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Preschool Project: Decorating an Alphabet
By Julie | February 5, 2008
Our oldest son is 4 years old. Life with a preschooler can be interesting. I’ve found it moves the most smoothly if I keep him busy with projects. Every afternoon we work on some kind of “school”. We have spent a lot of time on his alphabet and numbers. Last week we decided to do a new alphabet project. I thought it would take us a couple hours one afternoon. But my son is so thorough, and meticulous, that is took us five afternoons, working an hour to three hours a day. It was a simple project, but we had a lot of fun, so I thought I’d share it with you.
I drew large block letters onto cardstock, making each letter an entire page. When I was done my son cut each one out. He refused my help, so it was a really good exercise for his hand eye coordination. This took him two afternoons; he enjoyed it so much he was upset when I made him put his scissors up so we could eat supper the first day.
When all the letters are cut out, you apply something to them that starts with that letter. So, for “A”, you could draw an apple on the page. We were using a book, Prime Time Together…With Kids
A: Apple stamping. We cut up an apple, dipped it in tempera paint, and stamped the letter with it.
B: Buttons and beads, glue them on.
C: Attached dry cereal.
D: Dots. We took the little dots that get stuck in our 3-hole punch and glued them to D.
E: Eggs shells. My son had so much fun, he kept saying, “I smashed the egg as hard as I could!” I would suggest you poke a hole in the shell, and blow the white and yolk out of the egg before you let your child smash it, or prepare for a nasty mess.
F: We drew flowers and attached them to the letter.
G: Green glitter.
H: We dipped his hands in tempera paint. Then he put his handprints on H.
I: We attached an ice cream cone, made of paper.
J: Joints. We cut the J into three pieces, punched a hole in the tops and bottom of each piece, and then attached them with paper clips. Thus, the J becomes jointed.
K: Kisses. He flat-out refused to wear lip stick, but made me kiss the K.
L: Leaves. Well, there’s snow on the ground here, we looked, but couldn’t find any leaves. So, we drew some, cut them out, colored them, and glued them onto L.
M: Money. We printed out some play money, and attached it to M.
N: Noodles. Ramen, baby, glued right onto N.
O: Oats, glued on like the ramen.
P: Popcorn, yep, glued like the ramen and the oats.
Q: Quail. This was fun. On one side we attached a beak we drew and cut out, then an eye, feet hang off the bottom, and feathers line his opposite side.
R: Attached rocks he hunted up last summer.
S: Stickers, all over S.
T: Tape. You can use as many kinds of tape as you’d like. My son wanted one kind.
U: Marc, the artist, drew a ukulele and attached it to U.
V: Valentines. I drew hearts all over it, he colored them in.
W: Wood, we attached popsicle sticks.
X: xylophone. Marc helped with this one. They glued a variety of strips down the letter X, in different colors and shapes. On the other part of the X, they drew the sticks to play it.
Y: Yarn, glued right on.
Z: A zipper is attached. I told my son he can’t try to use it until the glue is for sure dry, by tomorrow, so it should be trashed shortly after, I assume.
When we finally got done we hung them in his room. He was very proud of his work, and so excited to go to bed tonight so he could look at his letters as he went to sleep. However, with food literally hanging from his wall, I’m not sure how long they’ll remain. Time will tell.
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