Students will go back to this Big Book again and again . . . because they made it!
I had the fantastic opportunity to present at the SDE (Staff Development for Educators) I Teach K National Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 11th - 14th. Wow! Room after room of enthusiastic Kindergarten teachers (My kind of people!) getting new ideas for their Kindergarten classrooms. Thanks to all the great people who joined me for my sessions.
Here's an idea for a bookmaking session I presented at the I Teach K conference. I'll post more ideas from more sessions as the school year moves along.
Alphabet Big Book
Letters of the Alphabet - Bookmaking
Prepare 26 big book pages by gluing 2 cutout letters, 1 capital and 1 lower case for each letter of the alphabet, to a half sheet of poster board. Children work in groups to create a page for each letter. They can draw pictures or place stickers that begin with that letter on the page. Add some handwriting samples of the letter as well as matching letters cut from magazines or newspapers. You could follow a certain format for each page or let them all be different; it's up to you and your students. Put all the pages together for a class ABC Big Book.
I put a white piece of paper in the middle and tell students NOT to draw or paste anything in that area. To finish off each page I take and paste a photograph of children whose names begin with that letter and an item or two from the classroom that also begins with that letter. For example: If you look carefully at the picture below, you will see Clara, Colton and Connor pointing to the clock.
I also laminate the handwriting paper at the bottom of each page so students can practice writing that particular letter. Wipe it off so it's ready for the next person.
