I am one of Sherry’s biggest fans; I was not born with the crafty gene, as I like to call it. So I often need suggestions to help me out. Recently, my daughter and I started a new project recently that she wants to give to her Pre-K 4 teacher as a gift when her preschool class ends this May.
We took the idea from her creative imaginings. We took several pieces of sturdy construction paper. She drew a cover sheet and a back sheet. Then carefully wrote down the name of her book: Cassidy loves Mrs. Kathey.
Once she had those, as she liked them, we confiscated some of my printer paper. Using crayons, glue, construction paper and photographs. Cassidy is constructing a ‘storybook.’ Each page tells the story of some event they did in her pre-k class over the last year.
So far we have 20 pages. Some pages are decorated with large block letters and pictures cut from magazines that have the same letter sounds. This was the type of homework she got. Some pages are decorated with pictures of the outfit she wore for the Christmas play and the words to the songs she sang underneath.
She has a picture of her in her dance outfit and she wrote Wednesday on the page – because every Wednesday her teacher gets her ready for dance class. She has a page with pictures of Disney World and her, because our trip there was during October of her Pre-K year. The next page has postcards clipped up and glued down. She even sounded out: I wish you came with me.
The spelling is not perfect. The penmanship isn’t ideal. Some of her cutouts are uneven and there’s more than one extra splotch of glue or color in an area. But Cassidy loves working on this book. She cannot wait to give it to her teacher at the end of the year.
This is truly a project that is the product of both of us. I thought making up her own book would be fun. She wanted to make it a gift and a scrapbook as well as a storybook. So hats off to Sherry for the ideas that inspired us in this one! Keep ‘em coming.
If you want to build your own book with your child you just need:
- Construction Paper
- Printer Paper or plain paper
- Hole Punch
- Magazines
- Scissors
- Glue Stick
- Markers or Crayons or both
- Some yarn to bind it at the end