Publishing Class Books

So I was FINALLY uploading some photos from my school camera in preparation for the end of the year and I came across some that I had every intention of sharing with the blogging world back in August.

And since, I have noticed that some of you have begun thinking about next year already (I still have 5 more days), I thought I would share them now so you may find an idea to use at the beginning of the next school year.

Every year, I start the year with making and publishing a large amount of class books.  Here are some of the books that I created with this group (it changes a little from year to year):

1.  The first book goes with the story The Day The Monster Came To School.  This story is not a book, it is just a story that someone gave me years ago and I have used it ever since.  I have seen some really cute reproducibles on other blogs that teachers have created using the same story, so I know it is circulating out there.  After I read the story, I have the children color what they think the monster looked like and then they tell me a rule that will help the monster stay at school.  I write what they say at the bottom.

Sorry, I couldn't get it to turn.

2.  The next book is The Birthday Book.  I have a little poem (see second photo) that starts the book.  We discuss the months of the year and what can make each month special, which leads us into their birthday month.   I have them color their birthday cake and then we graph our birthday months.  After that, I take the cakes and make it into a book (see third photo).  We refer to this at the beginning of each month to see what class birthday's we need to mark on the calendar.

3.   This book is usually created on their first day of school.  I have little reproducible apples that have a picture of a little boy or girl on them.  I have them color their gender apple and then we graph how many boys and girls are in our class.  After a few days, that graph turns into this book with a picture of the graph at the back.

4.  Everyone loves Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and there are so many activities that I do with this book I may need to save that for another post.  This book is usually created during our second week of school when we are doing lots of name activities and we start our study of all the letters of the alphabet (Smart Start-for those of you that use Macmillan Reading Series).  We first glue our Chicka Tree together on the paper and then they add stickers for the letters in their name.

5.  This book is created because it goes along with our adopted Macmillan Treasures reading series.  We have a big book titled "Hands Can" that discusses all kinds of things are hands do.  Then I chart different things that the student's know our hands can do.  I paint their hands and then we put it into a book with what they said on the chart.

6.  We create this book after reading A My Name is Alice.  The students draw a picture of themselves and complete the writing prompt on the page.  If they do not know how to write their name yet, I write it for them.

So that is just a few of the books that we make during the first few weeks of school.  I hope you got a some ideas for creating class books next year.   I do this every year and they become the most read books in our classroom library.

I would love to hear about some books that you create with your kiddos during the school year.  Please share.

Happy Blogging!
Ann