Space Alphabet Books

To culminate our space unit, the students wrote their own informational books about space.  These were actually Space Alphabet Books and we modeled them after Sleeping Bear Press's state alphabet books (namely M is for Magnolia: A Mississippi Alphabet by Michael Shoulders).  If you've never read these books, the format is really neat.  The books have a two-tier format with simple poems prominently displayed on the page for young readers and expository text written to the side for older students.  The illustrations are bright and beautiful and can be enjoyed by all. 

Before my students began writing their books, they listed letters A-Z on a sheet of paper and decided what they wanted each letter to stand for.  Each child's book was different.  For the letter A, some chose "Asteroid" while others chose "Aldrin" or "Alan Bean" or "Andromeda Galaxy" or "Apollo 13" or "Astronaut."  The possibilities were endless!

The students worked on this project in class, using a variety of sources to aid in their research.  I edited their writing and made sure the information was correct and written in the students' own words.   

I've only done this project twice because it's time-consuming.  It takes a lot of time to work on and it takes a lot of time for me to grade. 

Finally, here are some sample pages from the students' books (not shown in ABC order):