Heide's Best ABC Book Ever

by Heide Kaminski

This ABC book project can be done over a period of weeks. Some letter pages require more time than others, so sometimes you may want to do two pages at a time. Always be sure to keep pages separated until glue and/or paint is dry! 
 
Ask parents to provide a thick three-ring binder for their child. Adjust your help to the individual child's abilities. On the top of each page print the capital and lowercase letter, at the bottom, print the name of the word/s portrayed. If the children can print letters, spell words out for them and let them print themselves.

A a -apple Draw a red circle with a brown stem and a green outline of a leaf attached to the stem. Tear red and green construction paper into small pieces. Provide the children with glue and paper pieces and have them fill in the correct colors.

B b - blue ball Draw a blue circle, and fill in with different shades of blue paper pieces.

C c - chocolate chip cookie Draw a yellow circle, fill in with yellow paper bits. Then glue on REAL chocolate chip morsels. (Provide enough to eat, too) If you are not quite that daring, black paper circles or small self-stick textured dots will do.

D d -duck Draw the outline of a duck and provide the children with glue and lots of feathers. Cheap feather dusters make a great resource for inexpensive craft feathers!

E e - earring Draw an ear, let the children color it. Provide colorful small beads with big holes, a piece of string about 5 inches long. Wrap scotch-tape around one end for easy threading or dip one end into glue and let dry for a couple of hours. Let the children choose five beads to string up. Help them to tie it into a small circle, cut off the excess string, and tape to the ear.

F f - five fingers with fingernail polish Trace each child's hands onto the paper, add fingernail features. Let the children paint those fingernails with real nail polish. Make sure you have plenty, because they are going to want to paint their real fingernails, too!

G g - green grapes Draw a stem with lots of small branches. Provide the children with with green, round stickers to stick to the branches.

H h - hair Have the children bring their hair brushes, and have them brush their hair. Pull the hair out of the brushes. Tape it to the paper with a sheet of clear contact paper. Offer you own hair to little boys with short hair or ask dog owners to bring in some dog-hair!

I i - ice cream draw and color your favorite ice cream flavors!

J j - jar with jelly beans Draw the outline of a jar. Provide colorful round stickers to represent the jelly beans. Fill the jar!

K k - Kool-aid Draw a Kool-aid pitcher as shown on Kool-aid packages. Have small containers for glitter (or small salt and pepper shakers) filled with different flavors of
Kool-aid powder. Let the children "paint" their pitchers with glue, then sprinkle Kool-aid onto the glue. This is LOTS of fun! Make sure you let the children smell and taste the Kool-aid. What is also neat is that the pale powders will turn bright when contacting the glue.

L l - lips with lipstick Paint the children's lips with lipstick and let them plaster plenty of kisses onto the paper (put onto tissue paper, this project makes great wrapping paper!)

M m - Mickey Mouse Draw a large circle. Add large black construction paper circles for ears, and small ones for eyes and nose. Toothpicks make the whiskers!

N n - newspaper Tear newspaper into bits and let the children paste it on paper as they please.

O o - Cheerios Draw a large O, glue Cheerios along the outline. Make sure you provide enough to eat as well!

P p - purple and pink painted polka dots Provide purple and pink paint, and show the children how to dot them onto the paper.

Q q - queen Draw a circle, add facial features. Provide the children with yellow paper cut into a crown shape. Let them glue that on the top of the face. Cover the crown with glue and sprinkle gold glitter on.

R r - red and round Provide the children with plenty of red circles in various sizes to arrange on the paper however they wish.

S s - sunflower seeds Draw a circle with petals around it. Let the children paint the petals yellow. Then "paint" the circle with glue and stick sunflower seeds onto it.
Provide enough to eat. Or use black dots to represent the seeds.

T t - totally terrific toilet paper Kids love it! Provide glue and toilet paper with pretty print. Tear and glue away!

U u - USA Outline a flag shape. let the children color it. Provide star stickers to stick on.

V v - vegetables Provide magazines with lots of vegetable pictures. Grocery store flyers are great for this. Let the children cut and paste vegetable pictures. Be sure to
discuss the importance of eating fruits and veggies!

W w - whale Draw the outline of a whale. Let the children paint it gray. Provide blue paint for water spouting out of the top.

X x x-ray Bring a real x-ray to show. Draw a black frame with a stick person inside. Provide toothpicks, whole and in pieces, to glue onto the stick person.

Y y - yellow yarn Provide the children with yellow yarn and scissors. They can cut the yarn into pieces and glue them onto the paper.

Z z - zig-zag Buy self-stick rickrack at a fabric store. Let the children cut it into pieces and peel off the backing. Arrange on the paper creatively.

Remember, if the child wants to add a creative touch of their own, let them! The outcome of the finished product is not as important as the fun of doing it! When pages are done, punch in holes and put into three ring binders to take home.

About the author: Heidi Kaminski is a forty-ish mother of a 17-year-old stepdaughter, a 14-year and a 12-year-old daughter, and a 3-year-old son. She has worked in preschool since 1986 and has experience with mentally handicapped children, as well. Her hobbies are writing, reading and children in general. She has published a book for children in her native country, Germany.