Making Big Books for The Classroom ~~~~ • I find making big books & coloring them a very relaxing thing to do (when ever we have time). If you are not artistic you can try many different ways that will give it that personal look: 1) find a coloring book that you like, photo copy and enlarge it then cut and paste the pictures together. There are many different ones dealing with childrens issues. 2) have a group of children draw the pictures for you, then enlarge them with you doing the writing (having the computer makes nice print giving that professional look) 3) when coloring them just color around the lines, do not fill in the whole picture i.e.: just color around the pants blue, and around the shirt red, this gives it completly different look. 4) use different shapes for the pages: - when I did a ghost story I made it the shape of a friendly ghost - when doing a story/poem about pockets make it the shape of a large pocket. 5) when you make your big book (if it is one that you will be coloring) make sure that you don't color the original, so when the copy gets a little ratty looking you can do another one, you can also use it for trading with others. 6) you can also purchase ready to color big books from different companies. • I do a big book exchange with other daycares. When we make one we photo copy about five and then trade them like children trade cards. •You could assign pages to your students to design? Or you could blow up pictures from patterns? •I have made big books with 3's and 4's......i let the kids "write" the stories.....we have had some pretty interesting ones...to say the least.....i would let them decide on the pictures too....what should be in the pic....what we should draw with..or should we use a camera...etc..... the kids ended up reading these books over and over...til they fell apart.....the parents adored them too and even asked to borrow them!!!!!. •Last year we xerox copied photographs to make a book. It was wonderful! Color xerox copies from photos are great quality (they looked as good as the originals!) and they can be copied into much larger sizes than the original photo. Best yet, if you have access to a camera, you don't have to worry about being "artistic". :-) The book we copied off was actually put together by one of our parents. The theme of the book was the making of honey. From about 12 photographs, she captured her father-in-law (the beekeeper) in all his steps in harvesting honey....from a picture of a bee on the flower to the final picture of him eating the honey on toast. It was precious. My point here is that I think this sort of idea--a progression type of study---is great for young children. Let them SEE the many steps to an end. OH! When we copied the book, I used my computer's print shop program to write the text. The print quality is consistent then and the book looked more professional. • I would also have the children help by decorating them. I have used three dimentional art projects as well as making pages by drawings. If you are making the books yourself, you could use computer art. •I make Big Books in my classroom all the time! For example: last week we made cookies, and I called the book "The Big Cookie Expiriment". Each page talked about the different things we did/tried. I added polaroids of the process, and drew pictures to go along with it. It is nice to have, because the kids can revisit their classroom experiences over and over again. Other big book ideas we have used: Nature walks (glue what you find onto the pages), find pictures in a magazine the correspond to your unit and have the children make up a story using the pictures, or have the book in the shape of something you are talking about (ex. the cookie book is in the shape of a circle with a bite cut out of the corner.) •We make a lot of big books in our class . We start out with a book all about me. I teach Pre-k so I try to let the children do all of the work... I just do the dictation. You could do books on My favorite thing to eat....to do. What I want to be when I grow up,My best dream... My worst dream...... My best friend and whay. All about my family... The ideas are endless... Let your kids give you ideas..... You could make a number book.... Alphabet book.....Creative art book....... Hope this helps.... •we have been making big books in our classrooms for the past few years. Most of our books are class made. Say for example we're doing all about me. The book could be pictures drawn or cut out by the children showing what they like to do, or what they like to eat. Anopther idea is starting a story and letting the children •Maybe you can involve your parent group. They can each take one home and illustrate it, color in the pictures, whatever works best for you. Good luck! I have already read some helpful suggestions from others! •For each theme You can cut out the shape if you want to them cut the pages to match. I make books with the children all the time. I would be on the theme or something the children are interested in. Here is how I do it. At circle time I read a book then the children and I talk about it then I will ask some openended questions. If you were the bear what would you do?, What foods do you like to eat?. I make up as many questions as I can and write them down then the children can draw their pictures on their papers and put them together and you have a book. Let the children do the work brainstorm with them the books will truly be theirs. •We make one big book a month with my class and the children look it and get better each time we do one. The books follow the theme working on at the time. I like to start with a song or chant or poem and work from there. On the computer I make up a sheet with the poem or chant on it and leave lines for the children to fill in the blank. Here are some examples. This is a chant that we do. Cathy eats pizza, pizza, pizza. Cathy eats pizza, All day long. Sam eats peaches, peaches, peaches. Sam eats peaches, All day long. When typing up the original on the computer type the orginal chant for you first and second page and then type up pages for the children to fill in by omitting the names Cathy and Sam and the things they like to eat. The children then draw a picture of what they like to eat. Do the sheets on 8 1/2 by 14 inch paper and then once the children fill them in glue them onto 12 by 18 inch sheets of construction paper. Add a title page and have the children fill in their names on the "written by" and "illustrated by" lines. I kept mine in the classroom all year long and the children read them over and over again. * Here is an idea that I am putting together tonight. Thought I would pass it on. The other kindergarten teacher in my building suggested it and it turned out great. The name of the book is: Happy Birthday to ... I grouped the children by months of their birthdays. All the January birthdays together. Then I took a picture of the group holding up the word January (I used some calendar headings--the other teacher made what looked like birthday presents with the months on each). I did that for each month. Months that had no birthday, I took a picture of just the name of the month. Pages read like this: January Happy Birthday to (picture here) Joey, Susie and Andrew. (whoever is in the picture) Months with no birthdays say the same except I put No one under the picture of the name of the month. I think the kids will enjoy taking this book home too.