Sketchbooks

I make sketchbooks with my 1st - 5th graders every year.   Inside the front cover is a list of assignments with full  instructions on completing them.  Most often, I leave the sketchbooks as an assignment when I have a substitute.  Students also use the sketchbooks as a go to when they finish a project earlier than anyone else.  Over the years I have given students the option of decorating their sketchbooks to their own liking as long as the illustration included their name prominently on the cover.  I am not always pleased with the effort the students put into the covers of their books.  I always hope to see something that they feel passionate about and often I see something they have rushed through just to get it done.  This year, after viewing many different pins on pinterest, I decided to approach the project in a new way by having the cover represent a review of concepts from the previous year.  Here are my new covers for 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade.

I plan to take the 4th and 5th grade sketchbooks in a new direction as well by perhaps having them design their own covers along the same format.