All About Me Book Ideas Using Show and Tell Throughout the School Year
Using Show and Tell to Create Memory Books
This is part of a series on show and tell for the classroom. Here, we take the monthly show and tell and turn it into a wonderful memory book for Kindergarteners to cherish for a lifetime.
Start the school year with a preview of show and tell by using “All About Me Bags.” Teachers give each student a brown paper lunch bag and ask the parent to have his or her student “fill” the bag with less than five items to share. This is a nice icebreaker and gets students talking.
As in the last article in the series, give the parents a guideline of what the students could bring. Ideas are, a baby picture, a family photo, their most favorite thing to do at home, a memory of what they did over the summer or in PreKindergarten, or a favorite book.
If possible, bring a photo of yourself when in Kindergarten to class and/or your first report card. Share how starting school can make a student feel uneasy and anything you remember about your first day of Kindergarten. Recollect the day in a story to model how the students can also tell a story.
Next, choose a few students to talk about what they brought in their brown paper bags, thus setting the tone for show and tell. This lesson also lends itself nicely to learning about classmates, and more specifically, learning classmate’s names. This is how we begin our journey through Kindergarten.
Making the Memory Book
To document the journey through Kindergarten, beginning with the All About Me bags, be sure to have notepaper or index cards (see below) and a camera ready. As each student is talking about the contents of his or her “All About Me Bag,” record all of the words that the student spoke in a journal, date the entry and take a photograph. Do this once a month as the student has a turn at show and tell.
At the end of the school year, a recorded history for each student, to include in a memory book has been created. Students will be surprised at how much they have grown, and matured, over 10 months.
Bind the notes or index cards together. This is easily done with a hole-punch and ribbon. Entitle the memory book, All About Me.
In summary you will need:
Decorative Notepaper or Index cards (these also come in colors)
Camera
Hole-punch
Ribbon
Card-stock for the book cover- optional
Putting the books together will be a cinch and you will have a wonderful gift to give to the students.
References
- Article is written from teaching experience.
- Image courtesy of Amazon.com
This post is part of the series: Let’s Explore Show and Tell
In this series we take a closer look at show and tell and gain valuable insights from an experienced teacher.
