Create an Alphabet
Book
Today's
Snack: Better
have an ABC snack today - an apple, a banana, and some citrus juice!
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Supplies:
26 pieces of paper | colored markers
or colored pencils
Stapler or three-hole punch and
three-ring binder
A great way to give your child phonics skill is to
get the alphabet deeply and strongly into your child's brain and heart.
Phonics is a basic reading skill that translates the
sounds that alphabet letters make into the written symbols for them on a page.
The alphabet letters all have double identities - how they sound when they are
spoken aloud, and how they look when they are printed on paper.
An independent reader is able to link those two
identities quicker than the blink of an eye. So the more you can do to
strengthen phonics skills, the better off your child will be.
A great way to do that is to help your child make an
alphabet book!
1.
Take 26 pieces of paper
- blank white, colored construction, colored cardstock - whatever you'd like.
2.
Write one letter from
the alphabet on each. It can be the capital letter, or the capital and
lower-case version together.
3.
Challenge your child to
draw pictures of things beginning with each letter. Hint: use a search engine
if you get stumped in finding an animal that starts with certain letters.
Example: a "xerus" (pronounced "zeer uss") is an African ground squirrel.
4.
Encourage her to ask
you first, if she has selected the right letter, since the sounds that the
letters make when spoken aloud sometimes aren't spelling that way. For example,
"orangutan" sounds like it starts with the short vowel sound of an "e" or a
"u." This exercise is a great way to work with your child on the proper
pronunciation of words, too!
5.
When the child is
finished and has made at least one drawing per letter, bind it together with a
stapler or use a three-hole punch to put it into a three-ring binder. Keep the
alphabet book front and center in your home for a while, and then display
prominently in the child's room.
