Alphabet Book of the Middle Ages

One of my goals for my children is to help them be comfortable with writing and to enjoy writing. So, we do a wide variety of writing projects in our unit studies. Alphabet books are a great writing project for almost any topic and age of child. For inspiration, check out some of the alphabet books at your local library. Here are a few suggestions of some unique alphabet books that should get kids excited about creating their own:

• The Beetle Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta and David Biedrzycki


• The Underwater Alphabet Book by Jerry Palotta


• The Spice Alphabet Book by Jerry Palotta


• The Frog Alphabet Book by Jerry Palotta


• The Desert Alphabet Book by Jerry Palotta.

Alphabet books are great writing projects for children for many reasons. First, the structure of the alphabet book gives the child an automatic organizational structure for his or her book. Secondly, an alphabet book can be completed in little steps - a page or two a day over the course of a unit study will result in a completed book over time. Third, an alphabet book encourages research on the part of the child. Many times I noticed my daughter looking through the basket of books about the Middle Ages looking for a word that would fit in with the letter that she needed. Fourth, an alphabet book project encourages creative expression.

If you are working with multiple ages, the alphabet book project is easily adaptable to various ages. The length of the entry for each letter can easily be made age-appropriate. My 6th grade daughter wrote several sentences for each letter in her Middle Ages alphabet book, a first grader might only identify the picture on his or her alphabet page. An older student could write a paragraph or more about each letter's word.

You can view the entire alphabet book from A to Z on Photobucket that my 6th grade daughter completed as part of our Middle Ages unit study.

http://s645.photobucket.com/albums/uu176/samvach87/Alphabet%20Book%20of%20the%20Middle%20Ages/