[SaraFirst]

I'm looking for more ideas on creating class books. Usually, I have each student create one page about whatever topic the book is about. Does anyone have any neat ideas to share? Also, I'm planning on sending class books home with one family each night to read and return the next day. Has anyone done this before?

[teach4fun]

I make things like The Amazing Adjectives, The Kicking Verbs, The 1P Nouns, and more. We do a book for each mastered thing in our language books and/or our science units. It really depends on the year and the students as to how many we do and dont do.

I always let the kids vote on the title. I try to fit in a word to describe what we are doing in each title. The kids love it and we vote on it during our morning meeting.

[cvt]

Teach4Fun has some great ideas for class books. What are the 1P Nouns?
And what do you do at the beginning of the year? Do you use a cloze? Do the kids illustrate and label? SaraFirst, I like the idea of sending the books home to read. I'm going to try all of this.

[jerzgirl]

In the beginning of the year we do a study of alphabet books. This year each of my children made their own alliterative abc book, but I think you could make it a class book. Each child would get a letter of the alphabet (some would have to double up depending on class size) and then they create a sentence with as many words that begin with that letter as they can. They illustrate to match. The children loved this activity and were SO creative. I felt that it really was a differentiated activity.
Ex. Frankie found forty four furry fingers on Friday.

[MalibuBarbie]

I LOVE making class books with my class! I usually do take-offs from shared reading/read aloud books.....
Hmmm!!! But after a long and FUN fourth of July week, I'm having trouble coming up with some titles!

I do, however, send the books home with kids each night....and this procedure works GREAT! I sent bits of the following idea into Mailbox magazine. They took the idea but I never saw that it was published in a magazine yet... The following includes a LOT more details!

Laminate the front and back covers (construction paper or card stock) of class-made books and staple the books together with a heavy duty stapler. Use clear packaging tape as "binding". It covers the staples nicely and adds extra reinforcement. The kids pages are usually done on regular copy paper. They hold up very nicely when bound this way. I typically have from 20 to 25 students each year.

Reduce a class list to about 70% on the copy machine and tape it on the back cover along with a note on lime green paper (or any eye-catching color!) that says something like this:

"Please read and enjoy this class made book at home tonight with your child. Please return the book tomorrow (or as soon as possible) so that another family can enjoy the book."

Randomly pick a child to take the book home and write the date next to their name on the class list (and also on a master list--I keep one on a clipboard by my rocking chair). I tell the kids that I understand that they might not have time to read the book that night. But I encourage them to return it as soon as possible.

I started adding the bright colored paper note (please read and enjoy this book) a few years ago. Before that, books went missing! I'd ask for the books back and kids would tell me their parents threw the book away!!! The note really helps!

I usually have two or three kids each year that lose the privilege of taking class books home. They get ruined, come back in about three weeks after lots of hounding or are never returned. I'll have a parent volunteer or fifth grade buddy read class made books at school with these kids.

All right....I'm getting my school brain back...here are some class book ideas:

*How to Be a Friend
*How to Play Safe on the Playground
(you might assign pairs of kids to each piece of playground equipment)
*How My Parents Chose My Name
(after reading "Chrysanthemum", I have parents help their child make this class book page at home. They might add a picture of child and namesake along with an explanation of how and why they chose the name--these are PRICELESS!)
*Dear Zoo can be changed to Dear Santa
(I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet. It was too ____. I sent it back! I wrote to Santa to send me a toy. It was too ____. I sent it back!)
*All about Owls, Turkeys or Penguins or any other animal you've studied

I guess I'm still not coming up with lots of ideas. It would be nice to have a Discussion Thread throughout the school year for people to add class book ideas as they've done them! As I teach, the ideas occur to me so it's hard to think of them right now!

Just one more thing...the publishing is fun to vary. Sometimes--like when we're doing a Penguin Fact book--I'll have kids tell me a fact they've learned about penguins and I'll type it into a word document. I make sure that each child comes up with a different fact so that we don't have 10 pages that say "Penguins lay eggs". I'll enlarge the font, print the facts and cut them apart. Each child brings their fact to the computer lab and types it into a Kidpix template and then illustrates the fact. Print and wa-lah!

I hope all my ramblings help!
Barb

[Bash1626]

Teach4Fun,
Can you give us an exmaple of your class books. I love all your ideas and would like to try them this year. Thanks

[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!

[liketeaching1]

Yes, we do class books! It is a most rewarding experience for the students and their parents. I would get my ideas from a book we had used at shared reading, read alouds, basal reading story, etc. Mine just came out of my head. Each child would do a page and then I would put them in the order of my kids' student numbers (first name ABC order). I would add a few pages at the back with the student's names and an area to write. The parents got to write their comments, etc. IF the student brought it back the next day they received a sticker. If they didn't bring it back for several days they would lose the privilege of taking them home. I had a place on the dry erase board where I would write the names of the books circulating and add the name of the student who had the book. That helped me keep track of them. I used card stock for the front and back covers and would make the cover on my Stationary Studio software. Our school has the spiral binder so I used that to make them extra special.

Some of the ideas that I can remember are:
I Went Walking in the Fall (adapted from the book I Went Walking)
The Gingerbread Man (how would you catch him)
How to Make A Friend (adapted from the book How to Lose Your Friends)
Pet Shop (adapted from any books about Pets--what would you wish to have as a pet)
Snow Day

If I was at school I could look through my basket. I put them all in a basket in our library center labeled Class Books--they were favorites to select for their independent baskets.

[TTT]

Your class could create a book using graphs: number of siblings, favorite season, etc. The possibilites are endless!

[teach4fun]

The noun book is "1P Nouns" , one is for first, P is for my last name..
Each of my books is written by the kids with a template from me at the beginning of the year, to them on their own after christmas.

For example the Adj book each page has the same lay out,,, I have the children write a sentence with an adjective describing the things in it. For example if they choose a sentence about a girl they have to give an adj about the girl. Then if the girl finds a bug they ahve to describe a bug. there has to be at least two nouns with two adj in the sent. They write the sent at the bottom of the page and illustrate above. I divide the book into sections to help with the flow of the book. Last year the kids decided we would go to a park. So the first section was who came and what they brought, then what they saw when they got there and then lastly what they did. We choose in the morning meeting what group we will be in and then in my reading group that day we write and edit our sentence. By the end of the year the kids create and plan the whole thing with some help from me if it gets to out there or too detailed that it will be hard to get 28 kids to participate. They LOVE doing it!!!!!!!!!!

We put them in dollar store 3 ring binders and keep them in our class library. Eventually the children will tear a few holes so I put those little white reinforcers on them. They love seeing their own books and we always bring them to our librarian and our principal to ohh and ahh over.


I ask parents to donate pastel copy paper so we make the pages on this paper. I copied "lined" lines on the bottom, usually 3 lines and left the top open for the picture. The children put their name "teeny tiny" on the bottom so they know who did what page but not big enough that it messes with the flow of the book. (on of my students suggested this last year).

I hope this helps and feel free to ask anything. I hope everyone tries them they are a great tool for assessment and a wonderful confidence booster.

After years of doing class made books, I finally got smart and ran the pages through our copier that also 3-hole punches. After the students write their individual page and date it, I collect them alphabetically and put the pages in a 1 inch binder with a clear front pocket (for a title cover). At the end of the year, the pages are easily removed and sorted (because they are alphabetized) and I put them in a construction paper folder - "My Book of Books" -to send home as a keepsake. It's neat to see the progress each child makes from the beginning, to end of the year.

[JulieP]

You could do an alphabet book.
I also recently attended a workshop, and the presenter said she had her kids create their own stories. When the stories were ready to be published, she would sit with each kid, write the story how they wanted it (which sentences on each page), then the student would illustrate. On the back page, she would paste a record sheet, and the books would go into the class library. Students could take each other's books home, and then sign the back record sheet, and leave comments.

To create the books, she would cut copy paper in half. The other teahcer said he did the same thing, but his school had boxes and boxes of the old printer paper that has the holes on the side for the dot matrix. He uses it up.

Also rhyming books. Create one for each word family and let the kids write their own poems. The presenter also did this with her class, but then she also created several poems with the class, and she would bind that as the "class" book, since everyone got to participate in each poem.

[SaraFirst]

Wow! Thanks for all the great ideas. I am excited to try many of them out.