Track your child's achievements with a scrapbook that celebrates every success.
It’s always a challenge to collect and store your child’s academic "keepsakes"—all the drawings, worksheets and fragile crafts. When I was little my mom stored them in a big manila envelope or shoebox in the basement. Reflecting on it now makes me think, what kind of message do we send our children if we don't celebrate their academic achievements?
As the calendar year comes to a close, help your child create a year-end scrapbook—a keepsake that demonstrates their writing and creative skills, and documents something important to them. Scrapbooking can serve as a motivational tool that will enhance their individual learning abilities.
In my class we do an academic scrapbooking project we call Adventure Journal. The Adventure Journal chronicles the travels of our classroom mascot, Hootie the Owl. Each child gets to take Hootie home for one week. During their week with Hootie, the student records a few pages in the Adventure Journal describing all the fun things they do together.
Hootie’s adventures give the children a subject to focus on; the scrapbook allows them to be creative in how they express themselves. Brainstorm a few ideas for your scrapbook project. Your child might choose a favorite toy, a good friend or a sport they participated in this year.
Materials needed:
Here are just some of the skills your child will be engaged in while scrapbooking: