Alphabet Books

This project took place in September and October, 2002, and involved three Grade 1 classes. There are 3 main purposes to the project:

1. To introduce Grade 1 students to basic routines of working in the computer lab;
2. To introduce basic draw tools in the Kid Pix program, and the use of the mouse to use these tools and to open files; and
3. To integrate technology with Grade 1 language arts and visual arts curriculum.

The project began by looking at the alphabet using the Kid Pix program. You can select each letter and Kid Pix will read them back in various interesting sounding voices. Each class brainstormed words that start with different letters of the alphabet - with the list being typed up and displayed as students gave examples.

Ms. Brow's Class		Ms. Biggs's Class
Mrs. Soutoudeh's Class

Note: Quicktime 5 or later is required to view the above movies. Download

Once a list was constructed, students were invited to choose a letter to work on. It could not be one of their initials. Students were told that they were going to do a project on a letter of the alphabet, using the Kid Pix software program. Each project that students worked on had to have the following elements:

1. Student's name
2. Room number
3. Upper case letter - using a thick line
4. Lower case letter - using a thick line
5. A picture of a word that begins with the letter.
6. The word spelled out.
7. A coloured background.

The draw tools required to make these elements were demonstrated, and a model letter was left on screen as a demonstration.

Each subsequent class would include choral reading of all elements required:

"Name - Room Number - Upper Case - Lower Case - Big Fat Letters - Picture - Word - Background"

As students completed their work, they were assigned another letter, and some students worked together to make the title slide and end slide. Once all letters were completed, we completed the work by recording voices onto each file. Each student would have their voice recorded saying the letter, it's sound, and then the word they had chosen. ("A, ahh, apple", etc.) The title slide and last slide were done as a whole class.

Finally, all slides were assembled into a slide show, in alphabetical order of course, and hard copies were printed out and made into Alphabet Books for students to read in class.