Make Your Own Alphabet Book

Dr. Seuss's ABC is one of my favorite Seuss books. I think it's because I can remember my own banged up copy of it from childhood. Although it begins like a typical alphabet book, "Big A. Little a. What begins with A?" It is anything but typical in it's responses. Instead of just an alligator, this book features Aunt Annie riding an alligator. It is a fun mix of real objects and nonsense objects. The Seuss characters that are plain fun to look at make this anything but a boring alphabet book.

Alphabet books are great for the emergent reader.

Consider making your child a personalized alphabet book. I used a bound notebook of plain white index cards. I provided Logan with a stack of preprinted pictures for each letter we were adding. You don't have to do the entire book at once. This project will probably take us a few weeks to complete.Neither do you have to complete the book in ABC order. Start with the letters your child knows. You might begin with the letters in your child's name for instance.

Logan and I started with the B page because he knows that letter and its sound. I showed him pictures and had him name the pictures. Then we chose one for his book. I wrote the Bb so that it would be a clear copy for when he rereads the book.
 It's important to note, your child might want a picture that you don't have available. It's so smart when they can think up their own picture that has that beginning letter sound so I would go with that. Use a clip art program or the internet to track down and print out that picture or just draw a sketch yourself. It will be worth the extra effort to make the book personalized to your child!
We had a few extra pages at the end of our book so I skipped a few pages, flipped the book, and created a spot to record some known sight words!

Enjoy reading your personalized alphabet book or published alphabet books! Frequent rereading of these books will sharpen the quick visual recognition of letters for your child. This will help your child someday become a faster and more fluent reader!

Do you have a favorite alphabet book that your child loves to read?

Of course, I'm sharing on the Dr. Seuss linky! You can find my post about that here as well as over 100 Seussational activities!
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