Making Books with Children

Making books promotes better retention.

Making books encourages exploration.

Making books fits any topic.

Making books allows students to work on their own.

Making books generates excitement.

Making books encourages communication.

Pop-out Books

stories

dictation

copying

description

Pop-up Books

stories

dictation

copying

description

Accordion Books

stories

information display

opinion survey

sequencing

Flip Books

sequencing

timeline

cause + effect

Q + A

riddles

information

factfile

descriptions

Lift-up Books

stories

copying

description

Flap Books

riddles

secret messages

surprise and mystery

copying

Wheel Books

Q + A

contrasting

story illustration

secret messages

Step Books

sequencing

recipes

story events

research project

diary

directions + rules

Quilt Books

biography

4 Ws

Q – A

sequencing

Window Books

riddles

identification

Shape Books

projects

stories

picture dictionary

copying

Fan Books

categorization

classification

exemplification

lists

Envelope Books

riddles

secret messages

vocabulary list

descriptions

Hot Dog Booklets

picture dictionaries

categorization

narratives

Ziploc Books

projects

show + tell

realia

Who Am I? Books

descriptions:

people

places

animals

Triarama Books

sequencing

classification

categorization

My Family

This photo album customized with Smilebox

This elephant knows great stories. Let's listen to one!

A briefcase especially decorated for story time. What is the story today?

A storage frog made out of party plates. A piece of cake!

A happy frog to take care of my pencils.

Cartoon strips to cover storage boxes or cans? Great idea!

This is a sign to control the mood of the class. A clip on the red sign indicates there's no game at the end of the class.

Where to keep all those large sheets and left-overs? Here's the right place.

We can't forget our students' birth days! This chart helps me remind them all.

Young students love to talk about their feelings. Here's a chart for them to pin and for me to know how they are feeling.

Assigning a helper gives me some extra time to focus on other things - monitoring the groups or selecting materials. The helper has to hand out / collect worksheets, erase the board, tape flashcards, and so on. Here's a chart for everyone to know who the helper is.

A new semester has started! Isn't it nice to welcome the students with a sign like this?

What's the weather like today? The helper is responsible for updating the weather chart every class.

Is everybody in class today? When students arrive, they pick up their name cards and put them in the slots taped to the charts.

My daughter Clara loves the Backyardigans. I used this glove to make the puppets and tell her stories. Sometimes she tells me the stories.

Let's put all the magazines we are going to use for specific projects in a shoe box! It looks better when you decorate it.

Craft foam is a versatile material to decorate empty cans. Here's an idea.

What to do with empty milk cartons? Cut the top out and make a storage box for colored pencils!

A frog to keep pencils and pens? Good idea!

Where should I put all those clips? Why don't you recycle a small plastic bottle and make a pig out of it? A good place to keep small clips.

Make a stage out of Styrofoam and craft foam for your favorite stories. Do you want to hear the "Old MacDonald" song?