Every year I attend conferences where I need a good sub plan. One I use at the beginning of the year when I attend the WAFLT conference is alphabet books.  I start by showing the students some authentic alphabet books that I pick up as I travel and how much I pay for each one.  I added this one from an “aire” off an autoroute of France in April last year for 3€50.

The students are always amazed that people will actually pay for books, and I tell them that we can make our own and sell them or give them away.  I start out by teaching alphabet songs with these videos on Youtube.   The videos give them ideas for words they can use in their books.

Students watch this video and write the English for the words that are not cognates. Video Notes-El alfabeto

Students watch this video and write the English for the words that are not cognates. Video Notes-l’alphabet

It helps to post an alphabet in the room with examples of words that begin with each letter. Here is a free pre-made alphabet in French. Here is a free cool one in Spanish.  Or you can make your own or have the students make them.  You could break it up and give each one a different letter.

Here is a link to the directions for the Alphabet-Books and examples in French and Spanish.

Here are some of my student’s books.  Some students chose to make books from paper and draw or cut and glue objects.  This was one of my favorites it was almost 3-D, you wanted to touch and feel it.

Since all students have chromebooks in my school, many chose to do it on their computers.  It helps to make things look more professional.  However, copyright can be a problem and then there is the temptation to use google translate for that pesky sentence that is required.

I am going to publish a few of the books on one of the book making sites and add them to my class library or give them as gifts to kids who would give them a good home.