My Family - Bookmaking for Social Studies

Early Elementary age students learn about their family and the roles and responsibilities of each person in the family. In "My Family - Bookmaking for Social Studies" students will create books using photographs of their family members.

In the beginning of the year, first grade students will be learning about the school and the school staff. The class will create an "Our School" book using photographs of staff members and text that is written at a first grade level about the roles and responsibilities of school staff. We will write the text during interactive writing lessons. The text will be typed and added to a page with the digital photo using a word processing program.

Families will be invited to attend a informational meeting in the evening during the fall to view the "Our School" book and learn about how they will be expected to support their children as they photograph family members. They will sign up for a date to check out a digital camera to use at home with their children.

Students will identify the members of their family living in their home and list them on a family member worksheet. They will write the about the responsibility of each family member. When it is time for the students to take a camera home, they will use the family member worksheet as a checklist when they take photographs. If they list their father and state his role in the family is to take cook dinner, they should make sure to take a picture of father cooking dinner.

When students return the camera the photographs be printed. Students will write about their families during writer's workshop. When the students have written and edited their "My Family" books, the teacher or parent volunteer will use a word processing program to combine the photographs and text. Pages will be printed, laminated, and bound to create the "My Family" books.