Wednesday, June 12, 2013

End of Year Student Gift: Memory Books

Okay, tomorrow's the last day of school and I'm trying my best to not freak out! It's always hard to say goodbye. But I will see the kids again next year when they come visit me (always the best part). :)

So yesterday's post was on end of year gifts to parent volunteers. Today's post is on end of year gifts to students! I found this idea while blog surfing last year and took on the project with only like 1.5 months of school left. Boy, was it time consuming and stressful. But the results were great! This year, I  knew I was going to make it again for my students this year so I planned ahead! What are they, you ask? Memory books aka a monthly collection of student artwork and writing all bound together! Some of these artworks and writing pieces have been mentioned in my blog in the past so I will try to link back to them so you can get more details on what they did.

And here is the book!

Beginning of year and end of year picture along with the name tag used during field trips and the cubby tag.

August - first day of school writing. Be prepared to be amazed at their growth!

September - "I have never seen a ____" writing as a follow-up to one of our Language Arts reading.

October - all about bats! Bats writing, diagram, and craft.

November - My train craft and writing. (Find in TpT store here.)
December - gingerbread craft and poem. (Poem template found for free here.) 
January - New Year's resolution craft and writing and weather haiku.
February - Love is... 
March - Dr. Seuss picture taken from an app I got on my iphone plus two different St. Patrick theme related writings.
April - "Spring is..." poem and Earth Day craft and writing.
May - Mary Mack comic. (Oops! I just realized that this was done in April. Oh well!)
A different version of May in most books. Self-portrait with acrostic poem underneath and a writing piece on what they learned about butterflies.
June - Letters to the kindergarteners about first grade and to the future second grade teacher.
There are two more pages after. One page had some class photos on it. The last page is for autographs. I plan to give everyone pens (Ink Pen Day for our balloon countdown) and we will have some time to sign everyone's books and leave a little message.

I'm excited for everyone to get their books tomorrow! Last year, I had quite a fiasco on the last day of school due to pizza not being delivered to my classroom on time that I didn't have a chance for the kids to enjoy the books. This year, I'm just giving it to them first thing in the morning so we can spend some quality time with them before they go home. They are all laid out on their desks ready for the kids to enjoy. 

Can't wait! :)

P.S. There are more things I give the kids. But I guess you'll just have to come back tomorrow to find out about them. :)

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