Class book ideas

We LOVE class books in my Kindergarten room.  We make several every year.  I especially love making them at the start of the year and sending them home for my students to read with their parents.  I know how curious parents are at the beginning of each school year.  They are anxious to know the other children that their kiddos are spending their days with.  Because of this, I always make a couple books with student photos in them.  I get great feedback from parents about these!  And, of course, the kids LOVE anything with their photo on it!!

To send the books home, I just put them in a gallon-size ziploc bag.  Typically, I add a label to the front asking that the books are returned the next day.  When I went to print my labels last week, I realized that I was out of the size I needed.  Sharpie to the rescue!  Not quite as cute, but it does the job. :)

(Oh, and please don't mind the glare in every picture in this post.  Laminated pages = glare.  I tried to avoid it, but couldn't.  Sorry!)

 I got the idea for this class book from my awesome teaching partner.  My students LOVE this book, and as soon as it's been to every home and finds it's spot in our reading corner, it gets read every single day.

 It follows the repetitive pattern of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear".

This is the first page.

 The middle pages look like this.

 And this is the last page.

I've made this next class book for years and years.  The kids complete their page during the first week of school.

They just draw themselves and write their names.  So simple, but so cute.

This last one requires some parent help.  This idea originally came from Doodle Bugs a couple years ago.

 I send this questionnaire home with each student sometime in the first week or so of school and ask parents to return it the next day.  Then, I have students cut them out with fancy scissors.  They think this is just about the coolest thing ever!

This questionnaire is available in Google Docs if you want to go grab it.  CLICK HERE!

Right now, all three of these books are going home with students daily.  They can't wait for their turn to come!  I love picturing my kidlets cozying up with dad or mom to share the book and discuss Kindergarten.

Do you have a favorite book that you make with your class?  I'd love to add more to our classroom library!