ABC Books

Before I get into my post about ABC books I have to tell you about the new book store I found.  It opened up in the old Borders Express by the movies (another teacher friend and I may have caught an afternoon showing of Magic Mike ummmm I mean a really mentally stimulating documentary).  

Its called

 

It had the Magic Tree House series, used, for less than $2.00.  I also found a copy of the Time Travelers Wife, which I have been looking for forever.  Finally they have a buy 3 get one free used book special. I got 5 books for less than $20.00.  I can't wait to go back with my book list I have for school.  SCORE!!

Now onto ABC books.  As I mentioned in my last post I got inspired to do these because of the M is for Mitten book that is part of our social studies curriculum.  Also, another teacher friend of mine has kids do it for science and social studies concepts.  I even used it later in the year as a book report option.

First of all for big projects I like to make a Powerpoint.  This way I have all the information that the kids need on hand and I can just project it on my smart board.  

We studied poetry patterns before we did this project.  The pictures below are the slides that we went over before we did the project.

These slides along with an additional one that lists each letter of the alphabet and who is doing that letter cycle through every time we work on the project.  Kids need a lot of help finding something to go with their letter so this frees me up form answering A LOT of questions about directions.

(this is the  copy the kids got when they were working)

(Layout Template)  

Each student gets their own letter.  Since I had 28 students this year though there are two letters that have 2 pages in the book.   Once the kids complete their pages I put each one into a plastic page protector and put it in a binder.  This then goes into the classroom library where it becomes the most popular book.  Kids love showing them off to parents at open house and conferences.

Front cover

 Here are some of my favorite pages that the kids did.

G is for Garden Gate

H is for Hawk

L is for Lightning 

M is for Mountain (this picture is out of focus and I don't know why but I love the illustrations.  This child typed his because of his accommodations in his IEP)

P is for puddle (this one cracks me up why?  His mom informed me they don't even have carpet in their house)

Some other ways other teachers and I have utilized this project:

• Social Studies Units
• Science Units
• Book Reports
• Seasons and Holidays
• All about me
• Vocabulary
• Grammar topics
• Favorite books
• Respect and Responsibility

The best part is once these are created the kids LOVE to read them.  It really makes the students aware that their work needs to be their VERY best because if not they will constantly be asked what their's says.