Student Created Books for Review

Several months back our first grade team brainstormed various ways we could help our students review concepts. One of the ways we came up with was to have the students create class books. The students create these books for all of the content areas.

For example, in science the students made books about force and motion, bodies of water, landforms, etc. My teammate typed up various phrases that included specific concepts and vocabulary in kid-friendly terms which the students glued in order and illustrated. In math, I laminated their pictures created from our shapes lesson (check them out here at The Shape of Things) and put them together as a book. I also laminated their Pumpkin Patch Place Value pictures and put them together as a book. They also made a place value book with specific vocabulary to show the different ways to build and model numbers as well as how to compare them from greatest to least and vice versa.

Also, I have taught the students how to export pictures in the computer lab from Pixie 2. We save these exported pictures and I print them front to back. They are then laminated and put together as books. Most of our computer lessons are based in math and rather than the work to just be stored in the computer, I like to print them.

For reading, we often make group Flow Maps to retell stories. During reading workshop, I divide the students into groups and each group takes a section of the Flow Map to retell that portion and illustrate it. This helps students remember what they have read and practice retelling stories.

We keep these books in a student-accessible bin and the students may choose to read them when they finish work early or during reading workshop. Because the students created them, they are very motivated to read them. Additionally, we read them as a whole group before district tests. Our district tests every three weeks or so, depending on the subject. This is good way to connect back to previously taught lessons and review specific vocabulary.