1-2-3 Come Make A Memory Booklet With Me!

Since I truly enjoy designing stuff, I like to give all sorts of options to my visitors.  Because the Memory Books I've created have been such popular downloads, I thought I'd putz with some more memory-making activities. 

I wanted to come up with something a little less involved for teachers who are in a time-crunch, so I used my "flip for facts file folder" idea and designed something that would be perfect for a mini memory booklet. 

I call it "These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things..." and even included the first musical bar from the sheet music, for that finishing touch on the template.

I've included templates for preschool through fifth grade, plus a blank one to fill in with whatever.  Make a sample to share with your students to help explain what you want them to do. 

To save you time, I've included the inside page that I dreamed up, if you want to use it.  To expedite things, especially for little ones, pre-cut the folders, so that the templates fit nicely on the page.

A room helper can assist little ones, or send the page home for parents to work one-on-one with their child to fill in and then send back to assemble.

Students glue the "These are a few of my favorite things..." page to the front and then cut on the lines so that each of the 9 sections flip open to reveal their answers. 

To add a bit more pizzazz, have students choose a different colored marker/pencil to write each answer.   Adding a school photo at the top adds the finishing touch. 

I've included an autograph template that students can glue on the back.  If you're really pressed for time, have everyone sign one paper and then run off a copy for everybody.  (This way you can easily get signatures from the principal, secretaries, librarian etc.)

Click on the link to view/download the Memories Flip Folder.  

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  My "Pin it" button is at the top. I hope that the last few weeks with your kiddos are especially memorable, and that in some small way I helped make things less hectic for you.

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." -Henry Miller

A little bit different twist to the "Bucket List" activity in the first article, is to use a beach ball instead of a sand pail.  Run off my master and have students fill in the writing prompt: "I'm going to have a ball this summer doing..."

Children have the option of writing their list on the balls and then coloring them, or cutting out brightly colored pieces of construction paper and gluing them to the beach ball like a puzzle and then writing on them.

The easiest way for them to do this, is to give them two copies of the white beach ball and three 5x7 sheets of 3 different colors of construction paper of their choice.

One of the white beach balls will be their template, the other one they will lay on top of a piece of construction paper and cut out the desired colored piece and then glue it to the white template.

After they have glued all of their pieces down, they write their prompt: "I'm going to have a ball..." and then cut out their beach ball.  Students write their name in a pretty colored marker around the small circle on the ball.

Put royal blue paper on your bulletin board, gently scrunch up some light blue tissue paper and arrange it in long rows to look like waves and then staple it across the board.

Tuck the beach balls in and on top of the waves.  Purchase 3 beach balls at The Dollar store, blow them up and suspend them with fish line from the ceiling.

Write: Having A / Ball This / Summer! on 3 different index cards.  Use a thick black magic marker.  Put scotch tape on the back of the index cards and stick them to the beach balls.

If the balls spin around so that you can't read them, make another set of cards for the backs of the balls.

If you want to do the pail as well as the beach ball, then have the beach ball be about friends they are going to do things with.

To add to the fun, and to get some gross motor and verbal acuity activities in as well, toss around a real beach ball. 

The student who catches it shares what they will do this summer.  When they catch the ball have students write their name on it with permanent marker.

After everyone has had a turn, pull a student's name out of a basket of names.  That student wins the beach ball!

Click on the link to view/download Summer Fun Writing Packet

Scroll down for yet another summer writing prompt: Having A Whale Of A Good Time...