Z is for Zebra

Z is for Zebra.

It’s sad when things end. But what a lot we’ve learned along the way.

Y is for Yak

Y is for yak. Yaks look a lot like the letter y, which was very convenient. We went with felt on this one, to give our yak a furrier feel.

Y is for yellow, yes, yucky and yum.

X is for X-ray fish

It’s hard to tell from the picture, but this x-ray fish is partially made from waxed paper. We cut out fish bones for the x-ray fish’s top half and then covered the bones with wax paper so you could see the bones underneath. The x-ray fish got some glitter to make it glisten. X-ray fish are also known as neon tetras. They’re the only x animal we could come up with. Most animal alphabet books cheat on this one and go with fox, but we found that solution unacceptable.

X is for xylophone, too, and not much else that kids have heard of.

W is for Whale

W is for whale. It’s a wiggly whale, just like the narwhal, but we looked at a lot of pictures of real whales online so she knows they don’t really bend like that. We just watched Finding Nemo last week, so the whale got a clown fish and a blue tang to keep it company. I cut them out, she coloured them and stuck them down.

W is also for witch, what, when, where and why

V is for Vulture

V is for vulture. V is also for van, vase and Victoria. V offered another opportunity to use feathers. The vulture ended up with an angry green eyebrow and a tiny baby vulture that she drew and cut out all by herself.

V is for van, vinegar and very, very good.

U is for Unicorn

U is for unicorn. We couldn’t come up with any real animals that start with U. And besides, unicorn is too cool not to do. With a pink yarn mane and tail and a glittery gold horn, this one replaced L is for leopard as her favourite letter so far. The glitter glue almost soaked right through the paper. She got her fingers involved, swirling the colours together for a truly magical unicorn.

U is also for underwear. U is lots of fun.

T is for Tiger

T is for tiger. I think this is my favourite so far. It was my favourite when I did the animal alphabet with my son, as well. There’s something about the felt stripes and the little round ears that makes this tiger absolutely charming.

T is for treat, toys, terrible and terrific.

S is for Snake

S is for snake. This is one of those letters that seems to be made for the animal alphabet art project. It couldn’t be easier. We looked at snake pictures to see what kinds of designs snakes have on them, and they inspired a lot of interesting black and brown squiggles on this snake’s skin. I turned my back for about a minute, though, and suddenly the snake was very spiky, as well. I’m not sure where the inspiration for the spikes came from, but it’s a pretty spectacular snake.

S is also for spikes, silly, sing and scissors.

R is for Rabbit

We had a much better time together with R is for rabbit. We co-operated nicely.

Last time I did this project, it was R is for rooster. My daughter also liked the idea of R is for rhinoceros. But the idea of a cotton ball rabbit tail and long skinny paper whiskers finally swayed the decision firmly in the direction of rabbit. We decided to do this one horizontally, for some reason. So the rabbit had more room to hop, maybe. She added a strip of blue for the sky.

One of her favourite things to do is go down to Jericho Beach to feed the rabbits that live in the blackberry bushes, so this project sparked a lot of discussion about how long it will be until the weather warms up enough to visit the rabbits. Quite a long time, we decided, as the rain poured down outside the dining room window.

Q is for Quail

Q is for quail. California quail, specifically. Those are the kind that have feathers sticking out of the tops of their heads. We only had brightly coloured feathers, so she insisted on dulling a yellow one down with brown marker so that it would look more like the pictures we found online. This was a contentious letter. There were disagreements and there was  angry scribbling as a result. Enthusiasm for the project is at a low, but maybe it was just a bad day. We’ve both agreed to have better attitudes next time we sit down together to do an animal alphabet. We’ve got nine letters left to go and it would be a shame to give up now.

Q is also for queen, quick and quitters-never-win.