Portfolios

There was a great book I was reading last month, The Mailbox Preschool Year Book 1995-1996. It is great! I got tons of ideas, it touches on all the topics, crafts, art, lessons, teacher ideas... Well one of the teacher ideas was to make a portfolio for each child. I have decided that I am going to do this. Not for every piece of paper they complete, but for those special projects. Currently I have two children Mr. Busy and Little Miss (my daughter), I am going to do one for my daughter as well, it is still good for daddy to see and I am sure the children will love to show off what they do!
So this is what you do: Get a 1/4" binder, plastic page covers and start. Make a great front page with the school year, name of child and school name. Inside we are starting with a painting they did with their name on it. Than I think I will add some projects of the "Who Is God" unit (and more to come as we go on). These pictures of the "I Believe" were the intro to "Who Is God", "God Our Father". We started talking about believing in God and when the unit was over at the review we pasted the "In God" strips to the painting (hard to see here). They now know how God is and can say that yes, they believe in Him! I am also waiting for some pictures to print of the children doing different activities so that they have a couple for their book to go at the end.
Introduce the book to the child as you go on. Let them watch you put things in it etc. That way they know their art and projects are for something special. I think it will be a great display and also make the parents proud. This is also something that you can show at conferences or meetings you may have through out the year.
Than at the end of the year give the parents the book!
***More teacher ideas to come....