My Class and Me: 3rd Grade

Anne Hutchings, a former elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Durham Board of Education, is an educational consultant.

The current fashion of keeping memory books/boxes may help to ensure the
popularity of this series of prepared scrapbooks. Should the books be
marketed at the beginning of a school year, they would undoubtedly be a
popular purchase for parents of students in these grades.

All four titles are similar in format. A punch-out picture-frame cover
allows each book to be personalized with an inserted photograph of the
student who is the scrapbook’s subject. Each book opens with an “All
About Me” section, with space for beginning-of-the-year biographical
information such as name, age, height, weight, etc., and concludes with
a page for the corresponding end-of-the year statistics. In between,
pages are set up for recording details about my class, my school, trips,
work and play, friends, achievements, and many other school-related
topics. The back cover has a pocket in which to keep report cards, class
photos, samples of work, and other memorabilia.

Some variation does occur throughout the grades. The kindergarten
version, for example, includes the section “My First Day of School.”
Books for Grades 2 and 3 have the sections “Working Together” and
“Teamwork.” A limited number of activities are included—sequencing
and graphing, for example.

All of the scrapbooks are attractively designed. The
colour-coded-by-grade border design on each cover is repeated on each
page. Bright, cartoonlike illustrations on every page add to the appeal.

It is evident that the completion of these scrapbooks is intended to be
an ongoing process. The danger will be that the books, begun with good
intentions, will soon be forgotten and set aside. A concerted effort by
both child and parent will ensure that completed books will be a
treasured memento of early school years. For those willing to persevere,
these books would be a worthwhile investment. All are recommended.