Memory Books

One of the parents (RD) on one of the last days had called these a "yearbook," 

 and I thought it was a perfect name for these memory books.  They really are yearbooks, and thinking on it, the children probably would have loved passing them around to their friends and signing their names.

Back in May we did bubble painting on a heavy watercolor paper.  It was a fun experiment and had a beautiful result, here is the link to that project in case you missed it: http://www.artandsoulpreschool.blogspot.com/2013/04/being-blown-away.html

The children then used these painting as the cover for their memory books.

Some who missed that project painted their backgrounds

I printed out 10-12 pictures of each child over the year, there were so many to pick from it was hard to narrow it down.  They looked through their pictures and began to tell stories about their memories of the pictures, what their favorite experiments and projects were, and laughed and commented on pictures of themselves with friends.  I asked them to pick their favorite for the covers, and  I was surprised to see the photos they chose as the one they wanted to feature on the cover.

After they chose their cover picture, they then got to work gluing in the rest of their pictures. Their papers were not yet stapled together, next time I think I would do that first.  I had wanted them to sew the papers in as we have done in the past, but we were running short on time. I learned my lesson; papers, photos and glue were going everywhere, it was a whirlwind, but even in the chaos of it all you could tell the kids were loving being present with all these photos and memories. The pictures really honored their experiences throughout the year, and them as individuals.

After the pictures were glued in, the children spent several days drawing in their books and

spending some more time with the pictures.  Many of the drawings featured parents and siblings.  

 When they began to run out of ideas of what they would like to draw in their books, they were asked if they would like to do a drawing of some of the pictures in the book.  This idea was met with much enthusiasm and once again they blew me away with their renderings of the photographs.

I love these two different takes on the same picture.

They are such a fun book to have and save for when they are older.  I believe that through this process of revisiting the pictures, talking about the experiences in the pictures, drawing the moments captured, and later looking at the books will really solidify a memory of childhood for them for the future.

Book Making

Handmade Books

One of our projects over the summer was to make books.

The children's started by collaging a heavy card stock piece of paper

After the children collaged their covers, they bound their books together by sewing in their pages

(Note: we practice sewing a couple times before this using plastic forms with holes and soft plastic sewing needles.)

After the they sewed their pages together they started drawing in their books right away

On Another day we took pictures of the children arriving at school with their parents.

These we glued into the books and they drew pictures of the photographs of them with their parents

I just love these early renderings of people

On yet another day we added more pictures, these pictures were of the children drawing the pictures of their parents and sewing the books. It was a great documentation book for the kids, because from start to finish, this project captured what they do at school and the wonderful thing was that within the books we wrote down their reactions, so the books told a little story as well.