Native Americans Alphabet Book
Using the thematic word web we made about Native Americans, we have been writing
and illustrating word cards. They are displayed on the Social Studies word wall, in
alphabetical order—this way we can see if we have words that begin with each letter for
our alphabet book.
Day 1- immersion in the alphabet book genre.
Prep: pull ABC books from library into their own basket
Connection: We have been gathering words about Native Americans and soon we are
going to start doing something special with them. To give you an idea of what we could
do with our words, I want to show you these books—they are called alphabet books, or
ABC books. As we look at them, see if you can figure out why they are called that.
I present each book (there are 10) to the class and then break them into groups of 3 to
look through the books further. They come back and share what they found about the
genre. We write a definition of ANC books.
“With the words we have collected about Native Americans, we are going to make our
own alphabet book to show all the we have learned.”
Day 2
We review the words that we have on the word wall. We are still missing some letters. I
ask students for ideas of where we can find more words that begin with the missing
letters. They suggest: in their notebooks, on their trip sheets, in books, watching the
movie we saw. They decide they want to begin by looking in books.
Students continue to look through books for words that begin with missing letters.
Make a list. Help them see which words are important.
Explain that there are 26 letters, 20 of us. The remaining 6 we will do first, in groups of
3.
Assign groups of 3 that will do first 6 letters. When groups finish this, each student will
do one independently.
Day 3
Materials: half-size chart paper with no lines, crayons.
Remind them of groups and procedure.
Model making a page with a word we won’t use. (if there are two words for a given
letter, pick 1 word that seems more important).
-write word very big
-illustrate big
-write a sentence to explain: The Native Americans of New York state eat many
fruits, like apples.
All sentences should start with “The Native Americans of New York State…”
They can write more if they feel comfortable.
Show how to hold paper vertically.
Students work in groups of 3 to complete first page.
Day 4
When they finish group pages, they should present their page to the class. We should
discuss what we like about them and what we might want to do a little differently for the
rest of the pages.
assign them a new letter that they can work on independently.
Day 5- The book is complete. I have it laminated and put it together using rings. As a
class we read our book. Each student reads the page(s) he or she has written.
Day 6- Give the book a title and design a cover
In order to give our book a title that shows the theme and the genre, we look at other
alphabet books to see what their titles are. We make a list of possible titles:
-Native Americans of New York: From A to Z
-The ABCs of Native Americans
-A Native American alphabet book
Students ultimately decide on “Class 4-509’s Native Americans Alphabet Book”
Some students present ideas for a cover design. They agree on a Native American in the
middle wearing a headdress (which is the H word) and all the words that are highlighted
in the book will be written around the Native American. I select a few students who have
worked particularly hard on the project to make the cover.
Day 7- We read our completed book, with a cover. It will go into our class library and
students may read it whenever they like.