Alphabet Art Book

For the past few years, I have made an Alphabet Art book with my classroom. I used to do a page a week (according to the Letter of the Week), but I recently switched to doing the entire book during the first month of school. It was much better not having to store the books all year. Another plus of doing it this way was that the kids took home their own alphabet book to read all of the time.

I have listed below some different suggestions for each letter of the alphabet. You can pick which one for each letter is more your style. Some people are in to painting and mess more than others so you can choose what you like. 

Aa- apple prints, fingerprint ants
Bb- bubble prints, block prints, blue, band-aids, beans
Cc- cotton prints, car tracks, carrot prints, corn
Dd- dot design (Dot Art Painters), diamonds
Ee- elbow painting, egg shapes, wiggly eyes
Ff- finger painting, draw faces or fish, feathers, flowers
Gg- glitter glue
Hh- hand prints, hearts, hay
Ii- ice cube painting, ink (rubber stamps with a variety of inks)
Jj- junk prints, jewels, jazzy J’s (decorate with lots of stuff)
Kk- kite shapes (draw or precut), keys (rubbings), kleenex
Ll- letter collage (rubber stamps or alphabet punches), ladybugs
Mm- marble painting, mosaic, fingerprint mice
Nn- nature prints, newspaper numbers, nickel rubbings
Oo- O’s (toilet paper tubes), orange (the fruit) prints
Pp- painted picture, purple potato prints. penny rubbings
Qq- quarter rubbings, q-tip painting, quilt (squares of paper)
Rr- rubbings, rainbows, ribbon rectangles, red objects
Ss- sponge paint, stamp designs (rubber stamps), sand, stickers
Tt- torn paper collage, toothpick triangles, tea
Uu- upside-down picture, up arrows
Vv- vegetable prints, valentines
Ww- watercolor, waves, wallpaper
Xx- x-ray (q-tips)
Yy- yarn design, yellow yo-yo’s
Zz- zigzags, zipper rubbing

Paint Chip Phonics

By erica | Homeschool

I found a great idea on The Snail’s Tail. She really does a good job of explaining it on her site, but I’ll try to do it here too. The idea is to practice the consonants, blends, digraphs and common word families. I have to admit I was a tad intimidated to walk into Lowe’s and grab a whole pile of paint chips, but the lady was talking to me the whole time and didn’t seem to mind. (Note: I did try Home Depot first, but didn’t like their paint chips, they were mostly 1 color on a card and didn’t have the ones with the hole cut out. Though later, I decided the hole was too small and used a 1 1/4″ hole punch to make it bigger.) Here is the list of the phonograms she used. The Phonogram Page is a great site that lets your child hear the phonograms correctly. All About Spelling has a list of Phonograms and how to teach them.

Shopping List:

• 13 long cards (6 colors to a card) or 26 short cards (3 colors to a card) for consonants, blends, and diagraphs

• 34 cards that have the hole cut out…12 if there are 3 colors on a card.

Here is a sample of the families, blends and digraphs (you can click on the images to see them larger):

Consonants and cards in action:

Since I had cards left over, I decided to make a “Shades of Color” game with them for my preschooler. You can download my color grid here, and I used a 1 1/4″ square punch to punch the colors out.

These word families go on the cards with the square cut out on them:

• ag
• ab
• ail
• ain
• ack
• ake
• am
• an
• ank
• ap
• all
• at
• ay
• eed
• ell
• est
• ew
• ick
• ight
• ill
• ine
• ing
• ink
• ip
• ob
• og
• ore
• ot
• out
• ow
• uck
• um
• unk
• y

The following consonants, blends, and diagraphs are all written on the long paint chips.

Consonants:

• b
• c
• d
• f
• g
• h
• j
• k
• l
• m
• n
• p
• q
• r
• s
• t
• v
• w
• x
• y
• z

Blends:

• bl
• cl
• fl
• gl
• pl
• sl
• br
• cr
• dr
• fr
• gr
• pr
• tr
• sc
• sk
• sp
• st
• sm
• sn
• sw
• spl
• spr
• str
• squ

Diagraphs:

• ch
• wh
• th
• sh
• ph
• thr
• shr

How many words can you make? (there are over 500+ words in this set)

• ab cab, lab, blab, crab, flab, grab, scab, slab, stab
• ack back, pack, quack, rack, black, crack, shack, snack, stack, track
• ag bag, rag, tag, brag, flag
• ail fail, mail, jail, nail, pail, rail, sail, tail, snail, trail
• ain main, pain, rain, brain, chain, drain, grain, plain, Spain, sprain, stain, train
• ake bake, cake, fake, lake, make, quake, rake, take, wake, brake, flake, shake, snake
• am ham, Sam, clam, slam, swam
• an can, fan, man, pan, ran, tan, van, bran, plan, than
• ank bank, sank, yank, blank, crank, drank, thank
• ap cap, lap, map, nap, rap, tap, clap, flap, scrap, slap, snap, strap, trap, wrap
• at bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, rat, sat, brat, chat, flat, spat, that
• ay day, may, pay, say, clay, play, pray, spray, stay, tray
• eed feed, need, seed, weed, bleed, freed, greed, speed
• ell bell, fell, sell, tell, well, yell, shell, smell, spell, swell
• est best, guest, nest, pest, rest, test, vest, west, chest, crest
• ew dew, few, knew, new, blew, chew
• ick kick, lick, pick, quick, sick, brick, chick, click, stick, thick, trick
• ight knight, light, might, night, right, sight, tight, bright, flight, fright, slight
• ill fill, hill, pill, will, chill, drill, grill, skill, spill, thrill
• in bin, fin, pin, sin, win, chin, grin, shin, skin, spin, thin, twin
• ine fine, line, mine, nine, pine, vine, wine, shine, spine, whine
• ing king, ring, sing, wing, bring, cling, spring, sting, string, swing, thing
• ink link, pink, sink, wink, blink, drink, shrink, stink, think
• ip dip, hip, lip, rip, sip, tip, chip, clip, drip, flip, grip, ship, skip, strip, trip, whip
• ob knob, mob, rob, blob, slob, snob
• ock knock, lock, dock, rock, sock, block, clock, frock, shock, stock
• op cop, hop, mop, pop, top, chop, crop, drop, flop, plop, shop, stop
• ore bore, more, sore, tore, wore, chore, score, shore, snore, store
• ot got, dot, hot, knot, lot, not, plot, shot, spot
• out grout, scout, shout, spout, sprout
• ow cow, how, now, brow, chow, plow
• uck buck, duck, luck, cluck, stuck, truck
• um gum, hum, drum, plum, slum
• unk junk, chunk, drunk, shrunk, stunk, trunk
• y by, my, cry, dry, fly, fry, shy, sky, spy, try, why

(Blends, digraphs, word families taken from The Snails Trail and word list taken from Literacy Connections)

• Another variation of this came from Sippy Cup Central. She calls it Word Sliders and it’s another great way to practice reading!

Hope you have fun with these games and Happy Reading!