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You are here: Home / Early Learning / Literacy / Bookmaking for a Preschool Family Theme

Bookmaking for a Preschool Family Theme

Shared by Mary Catherine 23 Comments

Welcome back to the #playfulpreschool fun! Last week, we all shared lessons for an apple theme. This week we’re focusing on a preschool family theme, so I thought I’d share a family bookmaking lesson.

Bookmaking for a Preschool Family Theme from Fun-A-Day

If you’re a regular reader of Fun-A-Day, it’s no surprise that I love making books with my students. It’s an incredibly meaningful way to teach a variety of concepts to young children:

  • We read and write left to right, and top to bottom.
  • What we can say, we can write. What we can write, we can read.
  • The concept of a word – a word goes from space to space.
  • Punctuation – a period tells us to stop at the end of a sentence.
  • The pictures/illustrations match the words.
  • High frequency words.
  • Letter-sound correspondence.

My school year just started, so I’m focusing on creating a preschool community in my classroom – a preschool “family”. Creating a book about the people in our class is just one part of this process. This lesson can easily be adapted for use at home, too. Simply focus on the different members of your family, rather than students in a class! Let’s get started:

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Decide who will be featured in the family book.
Since this book was meant for our preschool “family”, we chose to include everyone in the class. So all of the students have a page, and each teacher does, too!

Words and pictures for a bookmaking project for a preschool family theme

Gather photos of the family members or students for the book.
On the first day of school, I took photos of each of the children. I use their pictures in tons of activities, so I like to have that first day picture. For this book, I just printed out pictures of the kids using my home printer. You can also get real photos printed at a local store.

Write a simple sentence to go along with each person’s photo.
I think including full sentences, rather than just one word, when making books is important. It helps with language development, word recognition, etc. For our book, I chose to use “I see (insert name).” A variety of other simple sentences would work, too – “Here is (name).” “This is (name).” “(Name) is in my family.” I wrote the sentences on strips of blank white paper, saying the words as I wrote them.

mixing up the words for a preschool family theme book

Have the child add the words to a piece of paper.
I cut the sentence apart by word, saying each word as I did so. After that, I encouraged the child to reassemble the sentence. I helped out as needed, of course! Then each kiddo glued the words on his own page.

Glue the appropriate pictures onto the page.
A great time to sneak in a comment about how the pictures match the words in books. I usually do this by grabbing the wrong picture and placing it on the child’s page. I usually get a giggle in response, along with, “No! That’s not me!”

This page of the preschool family theme book is ready to go!

Go back and reread the sentence.
Easy peasy. Point to each word, encouraging the child to read along with you!

Repeat for each family member or student.
Keep creating pages for the family book until it’s done!

Bookmaking for a preschool family theme

Put the papers together into a book!
I laminated the pages of my class family book, then used my binding machine to put it all together.

Read! Read! Read!
We’ll read our book together multiple times, then it will go into our reading center. I find books we’ve made together are read over and over and over again throughout the year. 🙂

Have you ever created a book with your children or your students? What did they enjoy the most about the experience?

I keep my preschool family theme ideas in my All About Me Pinterest board. Pop on over for some more ideas!

Follow Mary Catherine @ Fun-A-Day!’s board {Theme} ALL ABOUT ME on Pinterest.

Below are other activities and ideas for a preschool family theme from the rest of the #playfulpreschool team!

Plan your Family Theme Preschool Activities with these ideas from the Playful Preschool Education Team!

Family Theme Learning Activities: Reading – Writing – Cooking – Sensory – Art – Math


Bookmaking for a Preschool Family Theme from Fun A Day
Finding My Family on a Map from Powerful Mothering
Preschool Writing Activity: Letters to Family from Mom Inspired Life
Cooking with Kids: Family Recipe Books from Growing Book By Book
Our Family Tree: Sorting Family Members from Still Playing School
Family Themed Sensory Bin from Little Bins for Little Hands
Tips for Using Skype to Connect with Family from The Educators’ Spin On It
Family Portraits from Rainy Day Mum
Family Counting from Tiny Tots Adventures
Jamaican Games for Fine and Gross Motor Skills from Learning 2 Walk
Family Footprints from Capri +3

Filed Under: Literacy Tagged With: #playfulpreschool, #TeachECE, Book Making

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  1. Cerys from Rainy Day Mum says

    September 10, 2014 at 4:28 am

    This is such a fabulous idea – I will be doing this with our family for our preschool at home part of the week. The inclusion of the phrases is such a fabulous idea and means that my older child will be able to help my preschooler as well.

    Reply
  2. Amanda says

    September 10, 2014 at 6:00 am

    This is an amazing idea to help make family connections will building literacy skills.

    Reply
  3. Devany says

    September 10, 2014 at 8:00 am

    I LOVE this idea!

    Reply
  4. Natasha says

    September 10, 2014 at 9:10 am

    We made a summer book last year of allcthe fun we had. We are going to put snother one for tge end of fall. They are great reflection tools.

    Reply
  5. Sarah says

    September 10, 2014 at 9:38 am

    Excellent idea! I can’t wait to try this so we can practice our sight words too!

    Reply
  6. Theresa says

    September 10, 2014 at 10:22 am

    I love that you added a sentence structure educational activity to go along with the book making experience. What a great idea!

    Reply
  7. Danielle says

    September 10, 2014 at 1:11 pm

    I LOVE the book. I especially like how you made the sentences, broke them apart and then had them put them back together. I so want to do this now!

    Reply
  8. Jodie @ Growing Book by Book says

    September 10, 2014 at 2:40 pm

    I love the idea of having the words on individual pieces of paper so that the child can manipulate the words. We love making books together as a family!

    Reply
  9. The Preschool Toolbox says

    September 12, 2014 at 12:39 am

    This is such a great activity for a FAMILY theme! Our kids love making their own books (as well as class books)! Nice post!

    Reply
  10. Kim says

    September 13, 2014 at 8:58 am

    I LOVE this idea! This would be great for little ones (like mine) who have problems recognizing people and their names. I NEED to make this for our family!

    Reply

Trackbacks

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  3. Finding My Family on a Map says:
    September 10, 2014 at 7:50 am

    […] Bookmaking for a Preschool Family Theme from Fun A Day Preschool Writing Activity: Letters to Family from Mom Inspired Life Cooking with Kids: Family Recipe Books from Growing Book By Book Our Family Tree: Sorting Family Members from Still Playing School Family Themed Sensory Bin from Little Bins for Little Hands Tips for Using Skype to Connect with Family from The Educators’ Spin On It Family Portraits from Rainy Day Mum Family Counting from Tiny Tots Adventures Jamaican Games for Fine and Gross Motor Skills from Learning 2 Walk Family Footprints from Capri +3 […]

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  4. Preschool Writing Activity: Letters to Family #PlayfulPreschool - Mom Inspired Life says:
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    […] Activities: Reading – Writing – Cooking – Sensory – Art – Math Bookmaking for a Preschool Family Theme from Fun A Day Finding My Family on a Map from Powerful Mothering Preschool Writing Activity: […]

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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

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