Step By Step ABC Handprint Book with pictures!
Ellie and I spent the summer learning about letters and their sounds by creating her very own Alphabet Handprint Book. Ellie is very proud to say that she has written her first book.
It really did take all summer to complete. However, she enjoyed every moment. She did great picking out a word that starts with each letter. Ellie especially enjoyed painting her hands a different color 26 times. After posting a video of Ellie reading her book on social media, I’ve had a few friends ask me about the process in making this book. With that said, I decided to put the information in an easy to follow step by step guide!
Step One:
The first thing we did was gather all of our materials. There is nothing more frustrating than being half way through a project and realizing you need to take a trip to the store. I’ve taken the liberty of preparing the list we used for you.
Materials: white copy paper, paint (washable is best), googly eyes, glue, binder, clear page protectors, permanent markers, paint brushes, Baby wipes to clean hands, Jar of water for rinsing brushes.
There might be a few items you decide to add to your list. I kinda wish we would have used glitter.
Step Two:
We started by making an alphabet list. We wrote each letter on a piece of paper and Ellie chose an animal, person, place or thing that began with each letter sound! Our list follows….
Apple
Bee
Crab
Dragon
Egg
Fire
Ghost
Heart
Ice cream
Jellyfish
Kite
Leaf
Monster
Ninja
Octopus
Pineapple
Queen
Rose
Sunshine
Tree
Umbrella
Volcano
Watermelon
X-ray
Yo-yo
Zebra
It was now time for the fun. We began painting Ellie’s hand and leaving her print in the character she chose on the paper. Depending on your child’s age, they might be able to help paint their own hand. Ellie painted her own hand and chose the place on the paper to place it each time. She loves helping! This step was the longest step. It took a good month to get her hand painted 26 times in 26 different ways. It was well worth it though.
Step Three:
After all 26 letters were complete we began to add more designs and googly eyes to our creations. It was also in this step that we wrote a sentence on each page. The sentence followed the same structure throughout the entire book that makes it easier for Ellie to read.
Ex. Mm is for monster.
I kinda wish I would have let Ellie write the letter on each page. It would have been good practice and possibly made the book feel even more her own.
Step Four: It’s game Time!
Before putting our pages in book form we played a game. We laid out all the pages in ABC order on the ground. I would hand Ellie a letter and together we would say it’s name then Ellie matched the letter card to the corresponding page.
Step Five:
Lastly, we put each page in its own page protector and placed it inside her binder. It was fun to read the book to her and then hear her read her book to us as well.
This project really does take awhile to complete. It is not a day project. If you plan on doing this with multiple kids in a school setting I would suggest that you pick a letter each week. By the end of the school year you would have finished the entire alphabet and the kids will have a fun memory to take home. This project is a fun learning tool that I believe is helping Ellie in learning the process of reading. Most importantly, it will be a memory to look on for years to come.
Stay tuned for our next book that is coming in October; My Pumpkin Counting Book!
