Using picture books to teach the alphabet to preschoolers can be a fun and effective way for them to learn! It’s also a fun way to teach. The list below contains my favorite books to teach the letter A along with some fun activities to reinforce the letter and its sound.
The Letter A Book List
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Letter A Books
Ten Apples Up on Top by Theo LeSieg
Ten Apples Up on Top is a fun and silly book about three animal friends. They each try to get more apples to stay on their heads while doing various tricks. This gets them into trouble along the way and they end up being chased by an angry bear. The story is ridiculous and amusing; preschoolers love it!
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman
A girl sets out to make an apple pie but finds the store closed for the day. How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World follows her quest to find each of the various ingredients for her pie. She travels all around the world, looking for the best, freshest ingredients for her apple pie. How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World has cute illustrations and an adorably captivating story.
Johnny Appleseed by Seven Kellogg
Steven Kellogg tells the legend of Johnny Appleseed in this picture book. Filled with full page illustrations and brief, engaging text, this retelling of the classic story is easy for kids to enjoy. As the story goes, Johnny Appleseed was an outdoorsman in pioneer times who planted apple groves all over the frontier. He was beloved by all – human and animal alike! This is a cute story containing the tall tale of Johnny Appleseed and his many adventures.
Apples by Gail Gibbons
Apples by Gail Gibbons gives a deeper look at apples. The illustrations are sweet and the text is simple, making it a perfect book for preschoolers. This picture book would be good for kids with a good attention span as it is instructive rather than telling a story. (Note of caution: it does reference apples being around for “millions of years.” I just edit that part out in my retelling.)
Letter A Activities
Make an Apple Pie
Baking with preschoolers can be a messy, memory-making adventure! There are tons of apple pie recipes out there. How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World even has a delicious one I’ve been using for years. If making an entire pie from scratch seems like too big of a project, you can purchase a premade pie crust so all you need to do is cut and season apples for the pie filling.
Explore Apples
Buy various types of apples and do a taste test! You can talk about the difference in color and taste while sampling a variety of delicious apples. Another fun way to explore apples is to cut open an apple and count the seeds. Finally, you can cut the apple sideways so you can see the flower-like appearance. Use the cut fruit with an ink pad to create your own stamp!
Decorate an A
Print the outline of the letter A on card stock and let your preschooler decorate it! You can keep this simple and just color the letter with crayons or connect it back to the apple theme by making your A into an apple tree. Just add red dot-art or pompoms to represent apples!
Let’s Get Reading!
I love using picture books and fun activities to teach the names and sounds of letters to my little ones! Choose a few of the books and activities above and get started. Happy reading!