Thursday, June 4, 2009

Prize Picnic Alphabet Book Review

This week for the ABC and 123 Prize Picnic, we were asked to submit an alphabet book review, or something pertaining to the alphabet.
I wanted to tell you about a cool alphabet book I picked up at Goodwill (where else, right?) a while back.

It's called Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z, and is written by Lois Ehlert. The premise of the book is pretty self explanatory. There are at least one, and sometimes many fruits and vegetables listed and pictured for each letter. They range from obvious things like apples and bananas, to fruits and veggies I've never heard of. The pictures are pretty, and remind me a little of Eric Carle books. At the back of the book, there is a section with a little bit of additional information about each food listed.

It would be nice to read the book, and then go to the farmer's market to see how many of the listed items you could find.
I can see this book fitting nicely into a unit on food and nutrition or gardening.
While we're talking about teaching kids the alphabet, I have to put in a glowing recommendation for the Letter Factory/Word Factory movies. I know some people aren't generally fans of kids watching much tv, but these are good. My son already knew his letters when we first checked out the Letter Factory from the library, but I credit that movie with teaching him his letter sounds.

Edited to add:
My son is obsessed with Thomas the Train, so here's my Thomas and friends alphabet list, made mostly from memory. (No wonder I can't remember anything important. All my memory space is full of stuff like this.) There were a few letters I couldn't come up with anything for. Let me know if you can think of anything.
Annie, Alfie
Bertie, Bill, Ben, Bulstrode
Clarabel, Cranky, Caroline
Diesel, Duncan, Daisy, Diesel 10, Donald, Douglas
Emily
Fergus, Fearless Freddie, Freight Cars
Gordon, George
Henry, Harvey
Ivo Hugh
Jack, James
K (Edward is supposed to be a kind engine.)
Lady
Murdock, Mavis, Molly
Neville, Ned
Oliver
Percy
Q (I think there's an episode where the queen comes for a visit.)
Rosie, Rheneas
Stepney, Salty, Spencer, Skarloey, Rusty
Trevor, Thomas, Troublesome Trucks, Toby
U (this one could be something about a train going under a bridge.)
Victor
Whiff
X
Y (I guess you could stretch this one to say that Molly is the yellow engine)
Zoo cars

4 comments:

  1. I love to let my kiddos try food that begins with the letter of the week, I'll have to check that book out sometime.

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  2. I love the colorful illustrations in Eating the Alphabet. It looks like it's a fave for several families. I have noticed it in a couple different picnic posts today! Fun! When I first read it to my children I actually got a bit of an education on a few of those fruits and veggies.

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  3. Eating the Alphabet is one of my favorite ABC books, too. It would be so much fun to see how many of the fruits and veggies we could find at the market. Thanks for the fun idea.

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  4. I love Eat the Alphabet, and I completely forgot about that one! I have it and need to dig it out, thanks for the reminder. I should def. have it included with my other ABC books to read with ER.

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