This is an excellent resource that can be used to enrich classroom learning and engage students in a variety of ways. The main thing you can use from is it is by using it as part of an alphabet study and that way you can ask your students to identify and list the words that correspond to each letter. This exercise can help students improve their language and literacy skills. This would be most useful for Kindergarten age because that is when they're learning the alphabet. ( )

Book runs through the alphabet showing illustrations of various objects, animals etc. starting with letters of the alphabet.
ages three to five, No Plot.

Alligator, beetle, porcupine, whale,
Bobolink, panther, dragonfly, snail,
Crocodile, monkey, buffalo, hare...
and the lilting rhymes continue accompanied by delightfully whimsical illustrations. In the hat maker's work shop is an Ocelot, pheasant, wolverine, auk, and everyone is clearly comfortable with one another as it should be in a peaceable kingdom.
This book is great fun to simply pore over the pictures and try to find some of the more elusive animals, but the jaunty rhythm of the words enhance the pleasure.
Long after the child has mastered the alphabet, I'm sure this book will still be a favorite. It is mine.

This poem is written in such a way that the first word in each line or verse follows the order of the alphabet. It is taken from the Shaker Manifesto dated 1882. The version I read was compiled and illustrated in 1981. So this poem is a lyrical play on the letters of the alphabet and animal names that correspond to each letter. Even a seasoned zoologist might be challenged by this little poem as the obscure animals of ichneumon, basilisk, and ibex are listed. Achilles’ trusty semi-divine Xanthos also makes an appearance for the letter ‘X.’

The rhythm and rhyme of this cute little poem is very catchy. I was intrigued by it simplicity and its remarkable beauty. I was also intrigued by the history associated with the little poem. It was a rhyme that was undoubtedly heard a lot in Shaker school houses and communities.

One obvious use of this book in today’s schools is to use it as a means to study the alphabet with you children. Another application could be a scientific one. What is a ibex or a Ichneumon? What kind of animals are you children familiar with, and which ones have you puzzled? Still another use would be in social studies. Who were the Shakers? When and how did they live? And how do they fit into the history of the United States. ( )

Instructional -- given to Shaker children to learn the Alphabet through animals and rhyme ( )