EDITABLE End of Year First Grade Memory Books

End of the year... you made it. Almost! There is still time for learning and teaching, and for fun. This resource allows you to combine it all in one project that can be done here and there throughout the final week to 2 weeks of school. This EDITABLE First Grade End of the Year Memory Book is the perfect end of school activity to easily keep your students learning, thinking, working, and enjoying those last days of school while also preserving your sanity and your status as a teacher of integrity because you haven't thrown in the towel on meaningful learning experiences. Keep your students writing, drawing and reminiscing about their wonderful 1st Grade year by creating a special memento that recalls all those amazing moments from September through June in one fabulous paper bag Memory Book full of their sweet pictures, best writing, and fond memories!

With this resource, you engage your students in discussions around friendships formed, skills/learning outcomes mastered, field trips enjoyed, and "favorites" from this time of their life. They write a portion of their Memory Book for each of these things and illustrate pages accordingly. They even have a 2 page spread just for collecting class autographs! The best part? This book is created using paper lunch bags- it is a novel and fun technique that leaves the kids intrigued and engaged. It creates pockets for some pages of their books which is exciting and new and very cool :). To top it off, I promise your students' families will treasure this little project as well- it is an activity that melts their hearts as well!

What's Included:

- Full, clear teacher directions for printing, copying, and organizing the Memory Book creation process

- Full, clear directions AND photographs for making the paper bag books and for the order of gluing in the pages once the kids have completed their work (I do recommend that you make one sample book so the kids can see where to glue everything!)

-14 slides (see descriptions below) that result in 13 Memory Book pages for your students (for sample images, please view the PDF preview) + 1 front cover + 1 back cover

* 6 Memory Book Cover options- 3 different girl clipart, 3 different boy clipart... all cover options are EDITABLE for the date so you can enter the current school year and reuse this resource year after year

* a My Self Portrait page for students to draw their self-portrait

* 2 "My Favorites" pages, listing favorite things in the students life right now (TV show, book, food, color, game, toy, school subject, school special)

* 2 pages about a new friend: one where students draw themselves with a new friend they have made this year and one where they write their new friend's name and write about something they enjoy doing with this new friend.

* 3 field trip pages: one where they list the field trips that they have gone on this year (this page is EDITABLE- you enter in the number in the "I have gone on ____ field trips this year" title section and you can enter lines and/or bullets/numbers in the field below so kids can list the venues of the trips); one where students write the name of their favorite trip and write why it was their favorite and a third where they draw a picture of themselves on this favorite trip.

* 2 pages showing growth over the year: "In September I could not _______" and "Now I can ________."

* 2 Autograph pages

* 1 "A Note From _____" page that is meant to be a note from you to put in their book- this is also EDITABLE. You can type your name into the space after the word from and you have the option of either printing the page and handwriting your note or typing your note in the text field and printing it out.

* A back cover/coloring page that says "Ready for Second Grade!"

Materials Needed:

1) Paper lunch bags (standard size 5 1/8” x 3 1/8” x 10 5/8”- larger size will also work, but the book pages are sized to fit the standard size listed here). You will need 3 bags/student. Plus, I recommend making a sample book- you don’t need to color and complete the pages, but just glue the pages in where they belong so kids can see the order of everything. I found this to be helpful with my class.

2) Washi tape or ribbon (NOT REQUIRED, but placing a small piece on the right hand side of the pages that go in the pockets of the book makes for a fun way to “flag” these pages and pull them out if you are up for it. It doesn’t add too much of an expense or too much time, but it is totally something that could be skipped if you are just “over it” this time of year! I have done both over the years and Washi tape is WAY easier than stapling ribbon on. Either way, you need about 2 inches per page per child. There are 3 pocket pages per book, so you need about 6 inches per child.

3) Typical classroom items: stapler (for you), paper cutter (for you) glue sticks, crayons, pencils

4) One page of the book is meant to be a photo of the child. I would have these ready in advance- printed and cut to size (4.5”x4.5”). I give some suggestions in the resources.

5) I think paper clips and baskets make organizing this project easier, but not necessary!

Standards Addressed:

1W1: Write an opinion on a topic or personal experience; give two or more reasons to support that opinion.

1W2: Write an informative/explanatory text to introduce a topic, supplying some facts to develop points, and provide some sense of closure.

1W3: Write narratives which recount real or imagined experiences or events or a short sequence of events.

1W4: Create a response to a text, author, theme or personal experience

1W7: Recall and represent relevant information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question in a variety of ways.

As always, thank you for considering this product. I wish you all the best with the end of your year. If you are looking ahead to starting off next year strong with best practices in writing, check out this First Grade Writing Portfolio!