I try not to send my students home with a lot of paper. As a mom myself, I have plenty of clutter around my house; I don't need school clutter as well! But one of my most favorite things to do in my classroom is to make my students a keepsake book of all of their published writing pieces throughout the year.
![Keep your students' published writing pieces from throughout the year and bind them into a finished book. It will be a great keepsake for your kiddos to remember the year they spent with you. Blog post includes a freebie table of contents, dedication page, and about the author page.]( "Keep your students' published writing pieces from throughout the year and bind them into a finished book. It will be a great keepsake for your kiddos to remember the year they spent with you. Blog post includes a freebie table of contents, dedication page, and about the author page.")
Organization is key for this project, so I always start with creating a file folder for each of my students before school starts. I used to store all of my writing pieces by genre but I was always scrambling to assemble the books at the end of the year. Not this year!! Take a few extra minutes to organize by student and it will save you a HUGE headache in the end!
![Keep your students' published writing pieces from throughout the year and bind them into a finished book. It will be a great keepsake for your kiddos to remember the year they spent with you. Blog post includes a freebie table of contents, dedication page, and about the author page.]( "Keep your students' published writing pieces from throughout the year and bind them into a finished book. It will be a great keepsake for your kiddos to remember the year they spent with you. Blog post includes a freebie table of contents, dedication page, and about the author page.")
Then, as we publish pieces throughout the year, I add them to each student's file folder in chronological order. We always have a few personal narratives, an information report they write from their own knowledge, a persuasive essay, a literary essay, a fairy tale, and my favorite is their final piece which is a persuasive letter to the next year's grade level stating why they should move onto that grade!
During the last week of school, my students and I head outside so that I can take individual photos of them standing against the brick exterior. I don't know why, but I just love photos of kids in front of a brick wall! I use the photos to make the cover of the books. My students get to choose what color card stock they want for the front and back covers. I glue their photos on the colored paper and laminate the front and back covers.
Before I bind the books, I add a table of contents, dedication, and about the author pages.
![Keep your students' published writing pieces from throughout the year and bind them into a finished book. It will be a great keepsake for your kiddos to remember the year they spent with you. Blog post includes a freebie table of contents, dedication page, and about the author page.]( "Keep your students' published writing pieces from throughout the year and bind them into a finished book. It will be a great keepsake for your kiddos to remember the year they spent with you. Blog post includes a freebie table of contents, dedication page, and about the author page.")
Lastly, I use my school's comb binder to bind all their stories into books. If you don't have access to a comb binder, you can take the books to an office supply store and get them spiral bound for a few dollars a piece. Yes, it's a little pricey, but the looks on my students' faces when I give them their books is priceless! They chatter excitedly with their classmates, taking a walk down their third grade memory lane. My hope is that these books are stored in a safe place and when my students are "80 years old and all wrinkly" (those are the exact words I use!), they can have a small piece of their childhood to look back at.
![Keep your students' published writing pieces from throughout the year and bind them into a finished book. It will be a great keepsake for your kiddos to remember the year they spent with you. Blog post includes a freebie table of contents, dedication page, and about the author page.]( "Keep your students' published writing pieces from throughout the year and bind them into a finished book. It will be a great keepsake for your kiddos to remember the year they spent with you. Blog post includes a freebie table of contents, dedication page, and about the author page.")
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During the last week of school, my students and I head outside so that I can take individual photos of them standing against the brick exterior. I don't know why, but I just love photos of kids in front of a brick wall! I use the photos to make the cover of the books. My students get to choose what color card stock they want for the front and back covers. I glue their photos on the colored paper and laminate the front and back covers.
Before I bind the books, I add a table of contents, dedication, and about the author pages.
Click HERE if you'd like a copy of these pages.
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