In this post I’ll be sharing my favorite books to teach the letter C! I love using picture books and fun activities to teach my little ones the alphabet! (If you missed the other posts in this series, you can check out my post on books to teach an overview of the alphabet HERE or my posts on the books to teach the letters A and B HERE.)
The Letter C Book List
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Letter C Books
Corduroy by Don Freeman
Don Freeman’s adorable book, Corduroy, tells the story of a bear who lives in a department store. He waits for a long time to be purchased and is passed over by a girl and her mother due to a missing button on his overalls. Corduroy decides he needs to replace the missing button in order to be good enough to be purchased. He goes on an adventure through the empty department store at night, but cannot find his lost button. However, the next morning the little girl returns with enough of her own money to buy Corduroy – in spite of his missing button. The little girl takes him to her home and the little bear finally knows what it is like to have a true friend and a true home. Corduroy is a classic story with beautiful illustrations and a captivating story. This book is a great one for preschoolers!
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Caps for Sale tells the story of man who is selling caps by walking up and down the street with a stack of hats on his head, shouting, “caps for sale!” No one is interested in buying his caps, so he goes out to a field and falls asleep under a tree. When he wakes up, all his caps are gone! The monkeys in the tree above have stolen his caps. With a bit of ingenuity, the man tricks the monkeys into giving him back the hats. The story ends with the man heading back into town to continue trying to sell his caps. Caps for Sale is a simple story with a fun twist. The illustrations are simple and cute. This is a fun book to enjoy with preschoolers!
If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff
If You Give a Cat a Cupcake is part of the If You Give series. A cute and simple story, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake explores what happens when a little girl gives a cat a cupcake. The cat asks for sprinkles, which remind him of sand at the beach, and the story goes on. This book is silly and fun and appeals to kids of all ages. The pictures are cute and the story moves quickly – which makes it a good read for preschoolers with a shorter attention span.
Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go by Richard Scarry
Richard Scarry’s books are always filled with busy, fun illustrations that offer a lot for kids to look at while you read. The text on each page of Cars and Trucks and Things That Go is only about a paragraph long and tells the story of the Cat Family as they go to the beach for a picnic. My kids love looking for the tiny Goldbug on each page! For kids who love cars, trucks, and things that go, this story is a really fun read!
Letter C Activities
Make a Corduroy Craft
Paper plate crafts can be such a fun activity to do with preschoolers. You can create your own Corduroy by painting a paper plate brown. Just add googly eyes and a circle cut out of tan construction paper for the mouth area. Then draw or glue a black construction paper triangle to make a black nose. Finally, draw a simple mouth and add half circles of brown construction paper at the top of the plate for the ears. If you want to get even fancier, I Heart Crafty Things has a tutorial on how to make a full paper plate Corduroy – complete with his green overalls!
Play with Cars
If you have Hot Wheels or other toy cars, playing with the cars and talking about the letter C can be an easy and fun activity to tie into this lesson. My kids enjoyed sorting the cars by color or type. You can also throw in some number learning by having your little ones count the cars in each category or group them in groups of 5 or 10 cars. For another fun activity with cars, blue painters tape can be used to create a road on the floor or white butcher paper can be used to draw out roads and a whole town for your toy cars to explore.
Decorate a C
Print the outline of the letter C on card stock and let your preschooler decorate it! You can keep this simple and just color the letter with crayons or markers or get more creative by using paint, glitter glue, or dot art.
Let’s Get Reading!
Ready to learn teach your preschooler about the letter C? Grab some of these fun letter C picture books and get started! Happy Reading!