Alphabeastie Class Book

 Typefaces, fonts, typography....admit it, teachers have a tendency to be a little obsessed with the variety there is out there for us to use.  Although we stick to the standard Zaner-bloser for handwriting in my classroom, I definitely teach my kiddos that letters sometimes look different.  We are trying the common core theme "ABC Books and Children Who Read Them" for our first 6 weeks of school.  Now I know there are tons of ABC books out there, but Alphabeasties and other Amazing Types is one of my new found favorites! I shared it with my kiddos at the end of last year and they were fascinated.  An alligator made out of A's, an Octopus out of O's...truly AMAZING!  So perfect for a class book.  All you need is the printable Tina created for Common Core in this post, all 26 letters die-cut in black and a cute cover.  I hope you enjoy this book as much as I do, it's truly a work of art!

Book Cover

*When you download the book cover, please choose "download original" or the octopus doesn't show up. If anybody can tell me how to rectify this I would appreciate it!

Common Core

Common Core! Have you heard these words yet? If not, I'm sure they are coming your way soon. Looks like about six states haven't adopted it yet. Our district is starting with just the Language Arts curriculum this year so we have spent a lot of time throwing out the old and creating lots of new. Exciting and stressful!!! This post starts the first of several that I'll be doing of new activities that follow the new curriculum. Even if you aren't following the Common Core, I hope you will find them useful for your class.

For the first few weeks of school we will be reading and discussing lots and lots of Alphabet themed books. While I already have several books that have an ABC theme (Dr. Seuss's ABC, Alphabet Under Construction, Eating the Alphabet) we also received a list of recommended texts which includes so many more. After we have read the ABC themed books, we will make a class ABC book on a theme that we will come up with together.

Here is my template for our class book. The students will write their alphabet letter in the small handwriting box. They will pick a word that starts with their letter and that follows the class theme to  write on the handwriting line. There is a space for them to illustrate and a spot for them to write a simple sentence using their word. 

Happy Planning!