The Letter A

I have decided to take a year (maybe a little more)  and incorporate story times with the letters of the alphabet along with my seasonal themes.  September is the perfect time to start with school starting back for older siblings and apples in season!

Today we read the following books:

• If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don't! by Elise Parsley
• Apple Pie ABC by Alison Murray
• Your Alien by Tammi Sauer

I start every story time with the same three songs to say hello, get the kids moving and get them seated and ready for the first story.  They are:

Hello, Hello (sung by me)

We Are the Dinosaurs by Laurie Berkner



Can You Clap by Sue Schnitzer

When we finished the last opening song I told the children that we were going to be learning about the letter A today (I wish that I would have asked them to tell me some words that started the the letter A.  There is always next year!).  We then read the first book.

After the first book we did a song to get the kids up and moving and then one to get them calmed down for the next book:

Shake It All About by Basho and Friends


Shake My Sillies Out by Raffi

We then read our second book, Apple Pie ABC.  I didn't have time to get it ready this year but I would love to include a felt board activity with Five Little Apples or an interactive felt board where the children have to help me find the pictures of things that start with the letter A.

After our second book we did a newer song to story time, and it is one of my absolute favorites and gets the kids to really stretch and listen for what to do.

Very, Very Tall by Old Town School of Folk Music

I then used a classic to get them ready for the next story:

Open, Shut Them by Knock Knock English

This led us into our third book, Your Alien.  This book was very cute and we used a lot of the faces in the pictures to tell how people were feeling.

After our third book we did our ending song:

The Goldfish by Laurie Berkner

After this song we came back together to see what craft we would be making.  I showed the children how we were going to take the letter A, turn it sideways, and make it into an alligator.  The children then got their glue sticks and googly eye from me and headed for the craft tables that already had their letter A, squares of green paper, and triangles of white paper.