Classroom Books

I believe in the importance of classroom books, as they allow students some ownership over their classroom and learning. With a class book, students can go back and look at their own work and ideas as well as that of their classmates. There are two books in particular, that I'd like to talk about in this post, because the fist fosters problem solving in children and the second is all about respect.

One book that I like to make every year is a classroom Yellow Pages. The Yellow Pages is a reference book for children, and an attempt at helping them to solve certain problems they might encounter in daily life.

Can't tie your shoe laces?

Look in the yellow pages.

Need some ideas for how to solve a math problem?

Check the yellow pages.

Looking for a friend to play with?

Ect.

Now of course students are self-reporting, so sometimes they are not actually experts in the fields they deign to be experts in, but have a chat with them before you do the activity and have them really think about what they are good at. EVERYONE is good at something, even if it is being a "caring friend" or "tying shoe laces" and no one is good at everything, and that is OK because everyone has strengths and weaknesses and we're all working together to become better learners and people.

I've done the yellow pages now with 4 different classes, and in every single instance ALL children raised their hand for "caring friend", which can be useful later in the year if you find that there are issues with how everyone is getting along. You can point out that all of them at the beginning of the year stated that they were a caring friend, but is what is going on in the classroom actually showing that?

Students will of course say (or should of course) say "no" which can be a springboard for lessons about how to be a good friend and how to show respect to others.

If you would like to make your own Yellow Pages, several templates can be found on http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/ and the one I use is here http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beginning-of-the-School-Year-The-Yellow-Pages-Student-Expert-Guide-277204

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The second book that I've made for the past two years, is Have you Filled a Bucket Today?. The one that was made this year was a comic book version. This book supports lessons about respect and how to treat others, which need to be drilled in early on in the year. This is another book that can be referred to later in the year if children are not showing respect to one another, as you can point out that very clearly they know what they should be doing to "Fill Another person's bucket" it's that they are choosing not to do so.

Create this book as a companion to the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by: Carol McCloud, which is an excellent book for explaining how positive and negative words and actions effect ourselves and others, in a way that children can understand (with invisible buckets).



Comic book templates can easily be found by searching google images for "comic book template"