When looking for end of the year activities, make the experience special for both students and parents with these memory books for upper elementary classes.
Do you hear that? Listen carefully!
That is the sound of thousands of mothers wailing at once, but why are they crying?
Well, it’s graduation time.
Although it may be hard to believe, we have once again entered the time of the year when the seniors in our school districts have only two things on their minds, Prom and Graduation. And in preparation, their parents have started going through old baby photos and preschool crafts and they are all crying as they remember their babies as well…babies.
Those parents have kept ALL THE THINGS. They have those little handprint camels where the thumb makes up the camel’s head and the pinky is it’s tail. They have the macaroni crafts and pictures of the little boy’s arm slung around the shoulder of his best friends as they hold up the snake they found in the yard. They have the first story their child wrote in kindergarten, and the ‘I luve yu’ notes from Mother’s Day.
As I reflect on these tear-stained memories that parents and seniors will be weeping over the next couple of months, I think about the important role that we as elementary teachers play in these precious times.
We helped students create that Mother’s Day note, and we taught students how to write so that story about the happy tree could be written. Of course, it was our late-night Pinterest escapades that led to the idea that helped create that camel and that macaroni art. Teachers play a major role in creating those memories that keep the kleenex companies in business as graduation nears!
The Importance of Memory Books in Upper Elementary
As kids get older, we stop sending things home to parents. We don’t send home daily writing samples or the pictures they doodled during math block. As parents go through those files of old crafts and samples, the memories start to get lost as students grow out of cute finger paintings and letter art. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still help our students remember their year as 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders fondly and have something to look back on as they get older.
That is why I created my Memory Books for students. I wanted them to thoroughly reflect on their year. These Memory Books encourage students to consider the many things that happened to them throughout the year that made this particular school year special.
Memory Book Pages
Although some of them vary a bit based on whether they were created for digital learning or in-person learning, many of the Memory Books in the Fun in 5th Grade store have some or all of the following pages.
- The Basics
- My Faves
- Favorite Books
- My Favorite Things…(about each subject)
- My Teacher
- My Friends
- Things I’ve Accomplished This Year
- Life Goals
- Setting Goals
- Random Facts
- Time Capsule
- Funniest Moments
- Favorite Memories of This Year
- Favorite Field Trip Memories
- Class Photo
- My Classmates
- Autographs
- Phone Numbers
Each memory book is easily adjustable, so you can keep or take out any pages you want, and the digital ones allow students to type and add pictures through Google Drive or PowerPoint.
By taking time to reflect and remember their year, students are getting a chance to look back on the moments that made this year special and different from others.
With all of the craziness that the early part of this decade brought to schools, these memory books will remind them of what they were still able to accomplish even in a year of unknowns, and they will be able to set goals for what they want to achieve in the future.
Consider creating your own memory books in your class or you can check out all of our different versions here. We have several different themes and all of them have cover sheets for multiple elementary grade levels. We even have Digital Memory Books!
Remember, that the end of the year doesn’t have to be all work and testing. Take the time to have fun with students and reflect on the year, and help a parent out by giving them a way to remember these upper elementary years fondly. In just around 8 years, your students’ parents will thank you for the memories. Find more end-of-the-year ideas in this post.
