The end of the year is near...yahoo! It's Jen here from An
Adventure in Literacy to share an easy, authentic, LOW PREP, idea for an end of
the year memory book.
There are hundreds of options for end of the year memory
books. Many teachers have a favorite memory book (I always do an end of theyear countdown book) but here is an idea you may want to do in addition to your
"go to" book to provide an authentic writing experience for your
students.
Like many other teachers, I stocked up on the Target Dollar
Spot blank books earlier in the year. I chose the 16 page version that had 8
in a pack for $3. That's right...it will cost less than $10 for a class set of books.
If you don't have blank books already, you can always just staple blank paper
together.
This is an ongoing project for my students during the last
few weeks of school. They work on their books for morning work or when they
finish work early. I give each student a blank book and a sheet of printed subject
labels. They choose the topics they are interested in and want to include in
their memory book. I believe student choice is SO IMPORTANT, especially in
something as personal as a memory book. One student may love word study while
another may cringe at the thought of it, hence why it should or should not be included in
their book!
Students simply stick the topic label to the top of the
page, write about it, and illustrate. It is so sweet to read what they write
and what they consider important. The open-endedness of this project really
allows their writing to be authentic and focus on what is important in their
school lives. I print a set of class pictures complete with our class
name, year, and school to glue to the front of the book. Students can also get
autographs from their classmates on the back inside cover.
To help with the prep of this project you can download the FREE labels.
These are just a word document to be printed on standard address labels
in comic sans (blahhhhh), but I figured you could edit the font to your
favorite and change the topics as necessary. I used Hello Olive from Hello Literacy Fonts for mine. Wishing you and your students a great end of the school year. Summer
is near which means lots of soaking up the sun while enjoying a great book!
