Karen Hobson
Brown Owl, 15th Dartmouth Brownies
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
karenh@mail.hfx.auracom.com
Alphabet Books
Great for donating to doctor's offices, etc. (any place where children have
to sit and wait) or to childcare centres with limited budgets. It involves
only cutting (no messy glue clean-up). A great PR tool. Involves recycling
and even a word recognition lesson. What more could you ask for?
Supplies:
Magnetic photo albums
discarded greeting cards
magazines
construction paper
Method:
Use each page for a letter of the alphabet. If you have more than 26 pages
then you can add number pages as well.
From constuction paper cut each letter of the alphabet in capital and lower
case. Peel back the plastic film and place the two letters (Aa, Bb, etc) in
the upper corner of each page. Cut out pictures from the greeting cards,
magazines or wherever else you can find suitable ones, and place with the
appropriate letter. Do a nice collage with a number of pictures - be sure
to leave at least 1/2" margin around the outside so plastic will stick back
down. Try to keep it simple though - a dog is a dog (not a spaniel, etc.).
You can also add cut-outs of the letter in different typefaces. If you do
numbers, don't make a collage as a whole page of single items to represent
1 can be confusing - just put the appropriate number of objects on the
page. When a page is complete stick the plastic film back down and smooth
out air bubbles etc. Make sure edges are secure. You now have a colourful
alphabet book that is easy to wipe clean.
We used the first page as an introduction, ie: donated by ...... for more
information on joining, etc. A good place to put some Guiding photos (ask
PR for some pamphlets).
These were very well received. I know there is still one kicking around in
my doctor's office even after all these years.