As
the school year comes to an end we all have mixed feelings. Excited for the
summer ahead, sad to say good-bye to friends, stressed to get all the paper
work finished on time, pride in the accomplishments of our students and even a
little nervous about what the next school year will bring.
No
matter what you're feeling I'm sure you spend time sharing memories from the
school year. Many of you will have memory books and yearbooks for
students to sign and write notes to classmates. I have a different way to
relive special and personal memories-- Memory Bracelets. I've used
this bracelet idea at the beginning of the year as a getting-to-know-you
activity, but it works wonderfully as a memory sharing activity, too.
The first step is to brainstorm as
a class, the big events from the year- field trips, class projects, school
assemblies and plays, class visitors, special events, holidays, etc. Make
sure you give kids time to talk and share their persona memories about these
events.
Then give each student a set of
Wonderful Memories slips. The slip has a place for a student's name and
then space to write a special memory. To save time I suggest you fill in
each student’s name before you copy the pages for your class. Each student will need one complete set of
Wonderful Memories slips. Give students several small blocks
of time to fill in a personal memory for each classmate. If you have them
complete the memories page at one time, the memories tend to be less personal
and more redundant. Once all the memories are collected have the students
cut them apart and store them in an envelope.
Now it's time to make the
bracelets. Each student should have a pipe cleaner to collect the memory beads,
a baggie of pony beads and the envelope with the memories. Sharing the
memories will include finding a classmate, reading the memory and placing a
bead on their pipe cleaner and pasting the memory slip onto a blank space of their memory
book.
The memory sharing can be done all
at once or in small blocks of time. Kids will know who they need to share
a memory with because they have a memory slip for each classmate. When
all memories have been shared the kids can twist the ends of the pipe cleaner
together to make a bracelet, or keep it straight as a keepsake. They'll also
have a memory slip from all of their classmates to take home with treasured
memories from the year.
