Depending on the age of the children you could do some modeled or shared writing of the recipe, the children could write and draw pictures of the sequence of the recipe and add this to their journal

(c) Avocado Baby by John Burningham is a great read! The children could write a story about a clever baby with pictures or have an adult scribe it for them.

(d) Literacy aprons are great, you could have objects that start with the letter ‘a’ and the children could guess the objects from clues from you and draw them in their journal

(e) Ants are great for the letter A. The children could start an ant farm and draw the ants habitat and record their movements.

(f) Apple printing looks very effective! The finished paintings could be included in the journal.

(g) Recycling plastic bottles into apples is a great way to save the environment and have a wonderful toy for the home corner!
( I know I inserted a photo from my previous post!) The children could draw a picture of the apple they made.
(h) I had this idea to make a mini apron with felt. I decided to thread a large needle with wrapping paper ribbon and it worked well. I think pre primary age children could manage it. The sewing is only on the pocket. The buttons can be glued on with pva glue as well as the straps for the apron. The pocket can hold a story children have illustrated in this case the story of Jack and the beanstalk.I used an A4 piece of paper for the apron and cut a curve along the top for the arms. I know what you are saying, “what about boys!” I think black felt with a white pocket would look good and thanks to Master Chef cooking has promoted boy’s in the kitchen! Now it is cool to wear an apron! The boys could draw pictures from the story, ‘The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon’. The apron would probably fit a doll!

5. Letter B would go something like this!

(a) B for book

(b) I would encourage the children to make their own book  and add it to their journal

(c) Baby Brains by Simon James is such a great book to read to them, then they could draw their favourite scene from the story!

(d) Paper bead making is fascinating and a great way to recycle all kinds of paper. I would photograph the children with their designs and add to their journal
(d) Some bread making would be good with the children writing the sequence of the recipe and eating the bread at the end!

(e) Some simple paper boat making with a boat race in a paddling pool would be fun! The children could make one for the journal and one for sailing in the pool!
I will be back with some other ideas!