Make This Class Book!

My friend, Barbara Maio, helped her students create a class Big Book

based on the text of my book, Who Can Go to School?

Click here to read!

Who Can Go to School?

First, the students brainstormed a long list of things children can do at school and at home too. The list included classroom jobs and learning activities. Then each child created two pages for the class book.    

Other pages included these innovations to the text of the book above:

Can a giraffe play at recess?

No, but Josue can play at recess.

Can an elephant pass out paper?

No, but Max can pass out paper.

Can a hippo write in a journal?

No, but Kaila can write in a journal.

Bookmaking with K-1 Kids, Part 3 * Practice reading the books before sending them home.

Never send student-made books home unless children can read them with 99% accuracy. Here are some ways to practice reading the text:

* Place the little books in students' book boxes for independent reading time.

* Pocket chart or Smart Board Activities

* Create a Big Book version for shared reading.

*Buddy reading

* Record the stories for a listening center.

Here's my version of that iconic 1st grade story, "The Little Red Hen." Make sure you check out an acompanying book-making activity with free down-loadables. Also fits well with the tale, "Stone Soup."

Click Here to Read!

Little Red Hen Makes Soup

Hints: Staple a snack size zip-loc bag to the book cover. Add the manipulative pieces along with a plastic soup with a small stone glued inside it. The spoon can be used as a reading pointer and to "stir up" the ingredients as they are added to the "pot."

Click image to download this reproducible.

This book-making activity is from by resource book below, check it out on the Amazon link!

Amazon link

Where to Get Appropriate Text for K-1 Bookmaking

* Innovations of shared reading material.
* Reproducible emergent readers from resource books
*Traditional poems, songs, rhymes, and chants
* Adaptations of emergent readers
* Download free books from the internet.

For your book-making pleasure, here is a great idea for a class book based on my book below, What Goes Together?

 

Click here to read

What goes together?

June Swinney, a 1st grade teacher, made this class book with her students. First she read aloud several books with the theme of catagories or things that go together. Then the class brainstormed a long long list of paired objects. From that list they created rhyming couplets. Pairs of students created and illustrated each page of the class Big Book. Adorable!

When is a Good Time to Make Books with K-1 Kids?

When is a Good Time

to Make Books

with K-1 Kids?  

Finding time to make books with your beginning readers can be a challenge.

Here are some good times to keep in mind:

•  As a learning center activity
•  Homework
• When parent volunteers are available (Coordinate this with center time.)
•  Time with upper grade buddies

If you have other suggestions for how to find time for book-making,

please let me know and I"ll post your ideas!

Here is one of my favorite Cat and Dog books,

with a cool book-making activity that you can download for free. This fun book fits with a social studies theme of "needs vs. wants."

Click here to read!

Good Choices for Cat and Dog

Book Making!

                                            

Click the images above to download!

                    

Why Make Books with K-1 Kids?

Here some great reasons to use valuable school time making books:

• Supply extra reading at school. Beginning readers needs lots and lots of easy to read books to practice reading and rereading.
• Integrate reading in the content areas. There are many book-making resources that feature science, social studies, and math themes.
• Practice reading sight words in context.
• Create a supply of reading material for home. After spending some time in the students' book boxes at school, you can send the books home for extra practice. Many K-1 teachers make a home book box at Back to School night and emphasize that the books sent home be placed in the box for home reading.
• Extend reading practice beyond the school day and through summer vacation. This is a great way to avoid "summer fall-out!"

Below, you can download a fun book-making activity that goes with this Itty Bitty Phonics Reader.

Click here to read the book about bear



What Is in Bear's Box?

You can copy the bear shape on colored card stock and stick on wiggly eyes, bows, hat, etc. This book practices initial consonant /b/. You can invite your child to glue items to each page such as a button, bow, bean, etc.

 

Click image to download

this reproducible.

My next blog: When is a good time to make books?

Bookmaking with K-1 Kids

Welcome to one of my favorite topics--making books with beginning readers. In my next series of blog postings, I will be sharing my ideas on the Whats, Whys, Hows, and Whens of making take-home books with children just learning to read and write. I'll be sharing my creative ideas, some free-downloadables, as well as linking you up with some valuable resources.

But to start you off, here are 2 fun and easy books to download.

For the book "Bugs," children  just color the pages to match the text and complete page 4 with a color word and matching bug. Then cut the 4 pages apart, and staple them together with a fun cover made from construction paper or card stock. I used to bug stickers to decorate the cover, but having kids draw and color their own would be better yet.

 

Download

Here is a simple "flip' book. Cut out the top strip and glue it to a piece of construction paper. Then cut out the color words/pictures and staple them as shown. Children repeat reading "I see . . . " and flip the pages to read different color words.

Download

The power of a good book!