Day 122: alphabet books

A few days ago I asked if anyone had any suggestions for alphabet books. Sam is really starting to learn her letters and showing a good deal of interest so I want to encourage that and really start working on the alphabet with her.

We headed to the library with a long list in hand. We only found four! But a couple of them were big hits and we have requested a few others from different libraries. Here are the first ones that we have come across.

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert. This is a book in true Ehlert fashion. We love the pictures, the great colors and it is amazing that there really are fruits and vegetables for every letter! Sam loves to hold the book like a menu and "order" things from it. So funny.

Farm Alphabet Book by Jane Miller. This is an older one but it does a great job of depicting life on a farm. Sam loves to talk about the animals in the pictures. Since we don't live on a farm it is really good for her to get to see what that looks like.

These last two are really neat books that I have enjoyed but they are both a bit too long and complicated for Sam, they just didn't hold her attention. But I wanted to still pass them along for others that might have slightly older kids.

S if for Save the Planet; A How-to-Be Green Alphabet by Brad Herzog. This one is neat because for each letter there is the rhyming alphabet related poem that deals with an environmental issue but then there is also a couple paragraph indepth description of that issue. The detailed information was obviously not geared toward Sam so I didn't read it with her but I went back and was looking through some it and really found it interesting. It think there is a whole serious of these types of alphabet books by Brad Herzog on many different topics.

Summer an Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur. Sam does not get the idea of an acrostic so this is still a bit above her head. But the poetry is really neat and the pictures are cute. There are books about the other seasons too in this same format. Would be great for older kids first learning how to do acrostic poetry!

________________________________________________________________________________________

The Nitty Gritty!

I have way more books to try and find. I have also been looking through some other bloggers book lists to get ideas as well. If you know of anyone that has good book lists please send the link my way, we are always looking. There just isn't anything better than having lots of good books in the house.

Starting tomorrow we are going to be focusing on the alphabet. THEME WEEK! YIKES! Could be a challenge but I am excited to take it on. We will see what I can come up with.

Also, I just wanted to mention really quickly how much I enjoyed presenting on this little project at the Wisoconsin Association for Environmental Education conference. I was telling my husband today that by having to describe this project to other people it really ironed out some things in my own mind. I will have some new explanations and definitons of things up on the "The What, The Why and The Who" page soon! I got to reconnect with some amazing people and meet a few new ones as well. I am honored to have been able to be a part of their program. I know not everyone that reads this is from Wisconsin, in fact I don't think I have very many Wisconsin readers, but there is an EE association in EVERY state and they are a really great resource to learn about programs, events and other environmentally related things. So I would suggest checking out your local association and becoming a member. They do amazing work!

4 Comments

we love alphabet books some of our favorites:

The ABCs of the environment, The ABCs of endangered animals, The ABCs of habitats

Magic Letters, Magic words is also good

Posted by: welcome to our wonderland | 10/31/2010 at 06:33 PM

You might be interested in the Environmental A-Z books at Green Sugar Press (http://www.greensugarpress.com/) ~ there is also an N is for Nature abc book that you can print for your child to color. I wrote a review on these, but can't find it (sorry!), but we own all 3.

We are reading The ABC Bunny this week and doing alphabet activities too! Have fun! *Ü*

Posted by: Michelle | 10/31/2010 at 06:42 PM