End of the Year

End of the Year

I can not believe it already myself.  The end of the year is fast approaching.  How does that happen every year?  

This time of year can be difficult teaching teens.  It starts to get nice out.  REALLY nice out and they no longer want to be inside.  There are end of the year school trips and graduations to plan and prepare for. Busy is the understatement.

In years past I have printed out and given my students a little memory book to complete. It was free on teachers pay teachers.  Students would fill in the preplanned boxes, staple it together and save it.  

NOT my most insightful idea for the end of the year. I want something for the students to create to be able to reflect on their year. I want students to have something to look at during the summer if they wanted to.  I wanted students to be able to show their own personality in their creation.

I love utilising tech devices and I could have developed something using the ipad however at this time of year it is difficult to access those resources as we share in the school building.  Frustrating!

Plus let's be honest with each other there are so many times when you just have a few minutes this time of year.  Fifteen minutes after an assembly or thirty minutes after track and field.  So....I had an idea.  

Students could create SMASH BOOKS!  

The name sounds really fun doesn't it?  

What is a smash book?

A smash book is a way to capture memories.  It is a memory book that is full of photos, memorabilia, journals and mementos.  It is a place to SMASH all your ideas together. What a perfect way to end the year.....by SMASHING all the year memories together.  

What you need:

I used the composition notebooks found at the Dollar Tree. 

Pencil crayons & Pens

Washi Tape ( different coloured tape ). I found pkg of three at the Dollar Tree.

I began by taping the edges.  I felt that one page was not strong enough and so I taped four pages together using the Washi Tape.

Pages all taped.

I also glued some of my favourite paper on the cover. Student can get very creative decorating their cover as well.

When I have the students create something in the classroom, I usually try to have my own copy ready. It honestly inspires students to see an example and motivates some of them.

Here is an example of my first page called, "This is me".  I included a picture of my wedding day, some doodling and some quotes around the outside.  I coloured the background in with pencil crayon.  I am proud of this page.  

With the composition notebook the pages are a little bit smaller so there is not as much to fill.  I used washi tape to hold the picture on as well.  My daughter who is in grade two saw me creating and decided to create one for herself as well.  Here is an example of one of her pages.

The biggest problem as I had...what do I do on the pages. I decided to create a list of page ideas to help me and help my students.was to come up with a list of ideas for my pages.  I have created a list of page ideas to help my students get kick started.  Click on the link  to take you to my Teachers Pay Teachers site for your copy. 

 I hope this idea works in your classroom.