I had every intention of making this a lowercase q craft. The stars were simply not aligned, I turned 3 pieces of paper into scrap trying to make a lowercase q , cursed myself for not having a printer then made it an uppercase Q before my son lost all interest and ran back to the football game! Luckily the paper cutter was the big treat ( He has been begging to use it for months) and kept him at the table with me , because I think this is a darn cute letter craft!
- Gather your materials. You will need some white paper, some multicolored paper for the quilt pieces , another sheet of construction paper ( if you want to display it), a dark marker, glue and scissors. We used a paper cutter but I am not suggesting you do that, I do suggest you let your child use tools when they are ready for them, and he was ready and very careful.
- Start by writing an uppercase Q on the white paper. Feel free to do this as a lowercase craft just don’t ask me to write the letter, I am incapable. You want to use the white paper so that when you cut the q out you can follow the outline from the underside even if the paper pieces are glued over it.
- Cut the colored/patterned paper into strips , this will make cutting them into squares easier for your child whether they are using scissors or a paper cutter.
- Cut.
- He was very excited and he cut a lot , I was impressed with how careful he was.
- Add glue to the Q
- Add the quilt squares to the glue.
- Let dry.
- Cut the Q out.
- Glue to a second sheet of construction paper.
Alphabet Books
Bruno Munari’s ABC by Bruno Munari will make you wish you had an extra copy to pull out the pages and frame them. It’s 1960 retro gold. The book is simple enough, each page is devoted to a letter like most alphabet books, and on those pages are objects that start with the letter. There are cheeky bits of dry humor throughout as a fly shows up on pages after F and my son liked the S page with a sack of stars and snow for Santa. All in all a little different but not ground breaking. However the way it is graphically designed perfectly captures the retro cool that simply can’t be recreated with a new book. My son liked it but wasn’t nearly as into it as I was.
Alphabestiary: Animal Poems from A to Z by Jane Yolen is a great alphabet book for children who know their letters and need something a little extra. It’s a book of animal poems starting with Anteater and ending with Zebra. What I really like about this book is that you can use it in so many ways depending on your child’s knowledge of animals and the alphabet. You can have them choose a letter and read all the poems for it, choose an animal or even choose by flipping through and finding illustrations you like. This isn’t a book you read from cover to cover, it’s an anthology with poems selected by Jane Yolen. The poems are fun and it’s a greta way to transfer learning about letters into learning about poetry.
stephanie a. says
I wonder how many parents just had heart attacks seeing that paper cutter… I admit it, I almost did : ) Just kidding. Just wanted to drop in and say thanks for the book recommendations. Those always come appreciated.
admin says
I would have too ! When I got it down it was for me to use then he negotiated and had some great points so I said he could try. My eyes were on him the whole time. I almost didn’t include it in the post fearing someone would get fingers chopped off but I don’t want to edit, just to show what kids can do when they are ready with supervision 😉