Another school year is coming to an end. Encourage kids to answer the questions in this free printable end-of-school journal to capture the year’s memories forever!
When school comes to an end, it is a perfect time to create a little time capsule with children’s memories of the past year. Who was their teacher? What did they enjoy learning? What was their best memory? Who did they become friends with? Children will enjoy looking back at all the good times they had at school, and parents and teachers will like to find out what made a positive impression. Whether you are a teacher, a parent or a homeschooler, this journal should work for everyone!
In the beginning of the year, I created a similar printable book for my son, called a back-to-school journal. The questions were similar, but it was all about hopes and expectations. Now, it is time for outcomes. For us, this was a special year. It was his first year of school, and it was also the first year we tried homeschooling. Not everything went exactly as we expected this year, but comparing journals from the beginning and end of this school year, I see that we have accomplished things. He is a lot more confident with letters and filled most of the books with his own handwriting this time.
And his answers reflect the new books and friendships that the year sparked. Though he still likes french fries best. :-)
Why a Book?
Filling in a list of questions seems a little like homework, but putting together a book is an impressive accomplishment.
At least, my son loves making books! In the last year, I put together several printable books with prompts for him – Back-to-School journal, Best of the Year journal, and All About Me journal – you can download them all for free.
Besides the text, each real book has illustrations of course, and this is an important part of the book! There are lots of elements to colour as well as drawing prompts to inspire children to draw self-portraits, as well as their friend’s and teacher’s portraits, and design a book cover for their favourite book.
In addition, there is the element of learning about book binding. I suggest a very simple method, but to some kids it can be the start to a book production hobby at home. Besides these four books with prompts, my son made about twenty books for his own themes – about robots, space, and his favourite characters from books and cartoons.
10 End-of-School Questions
The questions are formulated in such a way that they can be useful for making the book at home as a family keepsake and at school as a way for teachers to use it as a final craft of the year.
The questions include:
- name, age and grade
- best friend and teacher
- favourite book and favourite lunch
- favourite topic to study and favourite activity to do in the past year
- their favourite memory of the year and what they want to do when they grow up
Along with the questions come ten drawing prompts. Sometimes it’s nothing but a frame, and other times it’s a picture to finish. And for kids who like to colour, there is plenty of room on the pages to do just that!
How to Bind the Book
Good news – you will only need three sheets of paper for creating this book! You will also not need to do any cutting to assemble this book. Just print and fold.
1 — Print the pages on both sides. The detailed instructions are given in the template.
2 — After all the pages are printed, stack them together, following the numbers at the bottom of each page. Fold the page at the line in the middle. You will get a book of 10 pages!
3 — Next, punch holes with a hole punch.
4 — Thread a cotton twine through the holes…
5 — And tie a knot!
You can use a ribbon and a big hole punch if you want children to help with these steps. But if you don’t have a hole punch, you can also use a needle with thread to sew the pages together!
More Printable Activities?
Thank you for reading!