Throughout the year I give students homework assignments that include making small, foldable books. I call these books B3 (B threes) or Beanie Baby Books. (My former partner teacher came up with this name because it is the size of a book that a Beanie Baby would read.)
I use these books for all subjects (math, science, social studies, reading, writing) at one time or another. I like Beanie Baby Books because they open the door for kids to creatively demonstrate and share their learning in meaningful ways. I will often add these books to our class library or we will give them to another class as a “learning gift”. For example, my students just created Beanie Baby Books of our Read to Self behavior expectations. A few primary classes at my school are trying Daily Five, so our books will give them another avenue to think about their own behavior expectations. On top of that, my student authors are doing authentic work creating products for an audience outside my classroom!
Use this video to learn how to make a small foldable book. It is also a great idea to just let your students watch this video and learn how to make the Beanie Baby Book.
The uses for this type of book are limited only by your imagination. Below is just a sample of uses:
- Students create a dictionary of important concepts and vocabulary words on a particular subject or concept in math, science, social studies, etc.
- Have a student create a summary of a book or novel. Can they figure out how to make a meaningful and accurate summary in about 8 small pages?
- It makes a perfect word collector for an English Language Learner. A student can write the word and draw a picture of its meaning. (See the photo above)
- At the end of the week students use it to create a book of important learning from that week. Have the students keep these weekly summaries/reflections of their learning all year long.
- Students can illustrate the process of photosynthesis or mitosis or meiosis, etc.
- Students can write a comic book full or metaphors, similes, prepositions, verbs, etc.
