A Book About Me

I found this fun idea for a social studies activity for preschoolers here, and thought that making our own book fit nicely with our letter B theme. I didn't take the time the day we made this to pull up my computer to look up the exact page ideas used in the link, but I think I like ours better anyways. 

So let's gather our materials:

-sturdy paper (we used construction paper)

-stickers, yarn, misc. embellishments

-crayons

-glue

-small dollar store photo album (or you could just use a stapler and staple your pages together)

I started by cutting out blank pages from a variety of colors of paper, though plain white would have worked as well. I used a marker to write the words on each page (and make simple drawings on a few, you'll see what I mean), then showed him how to complete the details on each page to make them personal to him. 

I feel like we're lacking in fine-motor skills, so this activity was also meant as a way to encourage some practice in that area. I tried to make it so that for each page we used a different skill/technique to make the page itself. I wrote words with dotted-line letters for Erik to trace...

...I had him cut out shapes from different colors of paper...

 ...I let him glue items to the different pages...

...some pages he got to color with crayons or colored pencils, most he decorated with stickers.  Here are some of our pages:

Other page ideas:

A page for each member of the family

The child's birthday

The child's pet

Favorite book, food, movie, toy, etc

Where you live

Hair color

Once you've made all the pages you want, stick them in a small photo album or staple them together. Enjoy reading your creation together!

 In the end we wound up with a book all about one of his favorite subjects, that he made with his own hands. It's fun to watch him pull it out and flip through the pages. He loves trying to remember what all the words are on the pages. I love that he got a glimpse into where books come from, as well as the assurance that he's important. So important there's a whole book about nothing but him.