My son graduated from preschool this week. He had a great year and is really looking forward to going to kindergarten. I worked with Colin’s class during the school year on individual personal yearbooks for each of the 13 students. I got the original idea from the awesome Becky Higgins. The front cover has a photo of the student from the beginning of the year in August and one taken just last week in May. The students also wrote their name in August and May. Each month I took a photo of each student doing an activity. I interviewed them and had them create a drawing of their activity.

In March, Colin’s class made terrariums while studying the water cycle. I took photos of them putting together the terrariums. Colin drew a picture of his terrarium which was made up of two plastic cocktail glasses taped together with electrical tape.

In April, the kids made s’mores in class. I waited until they had all eaten at least half of their s’mores before I started taking photos. All the kids were a mess! Colin was no exception. These were probably my favorite pictures all year. I love how Colin is sitting with his feet up roasting a marshmallow in his drawing. He is such a mellow and laid back child.

May was a short month at school so I didn’t do a layout with the kids. I asked Colin’s teacher to write a note to each student for the back cover. I took a photo of each student in their cap and gown with the teacher and added it to the note page. I think this is a great way to end the book.

If you are interested in seeing more pages from this year, you can see them here.

After graduation, Colin’s teacher had the personal yearbooks at each student’s seat with this note on the cover.

When I said goodbye to Colin’s teacher, she told me that she put the note on books so that the parents would know that I made them. She also expressed her gratitude for me taking the time to take the pictures, interview the students, help them create their drawings and put together the books. Some of the parents thanked me at graduation and I received an email and a few Facebook messages with thanks too.

The gratitude from Colin’s teachers and the other parents was wonderful because doing these personal yearbooks for all 13 students in Colin’s class was difficult and time consuming. There was always one, two or more students who were absent on the day I came to take pictures or work on the pages with the students. I ended up spending a lot more time at school than two mornings a month. I have a few ideas on how to make this easier and cheaper for me next school year when I hope to do the personal yearbooks for Colin’s kindergarten class and my daughter’s second grade class. I will share those ideas with you in August!