Creating an ABC book with this hands-on lesson allows students to show off their artistic or creative abilities. While they are having fun making the booklets, they will also be studying.
What is the ABC Book?
An ABC book is where students define or describe terms or ideas for each letter of the alphabet. Students do not have to use every letter in the alphabet. The teacher can ask students to cover a number of the letters in the alphabet, such as 10, 15, 20 or or even the whole 26 letters.
ABC Book Materials Needed
The booklets need a cover. These can be made from construction paper, tag board, or regular copy paper. It is important that the cover is colorful, tells the subject area covered, tells that the booklet is an ABC booklet and has the student's name.
Students can fold regular copy paper in half and use an extra long stapler to put staples in the middle fold. Or, they can use a variety of binding techniques, such as yarn, string, staples or rings with a full sheet of copy paper. How the final product is put together can be decided by the teacher or it can be left up to the student. The key is that it is neat and colorful.
In addition to the above mentioned items, students will need markers, colored pencils, glue, old magazines, scissors, etc.
Directions for Making the Booklet
Step1 – Students should make a list of the terms or content to be covered for each letter.
Step 2 – Students need to write each term in large letters and then define or describe the words in alphabetical order. Each page could have one to three terms or words, depending on how the book is created.
Step 3 – Each letter and word should have a picture, clip art or design to add color.
Step 4 – When all of the writing and design is complete, student will need to bind the booklet together. Students can use a simple staple or a variety of methods. Again, the booklet should be neatly bound together with an attractive cover.
Assessing the Booklet
Use a rubric to grade project. The criteria for the rubric could be content (amount of words used), color, neatness, and/or creativity. It is helpful if the teacher creates a model to show the students before they begin.
Using ABC books as a review strategy is a fun way to cover a large amount of information. The students whose strength or best learning modality is spatial or body kinesthetic will excel with this hands-on activity.
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