My students loved making end-of-the-year memory booklets. Honestly, as a teacher, I sort of dreaded the project. It wasn’t because I disliked the activity; it was really all about my end-of-the-year scramble to get everything else accomplished. That’s why, when I saw this idea in a past issue of The Mailbox magazine, I knew it must be shared!
The idea is super simple. All you need is a supply of booklet page templates. Every few days, have students respond to an end-of-the-year prompt by drawing and writing (or dictating for you to write). When the last week of the school year arrives—and it will before you know it—the class memory booklets are close to completion!
What types of pages do you include in a class memory booklet? Please share!
Happy teaching!
Diane
As preschool teachers, we provide a mini-memory book ofr our 3-5 year olds that is a 4×6 photo album from the dollar store, so the children can go back and “remember when…?” as they “read” it. We include a class list because most of the children can recognize their friends names in print, a list of our monthly field trips which is mostly for the parents who join us o these trips, a daily picture schedule, a poem about how each child is special, and a “have a good summer and remember to read with mom and dad” message from the teachers. Then we insert copies of photos we have taken throughout the year of students working in the clssroom, some of our field trips, a class picture, and photos of bulletin boards with the children’s projects posted on them. We have an evelope with each child’s name on it in which we have been saving pictures and other little notes, and we have volunteer parents who insert the pictures and notes in the albums for us so it is not an overwhelming project at the end of the year.
Its a parent job at our school too. What I love is that each year they are different.
One year we had a Mom who loved to draw. She drew a pencil drawing of me with all the kids in the class on each one. I love the memory books.
I have a memory book all year round. 🙂
I take pictures throughout the year, and I place them in a three-ring binder. The students and I write about the pictures, and we keep the book in the classroom library center. The students absolutely LOVE the book! Each day, they get a chance to look at what we’ve been doing all year.
The book is always a hit!
AT our preschool, we had a teacher that started making these almost scrap book like books – and we have all felt the need to keep up with that — but I simplified mine a bit — almost every month if you think about it it is easy to have an event were you take a group shot anyway — I have my book organized by month — and then pictures from Halloween, thanksgiving feast, Christmas program etc. in there — this year I took a few more candids and I am going to put them in on blank pages.