End of Year Scrapbooks

Wow!  It has been a loooooong time since I've been on here.  It was just one of those years.  I felt beat down and defeated most days.  But it's over now and as I look back at the year I am better at only remembering the good parts.  That is what I love about pictures.  They help me remember that even when I feel like the year was a failure, there were good times. 

 

As a child both of my parents worked and couldn't come to many of my school events.  The families at my school are very much the same as what my family was like growing up.  So I understand that a lot of things are missed - mom and dad can't always come to the awards assemblies, class parties, etc.  So every year I give a gift to each student and hope their family loves it as well.  It takes me pretty much the entire last month of school to work on these.  But they help remind me (even on those really tough days because the kids were W-I-L-D) of all the fun and learning that we have had during the year. 

 

These little scrapbooks have gotten a lot better as the years have gone on.  I realized the more pictures, the better.  They pretty much speak for themselves so I'll post the pictures of one of the scrapbooks from this year.  I didn't put her name on this one for my blog...but the name goes on the front where the blank spot is.

 

These are actually really easy to make.  Just take two paper lunch bags still closed and flat.  Cut where the bottom rectangle is showing.  Then fold the two bags in half and staple.  Hot glue the openings on the outside bag to create the cover.  The inside bag has 4 'slots' to slide in the cardstock.  I can get 5 little pages out of one piece of cardstock.  Hot glue cute ribbon to the front of the book and ribbon tabs to each of the pull out pages.  Then add a million pictures and stickers.  These are pretty much my favorite thing about the end of the year.  They help give me closure and warm fuzzies at the same time.  And they give each student a year's worth of memories to keep forever. 

 

I have alumni come back and tell me that they still have their scrapbooks.  To me that means that for some kids, this is important.  I'll make these each year if it even makes one child feel special!