Adventures in Bookmaking

Right before leaving for Christmas break, we engaged in a pretty small project (it only took a couple of small group sessions) but it was a great achievement in our class, and it turned out beautifully. We were making gifts for the teachers in our school who are special to us, and one of the gift receivers was to be Farmer John. We had so many pictures of him working with the children, so the children made him a book. 

First, we talked about HOW we could make a book. 

“You supposed to write in it, then fold it up”           “You fold it up and write it”

We also decided what should go into our book: 

“Put pictures on it”           “Grass”            “Cooking”             “Letters”            “Make he farm” 

                                                            “Can we draw worms?” 

The students cut out the pictures for our book. They did a WONDERFUL job cutting, and really worked on those fine motor skills! 

When the photos were cut, students chose about three for a page that they wanted to make, and then they glued them onto the paper. 

Looking over the photos and choosing where they would appear in our book was a beautiful way of revisiting our past experiences with Farmer John (and we have had a lot of them!) 

This is one of my favorite pictures!! 

In addition to the students choosing photographs to go into our book, they also made their own illustrations and wrote their own notes for Farmer John. 

There was also collaboration among the students, as they shared what they were making and showed real interest in what their friends were doing. 

After the pages were made, I typed up all of the lovely things that the children said and onto the pages they went. 

The last step was for the students to sign the book! 

Here is our book as the final project. We get to keep a copy in our library center too... I can’t wait to add to our collection!