Ideas for Writing a Class Book About Things Learned in Second Grade

Let your second-graders show their stuff by making a class book.

As your current school year draws to a close, encourage your second-grade students to engage in reflection by guiding them through the creation of a class book. By dedicating themselves to producing a class book recounting the things they learned throughout the year, students can join their peers in thinking back on how far they have come. This task not only helps students realize how much work they have completed during the course of the year, it also leaves them with tangible evidence of their academic success in the second grade.

Photo Essay

Make your book a photo-filled one by following a photo essay format. If you plan at the beginning of the year to accomplish this, take care to snap photos of students engaged in learning throughout the year. If this idea strikes at year's end, gather whatever images you can of students learning. Give students digital copies of these images, and ask them to use them to create a class book, placing them in chronological order and writing captions to detail what each image shows.

ABC Book

Give your book a definite, and decidedly scholastic, theme by creating an ABC book with your students. Begin by dividing your students into groups of four or five. Divide the letters of the alphabet into however many groups you have created, assigning each group a chunk. Ask the students to design one page for each of their assigned alphabet letters, placing a thing that they learned that begins with that letter on the page and drawing pictures to illustrate it. After all groups complete their pages, put them in order and bind them to finish your book.

"Welcome to Room..."

Use the book your students create this year to welcome your new crop of pupils next year by creating a "Welcome to Room..." book. Tell your students that you will share the book they are making with your new students, and ask them to think about what they wish they had known at the start of the year. Encourage students to include tidbits of information they learned during the year, giving the incoming class a preview of what to expect. Allow each student to make one or two pages to contribute to the book. Before the next school year starts, create copies of this book and give one to each new student on the first day as a welcome-to-my-class gift.

My Favorite Lesson

Allow students to express their opinions in a "my favorite lesson" book. To create this book, ask each student to compose a page in which he introduces himself and explains what his favorite lesson of the school year was. Ask students to make their pages colorful and attention-getting. Bind the finished pages to create your second-grade class book.

References

• Teachers: Class Book Ideas
• CanTeach: Class Big Book Ideas