Creating a Monthly Reflection Memory Book with Your Students

How to Create the Monthly Reflection Memory Book

Some years ago I came up with the idea of having my students create a monthly reflection memory book for the year. I had them keep a monthly calendar of what was going on both at school and in their own lives at home. We would try and set aside time at least a few days a week at the end of the day to record any memorable moments.
At the end of each month, I would have my students take a look at their calendar page and use it to write a monthly summary. I would collect and hold onto both the calendar sheets and their monthly summary sheets.

Reflection on the Memory Book by a Former Student

Just this past Spring, a former parent came back and told me as they were preparing for high school graduation, she and her daughter found her special 3rd grade memory calendar book. They sat and pored over the details, remembering together some of the important family moments that had been recorded by the young student so many years ago. The parent ended our conversation by telling me just how special that book is to them. It had been tucked away for years in a bin of school memories and truly brought joy to both mother and daughter when they found it and looked back at their year.

Resources to Help You Easily Create Your Reflection Book With Your Students

If you would like to start a project like this, you could go online and find some easy, printable calendars. I just searched Google and many options came up. Or you can purchase my Editable Calendar Pack with Lifetime Updates. You will never need to search for calendar pages for this project or other projects again with this pack.

Then combine the calendars with my Monthly Writing Paper Pack and you will have everything you need to make your Monthly Reflection Memory Book with your students. This pack comes with 4 unique pages for each month. Each design comes with Primary Lines and Upper Elementary Lines. A digital Google Slides and Powerpoint Version is also included.

Freebies! Grab the Free Sample

You can even try out a sample of my Monthly Writing Paper Pack Free Sample. Both the sample and full pack come with Printable and Digital Versions. The free sample comes with one page for January and one page for July.

Sign Up for My Newsletter to Get the Free Cover

If you want to take your calendars and monthly writing pages and create your end of year reflection book. Hop on over to my email list and sign up to receive this free Monthly Reflection Book Cover Freebie. You will get access to this cover and other freebies in my VIP Resource Library.

There are many other ways you could use these writing papers from journal prompts, to monthly writing assessments, to class pen pal letters. The sky is the limit to your imagination with these easy to use Monthly Writing Pages for Print and Digital.

May 2020 Teacher Talk

Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

It's May already, time sure flies.   Time to stop by and see what our teaching friends are doing during the school closures. This is the last link-up for this school year. We'll see you again in August.

If you're interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs, blogging buddies and/or our blog linky, sign up here....The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, be sure to mention one of our names.

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Now That School's Out. What Will We Do for the Summer?

By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

 

Summer is the time for fun, fun, fun! School is out no more hitting the books. The only problem is that much of what was learned during the school year is forgotten, “out of sight, out of mind.” Not so with these fun educational activities that will keep the children looking for more and not even realizing they're learning.
 

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Tried & True Tools for Managing Distance Learning
By Kathie Yonemura of Tried & True Teaching Tools 

 I am SO thankful for the many teachers who know more than me and their willingness to share their expertise! There is no reason to reinvent the wheel! Here are some tried & true tools that have saved my time and sanity with distance learning!
 
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Slipping into Summer
By Retta London of Rainbow City Learning  

 
Reflections on our "new normal" ways of teaching and learning.
 
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 Should You Red Shirt Your Kindergartner?

By Gini Musmanno of Reading Spotlight 

Will a delayed start to kindergarten improve a child's success in school? Many kindergartners have not experienced a full school year due to the pandemic. This re-post might help some parents and teachers in reaching what might be a more difficult than usual decision this year.

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 Integrating Sustainable Development Goals into OurTeaching
By Lisa Robles of LisaTeachR's Classroom

 

Integrating sustainable development goals into teaching

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Teaching Reading in the COVID19 Restructured Classroom

By Marcy Howe of It's a Teacher Thing

Learn practical tips for teaching reading in our COVID 19 restructured

classrooms.

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St. Patrick's Day Writing Prompts

St. Patrick's Day Writing Prompts for upper elementary and middle school.

Recommended for grades 4th-8th, these 16 writing prompts will get students in the mood to write some fun stories, descriptions, explanations, poetry and more!

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Looking for more writing prompts?

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November 2019 Teacher Talk

Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

It's November Teacher Talk Time.....Can you believe that Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away. Time sure flies.  We have so many great tips and ideas for you from awesome educators. Be sure to take a look at what everyone has to say.

If you're interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs, blogging buddies and/or our blog link-up, sign up here....The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, be sure to mention one of our names.

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Empathy and Digital Citizenship

By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern 

I can only speak for myself, but I bet that many of us have not even thought about speaking with our students concerning using good manners when commenting on that blog post, or stating opinions on social media sites.  Not only do our classes need to be educated about online etiquette, or netiquette but they have to learn to be careful about what kind of information they share online.

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 For the Love of Bookmaking

By Kathie Yonemura of Tried and True Teaching Tools

November . . . the time of year when students are starting to get antsy for Winter Break, yet it's still not close enough. Teachers are tired, parent conference time and report cards are here, the time change has made it darker earlier. . . Bookmaking is the perfect solution for reinvigorating your students' writing in any content area!

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Enough
By Retta London of Rainbow City Learning 

 
Our family has a reunion every year at Thanksgiving time. We are scattered all over the country (actually all over the world) now, but each year as many as possible try to meet up for a banquet cooked by professional chefs (yay!) rather than by any of us.
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 The value of learning about number lines

By Renee Heiss of All American Teacher Tools 

 Number lines help your students to learn skills they will need for the rest of their lives. Use these tips all year long!

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The Superintendent's Tears

by Gini Musmanno of Reading Spotlight

 We made our superintendent cry. Read about how we did it .

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 Meaningful Activities to Do Before Winter Break

By Charlene Tess of Charlene Tess 

 Here are two free activities to use before the Winter Holidays.

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 Supporting Reluctant Writers
By Marcy Howe of It's a Teacher Thing

Learn easy, effective tips for supporting reluctant writers in your 4th through 8th grade classroom.

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Gentle Rebellion 101: A Teaching Story
By Tracy Willis of Mossy Oak Musings 

 "Once upon a time, there was a fearsome dandelion fighter. Every week, he rode a 20 horsepower mower across an immaculate lawn... a lawn manicured so carefully that when the neighborhood association whipped out its Home Depot measuring tape, no matter where they measured, his grass was exactly 1 1/2 inches tall... " 
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 Looking deeper at craft and structure in the Common Core
By Lisa Robles of LisaTeachR

 Looking deeper at craft and structure in the Common Core
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 Five Tips for Your Native American Lessons
By Michelle Webb of Teaching Ideas For Those Who Love Teaching

 Tips to make your Native American unit a success.
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Be sure to click the links to read the blog posts from all of our FAB educators

 

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Enjoy your Sunday afternoon, teachers!  The writing plans will take care of themselves this week!  Try my new expository writing kit, great for students in grades 3 - 6 (or higher as an intervention tool).  This is an authentic writing suggestion that is ready to print and go.  I hope it will help make your week before Spring Break  academically meaningful with a large sprinkle of fun!

Note that with my new marketing plan, the first dozen downloads of every product are free.  Click the Follow Me button at the top of my TpT store page so that you'll be informed as I post new tools for you to use with your elementary school students.  Also note that the first 10 raters of any product who send a screenshot of the rating to teachingsajoy@gmail.com with the subject Ratings Freebie will receive any unbundled item in my store for free. (This product still has 5 free downloads as of 3:00 CT today!)

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Spring-Break-of-My-Dreams-Scaffolded-Essay-Writing-Kit-4416032

Have a wonderful afternoon!

Sally Phillips

Teaching's a Joy!

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