Class Books Around the Year

Compiled by Terry

Innovations on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? As In the Toybox (What do the toys see?) or with student Pictures (John, John Who do you see? I see Rachel looking at me.)

Our Families (book is in the shape of a house)
Christie

Good Morning Class! Take pictures of students as they say good morning in different ways with a wave, high five, shaking hands, smile, etc. This goes nicely if you follow the Responsive Classroom Approach.

I Can Do It!- another good one to take digital pictures of the kids to make this one up.

What Will You Wear? This is based on the book/song Mary Wore Her Red Dress. I take pictures of the students and cut out their heads. Then they glue their head on to a piece of paper. Then I give them black and white pictures of clothing. They select whether they want to wear a dress, pants and sweater or shorts, etc. They glue their selection on to their paper and under their head. Then they color only one item of the clothing. We read and sing, as in "Jessica wore her purple shirt all day long".

Mrs. Smith's Class and the Blue Crayon. Based on Harold and the Purple Crayon. Make a new book every time you introduce a new color. Each child colors a picture entirely with only that color. Staple all their pages into a book.
CalicoCookie

The first day of school I take pictures of the children and I buy a loose leaf notebook and place the pictures in the book with the sentence, "This is [child's name]." Each child gets to borrow the book for one night and read it to the family.
Becky Potter

The Alphabet Book-Kids draw a picture of themselves and then draw a capital letter under themselves that you assign to them. This is good for when you end the alphabet in December too. John is on the letter A.
Calico Cookie

Haven't done this in a few years but good for Sept. We do the rhyme "Mary Had A Little Lamb." Children draw an animal they would like to have follow them to school. I think I called it "It followed me to school."Another way to do it would be use the children's names and pattern sentence ______ had a little _________, repeat (3x) it followed her to school.

We made "Chicka chicka boom boom look who's in our Room." The children made coconut trees using constuction paper. They used rubber stamps to stamp the lettters in their names going up the tree.
Iluvk166

Each month we complete a page for "The Very Hungry Kindergartner" book. This idea was found in Mailbox several years ago.

Page 1... In September __[he or she] __ ate one _________.

Page 2... In October, _[he or she] ate two _________.
etc.

The students illustrate the pages using the food he or she would eat. It goes on until In June, [he or she] grew and grew until they became a First Grader!
Shelly

I make several books from the building block format at the beginning of the year.

1. I have the children draw a picture of the student of the day (I do day not week so everyone gets a turn faster). At the top it says: "My name is____" and at the bottom is "I see _____."
This is the first turn.

2. I have each child draw a picture of themselves with the student of the day. At the top it says "My name is ______" and bottom says, "My friend is _______."
This is the second turn.

Another book is the interview book. I have a form for the interview and fill it in then I keep them until everyone has had a turn and make a book from them. This year I did two interview books because my class was very weak and needed it. I just made a different form with different questions. They could not read this until much later in the year but they loved to find their page and read it.
Csusie

September themes---School---A bus A flag A book A pencil etc. Good to make into big books with clip art.
Linda Sears

Innovations on In a Dark, Dark Wood like In a Big, Big School
Christie

White Ghost, White Ghost, What Do You See?
Linda Sears

Halloween in Kindergarten-Take pictures of the kids in their costumes. Then write the book based on Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Spiderman, Spiderman what do you see? I see a witch looking at me!
Becky Potter

Yuck Soup! In go some… Then the last page is just the word Yuck!

Last year we did a bulletin board based on the book Big Green Monster, the children made their own monsters and we then just stapled it together to make a class book.
Iluvk166

In October, I've made a "Scarecrow, Scarecrow" book.
Shelley

Book in shape of pumpkin. They draw a face. "My name is ________." "My jack-o-lantern is ________. (happy, big, orange, mean, etc.)

Another color book--Shaped like a house with doors, windows, etc. "A _______ ghost is in my house."

Another color book. Each page has a big spider web (covers most of the page) "I can see some (sometimes I use numbers) ______ spiders."
CSusie

My favorite book to make as a class is the Kindergarten Yellow Pages Book. We usually do this when we are learning to write numbers as well as learning our phone numbers. I'm sure I got this idea off this ring. I like to make a big deal out of looking up a phone number in the yellow pages and the class coaches me with suggestions, like finding a pool man to fix my tile, or a vet for my dog. Then we talk about what people are good at, then we talk about what the children are good at. We fill in the blank,"If you need _______________ please call (child's name) at 451-####. (You could do this as a predictable chart and use the Building Blocks method to cut apart the text and reassemble, glue, and illustrate.) The responses are super. One year Rachel in my class wrote, "If you need help flipping please call Rachel at 661-####," and illustrated it with a drawing of her doing a flip on a trampoline. And I had a boy who was totally a follower who wrote, "If you need an extra player for soccer please call Carter at …" I title it "The Kindergarten Yellow Pages" and actually bind real yellow page pages in-between the individual pages. You might use this almost any month. It is a favorite and then we put it by some unplugged phones to practice everyones phone number.
debbie/AZ

Numbers Flip Book- Once we have reached number 10 we make a book that is really just a piece of paper folded in half down. You cut five sections into the top half. You write a number on the top half. Then the kids flip it up and draw a picture of that many objects. We also did this with shapes. The shape was on the outside and then you flip it up to see what the kids made out of that shape. Example: the rectangle became a truck. The words are "a truck".

Shape Books- We make a circle book, a square book, etc. I draw the shape on the board and we brainstorm things it looks like, things it could be. Then each child gets a piece of paper with the shape on it and they convert it to what they'd like it to be. "My circle is a pizza."
CalicoCookie

We make a turkey recipe book where each child tells me "how to cook a turkey" and I compile them and send them home.
Becky Potter

How Many Apples Up On Top? based on Ten Apples Up On Top.

Take the kids pictures at various locations around school. Then the kids cut out little apples (or use apple stickers to make it very easy) and glue them on their picture. Have the kids choose how many apples they want or can fit. Then the words are, "How many apples up on top of Jessica? Jessica has six apples on top."

Ten Black Dots based on the book by Donald Crews- One dot can make an elephant's eye …two dots can make ____________etc.

"My turkey will hide ___________" They color the turkey and finish the sentence. Or "For Thanksgiving I will eat _________"
CSusie

The Alphabet Book - Kids draw a picture of themselves and then draw a capital letter on their head that you assign to them. This is good for when you begin the alphabet in September too.

I like to do the Gingerbread man here, this year we did a gingerbread man abc book. The gingerbread man ran away from various animals a-z.
Iluvk166

Santa, Santa what do you see? or Christmas, Christmas What do you Hear?
Linda Sears

I smell _______ at Christmas, I see _______ at Christmas, etc. (use all five senses)

I see a blue light, I see a green light, (continue for basic colors)...on houses at Christmas time! (illustrate with clipart of light bulbs; last page is a picture of a winter house--outline with glitter for "lights"
Melissa Williamson

Cinderella's Day- Tie in to telling time. Have students brainstorm an activity that Cinderella does for each hour of the day and draw pictures. You can also photocopy pictures from the book and write in the time at the top of the page.
Calico Cookie

"When it snows I like to ________" The Mitten Book--shape of mitten. "My mittens are _____and ____." I try to get them to use words other than colors.
Csusie

January A Snowman-----A hat---A scarf---Mittens---or He has a hat---He has a scarf (depending on class). Good to make into a big book with clip art for vocabulary.
Linda Sears

I Wish I Had 100…

Based on The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown. Assign each child a classmate to write about or let them write about themselves. The important thing about Jessica is…
Author Unknown

Kindergartner, Kindergartner, What Do You Hear? Have the kids create a page about what they hear in school. Based on Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?

Good Morning Sun-a nice follow up to "Good Night Moon".

How about a book about the weather. Every day they look and give a daily report. You could also incorporate the days of the week. Monday was…etc
Handymam

Spring is Here - children draw and write about the Spring changes they see.,"I see ____."
Christie

I make a frog book with my kinderkids, I type the text and then have them color and cut out frogs to glue in side. Text: Title- I See Frogs!, Page one, I see one green frog. 2. I see two green speckled frogs, 3. I see three green spotted frogs. 4. I see four little green frogs. 5. I see five green frogs playing. 6. Croak ! {Here I have a big frog eating a fly.} I use clip art and some I had to draw. Copy the clip art for the children to color and cut out.
Betty Conley

What's inside the Egg? - each page has an egg cracked in two pieces and joined by a brass fastener so it opens to reveal the contents.
Unknown Contributor

Mother's Day Books
These are written around the predictable phrase "I like to _____ with my mom."
Calico Cookie

The Very Hungry Child-based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar On Monday the child ate…

It Looks Like Spilt Milk - students make blob painting with white paint and describe what they see. Go outside first and look at the clouds.
Unknown Contributor

The Bubble Book- based on Bubble Bubble by Mercer Mayer. Blow bubbles, read the book and then brainstorm. If you could blow magic bubbles what would you blow? I would blow… The cover is a blue circle outlined in silver glitter.

Based on The King's Pudding- We named ours "Dad's Hamburger." We did it in the shape of a hamburger. "Dad made a hamburger. It was round. It was brown. It smelled delicious. Dad picked up the burger but Mother yelled, Stop! Stop! It might be too hot. I will taste it for you. So Mother took a bite. Munch, munch. Crunch, crunch. Gobble, gobble. No it wasn't too hot ,said Mother. But some of the hamburger was gone. Dad picked up the burger. Brother yelled,Stop! Stop! It might be too cold. I will taste it for you. No it wasn't too cold, said brother. But more of the burger was gone." Then the story continues with sister offering help because the hamburger might be too salty and then all the hamburger was gone. So dad made another and when they all asked to help he said no he would taste it himself.
Author Unknown

Based on the book My Head is Full of Colors. Take each child's photo which you glue onto paper. Then each child cuts things out of magazines they like and glues above their head like that is what they are thinking of.
Terry