Alphabet Under Construction

The dear little mouse has a big job to do, buildin the entire alphabet with art supplies and construction tools, and he get right to work airbrushing the A, Buttoning the B, and Carving the C. As the mouse moves quickly, letter by letter, Folding the F, Measuring the M, Pruning the P, Vacuuming the

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V, or Zipping the Z, The children will revel in all the creative fun. The author text is kept to a bare minimum, just the letter and construction verb.

This book is good for preschool age range and would delight the children. It shows a mouse hard at work, constructing and improving the letters of the alphabet. The use of a verb that correspond with the letter in question, gives parent, teachers, and caregivers the chance to point out to teach the connection between the letter and it's sound. For example: Judges has the juh, j sound. In addition, this book offers children the chance to learn about the structure of reading. How text flows from page to page, and left to right. They also have a chance to pretend to read by remembering and reciting bits and pieces of the book, because the text is not too long.

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This book is good for kindergarten. It teaches the children the alphabet and a construction word to help them remember their letters.

A mouse creates an alphabet from A to Z. This is a very cute book that I would definately love to use to teach the alphabet. I would read only the A page on the day we do A. I would read the A and B page on the day we do B. I would read the A, B, and C page on the day we do C and so on. This will

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help the kids to remember the letters of the alphabet because it is very repetitious.

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Most alphabet books use nouns to illustrate the letters. Fleming uses animated verbs, with a rhyming pose. My favorite lines were "judges the J, kinks the K...". The bright, warm colors would really interest the students as well. I would use this book with a preK-K class. As a class assignment, we

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would find other verbs for the letters of the alphabet. Each student would be broken into groups. Each group would get seven letters. Once the letters have their verbs and illustrations, we would combine them all to create a classroom book.

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This book is appropriate for students who are in Pre-k and K. This book would be great to show students the correct order and formation of the letters. The story is about a mouse who is responsible for reconstruction each letter. The mouse is very busy and tries very hard to do a good job. At the

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end of the book you see the work schedule for the mouse and a calendar month of 31 days each day is devoted to an individual letter. Mouse is very tired by the end of the month from all his hard work.
- Teachers could follow mouse's plan to devote each day to a new letter and have students reconstruction a plain letter into a new jazzed up letter. The teacher can hang the new transformed letter around the classroom.
-Teacher can make a calendar with the students and have them place what letter they want to learn each day. This gives them choices and encouragement to want to learn the letters.

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Fleming, Denise. Alphabet Under Construction. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2002.

Characters: a mouse

Setting: Not applicable

Theme: concept book, alphabet recognition, animals, arts and creativity

Genre: Children’s fiction; picturebook; alphabet book; concept

Golden Quote: “Mouse…buttons

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the B…kinks the K…okays the O…prunes the P…”

Summary: A mouse works his way through the alphabet as he folds the "F," measures the "M," and rolls the "R."

Audience: Grades K-1

Curriculum ties: reading- alphabet letter and sound recognition; verbs; alliteration

Awards: American Library Association Notable Children's Books; Booklist Editors' Choice

Personal response: What are especially impressive about this alphabet book are Fleming’s use of alliteration and her creative use of verbs to correspond to each letter. While very young readers will not understand the meanings of some of the verb used, the very colorful and cute illustrations of the mouse doing each action that verb written on each represents should help demonstrate their meaning, however I feel it would be best to use this book with children one on one or in small groups since she does use some pretty obscure verbs that will need some explanation.

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Characters: There are no characters involved in this book.

Setting: Setting is mostly indoors.

Theme: Learn the alphabet

Genre: Learning education

Summary: This books displays the alphabet in different construction themes. From A-Z

Audience: children and those who are learning the alphabet

Curriculum

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ties: Ties to early development and learning the English Language

Personal response: What a better way for children to learn about the alphabet than in a construction using tools theme? In this book, the pictures and the art really brings out the alphabet in a new sense. As a child, there are children who seriously love tools and building things. This book helps reinforce the child’s interest in tools while helping them learn the alphabet. Overall, this book does a fantastic job with its art and keeping the child’s attention on the alphabet. Most of all, kids can see the realistic part of learning the alphabet. They can relate it to real life which is very benefit.

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Cute, my son was just not interested in this one.

The author does a nice job of pairing the letter with a phoneticly matching word. The illustrations are lively, full of bright colors and action.

This book combined interesting verbs with each letter of the alphabet that phonetically correspond to the letter . A mouse "constructs" each letter using various means. It is a great book for children just learning the alphabet. It. Is also beneficial for vocabulary and phonics. The illustrations

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coincide with each action well.

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I think this is a really good children’s book. The first reason why I think it’s a good book is because it emphasizes on the letters in the alphabet in order to teach young students. The mouse in the book constructs each letter in the alphabet page by page. He dyes the letter D, and folds the

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letter F, and works all the way to the letter Z. The other reason why I liked this book was because of the bright and colorful illustrations throughout the pages. Each illustration was multicolored paintings that just pop out at the reader. The third reason why I liked this book was because it is still enjoyable to see all of the illustrations and learn the different vocabulary through the book even if you already know the alphabet. For instance, when the mouse ‘buttons the B’ and ‘carves the C’. The main message of this book is to learn and review the alphabet.

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The alphabet in being constructed by a mouse. Each letter corresponds with an action that starts with that letter. For example, "airbrushes the A" and "zips the z."

I really enjoyed reading this alphabet book for many reasons! First, the illustrations were drawn very colorful and eye catchy. For example, each page has a brightly colored background that makes the letter stand out on the page. For letter "F", the letter is drawn in bright orange and yellow so

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the background is lime green and bright blue. It makes reading the book more fun. Second, the way the book is set up is a fun way. For example, the book focuses on what the main character (a mouse)needs to do for each letter. For example, he needs to "level the L and measure the M". It makes learning the alphabet exciting. I believe the overall message of the book is to inform young readers about the alphabet in a fun and eye catching way.

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Each letter is represented by a different action that mouse does.

Each letter is represented by a different action that mouse does.

Each letter is represented by a different action that mouse does.

Each letter is represented by a different action that mouse does.

Mouse is building the alphabet. Colorful illustrations, rich in details and imaginations. This is a great book to read with preschool age children and would be fun to create some literacy activities where children can construct the alphabet just like mouse!

In this book, each letter has an action done to it in the theme of construction.

This book shows the order of the alphabet in a fun way. Children can see each letter getting created with different tools. This is a unique concept and the illustrations show all of these actions being taken. This book

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would be good for kindergartners.

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Little Mouse is busily constructing the alphabet. He’s airbrushing the A, buttoning the B, and carving the C.

Young readers will have fun discovering how Little Mouse creates each of the letters of the alphabet. Bright illustrations fill the pages of this picture book and help young readers

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recognize and learn the names of each of the letters of the alphabet.

Recommended.

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