[jen517]

We make class books almost weekly about all different things. For earth day we read "Dear Mother Earth" and they wrote a friendly letter to Mother Earth telling her what they will do to take care of her. When we were learning about story problems in math they each illustrated and wrote one and put the answer on the back. The first week of school we do a "Guess Who" book that is probably the favorite to learn about their classmates.

I laminate the cover and bind the books and they hold up all year. To send them home I bought the bright colored mailing envelopes (that have almost a bubble wrap feel at Walgreens) and have a letter packing taped on the front instructing them to read it as a family, write a comment to the class on the comments pages (I put in the back of each book) and send back the next day. The next day I read the comments to the class before picking the next student to take it home. I have about 6 envelopes and just change which books are in them. After each child has had it the book is put in the classroom library. At the end of the year each child gets to keep one of the books, sometimes more if we make a lot!