Guest post by Pam from Mrs. P’s Specialties
Creating a Yearlong Scrapbook with your Students
Are you looking to create meaningful writing opportunities in your classroom? Want a meaningful way to document all of the amazing activities and learning going on in your classroom? Here you will find tips on how to start scrapbooking with your students.
Creating a yearlong scrapbook with your students is fun and a functional way to work on student goals. It can be hard to get students engaged in writing assignments if they aren’t invested. Having students write in the class scrapbook provides them with a purpose and keeps them engaged.
1. Choose the type of book you will use
To begin, choose what type of book you want. We chose to do ours in a binder, but you could use a photo album, make a book with a binding machine, etc. We use a binder because it is sturdy enough for my special education classroom.
2. Take photographs
Take as many pictures as possible, so that you have a variety of pictures to choose from. Involve the students in what types of activities they want to include in the scrapbook. Many times my kiddos will ask to take pictures for the scrapbook. They LOVE to see their pictures in the scrapbook! I take the pictures with my phone camera most of the time, but you can also use a document camera or the iPad camera. I haven’t had any issues with printing my photos on regular printer paper, but you could also invest in photo paper.
3. Scrapbook pages
I use paper that has spaces for pictures as well as lines for the students to write about the activities in the photographs. You can download the writing paper I use for free from my TPT store by clicking HERE.
After students are finished writing, we insert them into page protectors then add them to the binder.
4. Organize your scrapbook
I add monthly dividers into the binder to keep it organized. We use the scrapbook as a timeline of events and activities for the classroom.
This scrapbook is great for pulling out during parent conferences. Parents love to see more of their child’s day.
5. Show off the scrapbook
This scrapbook will give parents and administrators a much better picture of how the class is doing, than testing scores will. Show off the students’ hard work!
Not only will a classroom scrapbook motivate students to write, but it is the perfect tool for teaching grammar, writing, speech and language skills, etc. Work on labeling and verbs with action photos. Work on sentence structure and rules on every page. Use photos of science experiments and cooking activities to work on writing steps of a sequence. The possibilities are endless!
Pam, from Mrs. P’s Specialties, has been teaching special education for 19 years. She can be found at Mrs. P’s Specialties, Teachers Pay Teachers, Facebook, and Pinterest.
