Hi. My name is Mona. I’m a first grade teacher in California
and absolutely love teaching first graders. First Grade Schoolhouse is the name of my blog. Blogging about
teaching ideas and sharing experiences with other teachers has been a FUN and
rewarding extension of teaching.
I love to read and I want my first graders to not only be
successful readers, but also enjoy reading. I want them to be lifelong readers.
I want to share one of the things I do to promote a love of
reading, and that’s with class books. I make class books throughout the year
with the students. The books go into our reading center to be read over and
over again. The books are quite worn by the end of the year, because they are
read so much. {And that’s what I love most about them – lots of rereading,
because the students enjoy reading them.}
Throughout the year, I have volunteers cut butcher paper
that is 24” by 12.” These are folded to make a 12” x 12” book page. I have
found this to be a good size, because the children like putting the books on
the carpet and reading them with a partner. I like having them prepared in
advance, so it’s easy to quickly put pages together to make a book.
I
put a folded paper spine on the side opposite the folded side of the book pages.
The spine is made from a 12” by 4” strip of butcher paper. I fold it lengthwise
in the middle and then fold each side to the middle. It reinforces the book. I
bind them with a binding machine using the combs pictured above. The books can
be prepared ahead of time and then writing and pictures added to them as
needed.
Here’s
a sample of a book cover for a class book I use at the beginning of the year
Many times I’ll have the children make the illustrations for
the book covers. They especially love creating art for the books. Don’t you
just love first grade art? I would suggest laminating the covers if you plan on
keeping them throughout the year.
I
use silhouettes of the students and when the book is opened, the silhouettes
face each other. It appears as though the two children are talking to each
other. The repetition is perfect for beginning first graders. They also quickly
learn to read each other’s names.
I do keep the class books in our reading center all year
long. At the end of the year, pages can be taken apart and given to students to
take home. Or, I raffle them off, and the winner gets to take the whole book
home. {They love the whole raffle idea.}
I also use binders and add pages to them. Here’s the one I
will be using when we get back to school from winter break.
Graphics by FancyDog Studio and Sarah Cooley
I use the binders that have a plastic cover in front, so I
can slip the book cover in. I will add the writing as students complete them. I
help students edit their writing and rewrite before adding it to the books.
Sometimes I type their stories before adding them to the binder.
This writing activity will be a fun one, especially since it
never snows where we live.
Thank you so much, Crystal, for having me as a guest blogger
today. I will be checking out the other teaching blogs that have joined the
link party. I hope you all will join me.
Thank you Mona, for guest blogging for me. I love what you are doing with your class books!
Be sure to head on over to Primary
Pointe where I will be guest blogging.
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