The Disappearing Alphabet by Richard Wilbur - Teaching Ideas

Reading level: 4.1 
Theme/subject: school, spelling, writing
Genre: humorous, rhyming
   
This book is definitely more advanced and will get your students thinking outside the box.
 
What would the English language be like if we didn’t have all 26 letters in our alphabet, making all the different sounds they make? A mind boggling concept if you really think about it. 
 
With that said, have your students think about it. After reading the book and thinking about how the author writes, challenge your students to come up with their own scenarios.
 
Have students think about a noun (person, place or thing). Have them list some words that are associated with that noun, including some antonyms. Have them then pick a letter from that noun that would be the disappearing letter.
 
For example if you think of the noun school and have the A be the disappearing letter, you could come up with this.
 
If there was no A then there would be no math, or reading, or teachers at school but there would be lots of books, and science experiments, history lessons and RECESS! 
 
For the next example if you think of the noun ice cream and have the C be the disappearing letter you could write something like this.
 
If there was no C then there would be no cold coffee ice cream cones but I would still be able to enjoy a bowl of  vanilla frozen yogurt with rainbow sprinkles.
 
Let your students give it a try using the worksheet graphics below. To use just copy and paste the worksheet graphics below into a MS Word or PowerPoint document resizing it to fit the document then print. 
 
The copy with writing lines missing in the circle is for students to write and then draw.

Have fun!