Capture End of Year Memories with a Memory Book!

The end of the school year is approaching.  State testing is over.  Student enthusiasm is high. Students are getting eager to be out on break (and so are teachers).  Behaviors can escalate if you're not on top of things.  What do you do that's meaningful work that will hold your students' attention during the last few days of school?"  It' easy!  It's engaging!  There's one last bit of writing involved!  But best of all, students make their own memory book and remain focused during this crazy exciting time of year.  This great activity gives you a few minutes to begin room tidy-up and end of record management.  What could be better?

I love using memory books to capture the highlights of the year students spent in my class.  I prefer to create book in a half-page format because if your school is like mine, we tended to put a freeze on copy printing and were nearly out of budgeted paper supplies for the year.  For a class of 34, I could print 17 pages and have 34 individual memory book pages.  I know some teachers prefer the ease of using a single page per sheet, so I created memory books just for you, too.  They're in my TpT store under the category, "End of Year."

At the beginning of the year, I create a file folder for each student and file them alphabetically in a hanging file folder in a plastic crate.  These folders are now ready to file memory book pages of special events that we do throughout the year.  Each time we go on field trips, have guest speakers, do cool projects and events, photos are taken.  I use a class list and check off each student's name to be sure I've got a photo for everyone.  Then, right away, I'd add each child's photo to the template for the page destined for each memory book.  Each photo is captioned to be personalized for each students. Then pages are printed, cut in half and filed into each student's folder.  Newest pages go a the back so the books end up in chronological order for easy assembly at the end of the year.

This is what the NEW memory books look like:

These are some photos of my daughter's memory book from 2000-2001.  She was a 4th grader in my 4/5 Blend class. You can see how I used to use lots of photos for my students' memory books.  Since then, students create their own pages and we add photos to the books as well.

Half Page Format
• 3rd Grade – half page – kids theme PDF & Editable MS Word Format 
• 4th Grade – half page – kids theme PDF & Editable MS Word Format 
• 5th Grade – half page – kids theme PDF & Editable MS Word Format 
• 6th Grade – half page – stars theme PDF & Editable MS Word Format
• Any Grade – half page – owl theme PDF & Editable MS Word Format 

Full Page Format
• 2nd Grade – full page – kids theme PDF & Editable MS Word format
• 2nd Grade – full page – owl theme PDF format
• 3rd Grade – full page – owl theme PDF format
• 4th Grade – full page – owl theme PDF format
• 5th Grade – full page– owl theme PDF format
• Any Grade – full page – owl theme PDF & Editable MS Word Format 

Whatever you do the end the year on a positive note, do it well.  Your students and families will remember their year with you as a great one!