Before budget cuts closed my school, we only had one 5th grade class. We purchased Dr. Suess' hard cover book 'Oh, The Places You Can Go' The 5th grade teacher then had each student's previous teachers & the staff sign the books.
Thank you. We are trying to do everything with a infant shoestring budget. I just want them to have a keepsake with their friends from 5th grade. For the organizations who can afford it, has anyone ever thought of having their 5th grade activities video taped and selling them at a low cost to the students?
That's a great idea to give the 5th graders an autograph book. I might steal that idea for my son's fifth grade if that's okay.
Here's an idea for a cheap autograph book - you can make them yourself with fun foam, copy paper, a die cut machine and a cerlox binding machine. Your school most likely has the die cut machine and a cerlox binding machine (this is the plastic "spiral" looking thing that teachers make booklets out of) - sorry if I'm not describing it well.
Anyway - here's what you can do - buy fun foam and regular white copy paper and cut the sheets into equal fourths (5 1/2" X 4 1/4") using a paper cutter - each autograph book would need two squares of fun foam and however many sheets of plain white paper you wanted. Each book would also need a plastic cerlox binding coil (these are about $4.00 for 25 coils at an office supply store - you can cut in half for each autograph book.)
Now the fun part - using a die cut machine (school size - not a sizzix size) - punch out whatever shape you want - something with a flat edge would work best - or just a rectangle or frame die cut. Using the same die cut - punch out 2 fun foam shapes and the copy paper (however many you want). Use the cerlox machine to bind the edge together. Trim off the excess coil.
I realize this would take some work - but how cute they would be. You can use the schools colors for the foam. They can insert a picture on the cover if you use a frame die cut. You can offer fun foam letters and they can add their name to the front (or any other fun foam shapes). Absolutely adorable. Anyway...just a thought I had when I read your post. Good luck.
In the past, teachers (k-5)have ordered Bare Books. They come in all sizes. You can choose many different pics for the cover. The cover isn't colored, the kids would do that with colored pencils & all the pages are blank. You should be able to find them in teacher supply catalogs. Hope this helps. web site is www.barebooks.com
[ 02-14-2006, 10:02 AM: Message edited by: Renee S ]
