"In the Fall" class book

My teaching partner came across this photo last weekend and we both were inspired by it! (Click the photo to head over to the site.) 

We didn't need a bulletin board decoration, but we thought that we could use the same idea to make an adorable class book!  We have parent-teacher conferences next week and I always like to have a new class book sitting out for parents to look at in case they have to wait a few minutes. 

It really became a week-long project.  On Monday, we worked as a class to put together a list of things we like to do in the Fall.  Then, on Tuesday, we reviewed the list and I told students to choose the one thing that they most enjoyed doing.  I have a high-schooler that comes to my classroom two afternoons a week as part of one of her classes, so on Tuesday afternoon she met with each child and had them tell her which activity was their favorite.  She wrote their names in pencil next to their activity.

 I then took the responses and typed them up so that each student would have their own complete sentence to glue onto their page.  NOTE:  I had an aide in the classroom with me when I did the cutting/gluing/drawing part.  If I didn't, I probably would have done this part in small groups.  Building sentences (even though I had a page for them to model after up on the projector screen) is challenging for many October Kindergarten students.  I was glad to have help as we checked each sentence and gave the okay to glue.

Once the students glued their sentences in place, they were ready to add their illustrations.

I thought this little boy's drawing was so creative and fun!  Look how he is jumping into that leaf pile!!

I added their names on file folder labels (I just retouched the names out of these photos) which was really cute until I completed the book.  Stay tuned.... :)

I finally completed the book on Friday by laminating each of the pages and adding a cover.  This was a "live and learn" moment.  I realized that the sentences had been built at the very top of the page, and the name stickers had been put in the bottom corners of the pages.  Either way I hole-punched, I was going to punch right through something important!  Boo!  I decided to punch through the bottom because enough of their names are still left to know whose is whose.  Whoops!  Rookie mistake!

Our finished product is really adorable and I think parents will love looking through it.

I'll definitely add this to my Fall file for next year.  And I might just do some similar books for other themes this year.  The kids were all smiles as we went through the book as a class on Friday.

Aaaannnnndddd.....tomorrow I will be busy getting things finalized for conferences.  Such a busy time of year!