4th Grade In Ya Face: Memory Books and Jars

Well, hello! It's been a while. I got a new job and feel like I'm a first year teacher again. I'm still teaching 4th grade, but that is about the only thing that is the same as my old job. Luckily, I have been getting a slightly better handle on my free time, and am ready to post this "tutorial" I did over the summer.

I decided to find all of my keep sakes and organize them. I saw these two ideas on Pinterest but cannot find the original sources! So my disclaimer is that it's not my idea, just my step-by-step directions and pictures to organize your keepsakes!

You'll need a large mason jar or two, and some cute three ring binders with sheet protectors and dividers- enough to hold as many notes you want to keep!

First, I found a place to store all the big stuff: My May Day crown from college (that's right, I was the queen), an old picture from one of those cheesy picture-sketch booths, and other things too big for a jar or notebook. I put them in a large bag from Guatemala that I can't bear to get rid of but won't really use. A keepsake holding a keepsake.

Then, I got all my paper goods and organized them.

I put personal stuff, like notes from family members and cards from friends, into piles by size and put them aside. Then, I separated the kid stuff into cards they made, notes/cards from co-workers, and notes/cards from their parents. I then put these into size sub-categories because I am a loser. Some things did get thrown away. You don't need to keep the half-sheet of notebook paper that a kid drew a smiley face on in highlighter. Especially if that kid gave one to you every day and you kept all of them.

As I organized, I found some things that wouldn't fit so easily into a page protector, so I made two memory jars: One for life, and one for just boyfriend memories (awwwwwww). I knew I was a true Bostonian when I had to separate my Red Sox tickets into those two groups.

BF Jar

Voila!

My life jar includes my Hogwarts patch, my first Red Sox tickets, my first Relay for Life bracelet, and other excellent things.

Jar twins

Now, get a notebook and a stack of sheet protectors and place them in the rings.

Start putting in the cards that are the easiest ones to fit!

Soon, you'll have tons of pages of memories. Unfortunately, you may run into a problem.

Some cards just won't fit.

Perform some surgery.

Put the two halves next to each other in the binder!

I also found that many of my students made me "3-D" cards, but my notebooks came with little clipboards inside, so I didn't have to smush their hard work.

For some cards, I wanted the front and back to be seen in one sheet protector, but others could be easily layered.

Front

Back

I layered a card from one person on the blank space of another.

Eventually, I finished up the kid stuff and moved on to family/friends. I made separate piles again. One was old stuff, people I don't even keep it close touch with but still made an impact (or cracked me up):

15th birthday card from lunch friends

No words...

9th grade

My next category was stuff from one of my dearest friends in the whole wide world, my since-8th-grade BFF.

I also had a Mom category, Dad category, a category for one of my aunts, my sister... categories are really important. What a great example to give my students about the importance of scientific classification!

I really don't think they will give a crap about my keepsake books. Never mind.

So fill up your binders with cards!