Create A Family Book
Why create a family book?
Your children and families will love to create a family book for your centre or school!
We have ours available throughout the day for the children to tap into and enjoy. Occasionally there are tears if a little one is feeling homesick, but overall it is a riot of pride and joy as we look through the pages calling out our friends’ names.
And we, as educators have opened up many meaningful conversations with our families while sharing experiences with the book.
It will take a little effort to create, but it will be SO worth it!!
Taking "good enough" photos
- Send out a communication to the families giving them the heads up about being photographed.
- Be ready at drop off and pick up times to snap a quick few photos. Have your camera or Ipad ready and charged.
- Choose a spot with the family that is quiet and mess free. Try to be as efficient and relaxed as possible. Use a key word the kids love like “hooray” to instigate a smile. (that said, over half of the photos in our book have the children either looking away or with their hands in their mouths). At the end of the day, the children are tired. Just focus on getting a good smiling photo of the family member.
- Take 4 or 5 photos, show the family member and ask them which they would prefer. Delete all others on the spot. Be prepared to take another couple if there is not a suitable photo.
- Thank and reassure the family member their little person is going to love having them in their special book!!!
Printing your photos
- You have two options with printing: print yourself at work orhome or get your photos printed at a photo lab.
- I chose to get our photos printed at Big W for consistency of size and colour. But if you have a colour printer that is NOT misbehaving (like ours) then you could easily (and more economically) print at work.
- Choose a size you like. Our book photo size is square 6″ X 6″ (15cm X 15cm) with a white border. (Looks so professional right!?!) At Big W these cost 80c each to print. They are a great size for a book!! The only issue with this size is it’s slightly too big to fit two photos in one A4 laminating pouch. My advice if you’re printing yourself, print at 5.5″ x 5.5″. If printing 6″ x 6″ be prepared for laminating wastage/offcuts.
- Of course you can choose your preferred size, colour etc. Maybe you’d prefer a rectangle book in black and white? Whatever you decide, make sure it’s really easy for little ones to turn the pages.
- Also note, we created the book with 60% of the photos taken, then added the extra family photos as we captured them in small batches. Overall, it took about 6 weeks to get photos of everyone. Mums, Dads, Grandparents and Carers. Create a list from your roll and tick them off as you go!!
Materials Needed
- Printed photographs and cover page
- Laminator and laminating pouches
- Scissors
- Single hole punch
- 3 x 19mm metal book rings
Method
HOW TO ASSEMBLE YOUR BOOK
- After your photos are printed, laminate each photo and cut around the edge, leaving a 3mm edge, curving the corners to ensure no sharp edges.
- Leave a 2cm laminated spine on the left hand edge of each photo for the hole punches.
- Hole punch the top and bottom, then punch one exactly in the middle. Use this photo as the guide for all the others. Hold it on top as you punch the holes.
- Pop the rings through your holes and “just like magic” you have a beautiful family book!
Note: To create a beautiful book, all of the photos must line up. Give this job to the wonderful OCD person in your team.
Programming and Display
How our book is incorporated into our day:
Our family book is part of our floor resources, often on a shelf for the children to access.
After the morning play session, in the lead up to lunch, we will often sit with the class and the family book. The children love to play call and response games.
“Name your friend?” “Who are they with?” ” Let’s name the family member, Mum, Dad, Nanny etc” The options are endless and the children really enjoy seeing themselves and their family in the book!
At the end of each day we display the book, with a photo of a family beside the floor book for the families to see at pick up time. Often as they are leaving, the children will be chatting about their friends and the book !!!
Now I’d love to know your thoughts on a family book?
Has this inspired you to create a family book?
Have you made one? How do you like to bring family fun into your room?
As always if you have any questions or suggestions, please email me. I’d love to hear from you.
If you are looking for ready made craft kids and more, check out our shop here.
Jasmine
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