Use this ABC Habitats and Animals book during whole group, small group, or individual instruction to support alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness, two important parts of emergent literacy. Read the book repeatedly over time so students have many chances to connect letters, sounds, animals, and habitat vocabulary.

As you read each page, point to the letter, say the letter name, name the animal, and emphasize the beginning sound when appropriate. For example: “B is for bear. Bear starts with /b/.” Talk briefly about the animal and where it lives so students connect the letter to meaningful vocabulary and real-world concepts. For example: “Bears live in forests.”

Students can participate by finding the letter, matching it to a letter card, tracing it, listening for the first sound, clapping syllables, or comparing animals that start with the same sound. Encourage discussion about habitats such as forests, oceans, grasslands, deserts, and homes. Keep expectations flexible so all students can join in through speaking, pointing, choosing, eye gaze, or AAC.

For AAC users, model simple words such as animal, habitat, live, look, same, different, like, water, tree, and home. Students can also use their keyboard with word prediction to type the first one or two letters of the animal word and watch to see whether the word or animal icon appears in the predictor buttons. Use the SEARCH FEATURE on the device to get step-by-step navigation support to “find the animal words” (available on most common robust AAC systems). This helps connect letters, sounds, spelling, vocabulary, and AAC navigation in a meaningful way.

This resource works best when used again and again in short, engaging lessons that build confidence with letters, sounds, animal vocabulary, and habitat concepts while encouraging curiosity about the natural world.

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