Last week, I spent a couple of supercharged days in Atlanta at the 2012 NAEYC Conference & Expo. What fun! I spoke with oodles of teachers and administrators, attended as many sessions as I could, and bebopped my way through the exhibit hall. The enthusiasm of teachers is so energizing! I love it!
During one session, a preschool teacher shared a class-made book titled “Feet Walk.” Each booklet page (in the shape of a large shoe sole) featured a student-drawn illustration and a dictated description of one place the student had walked. The child-created pages were both insightful and hilarious. I thought, “Wow, not only does the simplicity of this idea totally rock, it’s so easy to adapt!” Try these out: Pilgrims Walk, Santa Walks, Martin Luther King Jr. Walked, Leprechauns Walk. How fun is that?
I’m sure you each have a favorite bookmaking project that’s supersimple. Please share!
Excitedly yours,
Diane
PS: Remember, you could earn a $20 gift certificate for simply sharing your idea!
My students use The Important Book by M. Wise Brown for various projects such as characters of a book, important historical people, and organ systems, etc. The predictable pattern really gives students the opportunity to write in a fun and interesting way,
You could do a lab walk. The shapes can be flasks or other tools involved in labs that have been done, then they could walk thru and summarizing what they did and how it went together.
My favorite book writing activity to do this time of the year is… “What I am taking to Grandma’s House.” We make a suitcase shaped book and them we illustrate and write what things we would take to Grandma’s house. Each child has a different thought depending on where Grandma lives. If she lives in town then they just take their favorite toy or maybe an overnight bag but if she lives far away then they have to fill their suitcase up. This is fun to share different family lifestyles! We also talk about families that might visit friends instead of Grandmas!
Jen from Ohio
I love making books this time of year with the kids. I use Santa’s face and ask the kids what should Santa bring Mom? The pictures and answers are so funny. Cars and gaudy necklaces are very popular.
I also like to do a reindeer shape with the question where do Santa’s reindeer sleep??
I enjoy making a book when we study positional words in math! We take a stuffed animal (class mascot?) around the school, along with a slate and erasable marker, and place the furry friend in special places, labeling with the positional word written on the slate (a favorite: “on” the principal’s desk!). We take a snapshot with the iPad, and enjoy a slideshow of positional pix upon return to class. I then develop the pictures, make a laminated book (“Leo Gets Around”), and place it in the reading center for the rest of the year. Fun, fun, fun!
I love to make house-shaped books when we work on our “at home” units with preschoolers. We read favourite books such as “In a People House” and “A House is a House for Me” by Mary Ann Hoberman. On each page of the house shaped books, the kids draw a picture of something that is in their house, and either write or dictate a sentence about that item underneath the drawing.
Another neat project we have done is to make an alphabet book. Each child thinks of something that starts with a different letter of the alphabet, and draws a picture of that object on a sheet of paper preprogrammed with the letters of the alphabet. We then take photos of all of the pages, upload them to an online bookmaking sight, and order a copy for each child. It’s a great end of the year keepsake.
I work with two year olds who enjoy seeing pictures of themselves. I always make a classroom book called Room 2 Who Do You See? On the cover page their is a group picture. Then on each page, there is a picture of the child with the words, Mary Mary Who do you see? At the end there are the teacher pictures. It is one of their all time favorites to look at and read!
I also take lots of pictures of the children doing different activities in al the different centers. I have made classroom books of them building with blocks, dressing up and cooking, doing different art projects, exploring science materials, reading their favorite stories, playing with manipulatives etc. The children find these books in each center and great conversation goes on with them talking about themselves as well as their Friends!!!