Monday, September 24, 2012

{Playing Through Autumn Day 12} Mama-Made Books for Fall

I have always loved creating teacher-made books for my students, and now that I'm a mama, I'm bringing that love home for my own little one. This year I'm really excited about the way they turned out, and the fact that L really likes them. They do take a little time to make, but it is totally worth it if that's the sort of thing that you enjoy.


The first one I made is a take on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? but in this case it's Autumn, Autumn, What Do You See? This is kind of great because thanks to Bill Martin, Jr. I don't even have to come up with my own rhyme scheme and I get to incorporate lots of photos and vocabulary concerning fall. 

To make this book, I simply divided fall-colored sheets of construction paper in half to create the pages for the book. Then I found photos on the internet of various fall items (leaf, pumpkin, scarecrow, acorns, etc.), printed them, and used doubled-sided tape to mount them onto the front side of each page.

Next I typed up the rhyme and put it on the back page of the corresponding photo, like so:



This book can really be as long or as short as you'd like, and incorporate anything relating to autumn within the rhyme. Mine ended up being about ten items.

Finally, I sent the sheet through a laminator (thankfully, a friend has one that she lets me use!), punched holes down the side, and used binder rings to create the finished product. Thanks to the lamination, it's nice and sturdy and I'm really not too concerned about it getting torn up.

L absolutely loves this book! She knows how to anticipate the rhyme and matching picture, thanks to all the times we've read Brown Bear. I also love it because it has made her really aware of the things we see everywhere we go during the fall: scarecrows, Indian corn, and the like. 

The second book I made this year is a songbook filled with songs about autumn and corresponding photographs. I made this one in much the same manner as the one above, although this one was slightly easier. I went through old resource files and preschool websites looking for lots of songs about autumn. I picked my ten favorite, found photos that illustrated some aspect of the song, and used them to create a book.


For the songbook, I used half sheets of construction paper as before, with the photo on one side, and the corresponding song on the back.


There are so many websites out there full of great seasonal songs for kids. I just googled something like "autumn songs for kids" and ended up finding a lot of really great stuff. Now L has even more photographs at her fingertips of autumn goodness, and she gets to learn a ton of new songs to boot! These are also great for a classroom setting (I have several at school) and you can make them for just about anything: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter, whatever you like.

Mommy-made materials are loads of fun! Do you have anything to share? I'd love to hear all about it!

3 comments:

  1. How sweet. They can save those and use them for their kids. Thanks for linking to tip-toe thru tuesday.

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  2. love this idea! we've made a few books too... but none like this! well done. thanks again for linking up to tip-toe! (i see my co-host made it here too)

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  3. Love the idea of making your own special book like this. It reminds me of the book I used to make with my grandma when I was little.

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