Character Scrapbook Project Helpful character projects! Please! You agree, no doubt. You and fellow teachers are not looking for mere busywork projects, but for an ongoing way to make character-building lessons take root and grow. Character scrapbooks are that kind of character project. Character scrapbooks continue your character building efforts throughout even a vacation period, bringing students back to school with a topic of discussion for the very first day. Character scrapbooks form a tangible collection of visual evidence of students themselves acting on the information they have learned. The scrapbooks also motivate students to exercise the traits they are learning in order to collect the photos they need for their scrapbooks. Character scrapbooks are usable for any age group, with boys or girls. TEENS: Teen boys, for example, will enjoy taking photos of themselves and their friends, and adding them to a personal character scrapbook with notes telling who, how, why, etc. Teenage girls will love collecting photos of themselves and their friends. Thinking through how the photos display character (or its lack) will challenge students and that is the point. Taking selfies is easy enough. Taking selfies that document acts of character makes students think about what you taught them. In most cases, teen girls will add many more notes than teen boys will add. Girls are more likely to add embellishments, too. ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS: These students also will love making these character scrapbooks. Even preschoolers, with adult supervision, can create beautiful character scrapbooks. Copyright 2015 by Elizabeth L. Hamilton
Choose conventional or digital format scrapbooks. Young children can handle either with assistance. Older students are likely to prefer digital format and can produce stellar projects. How to Make Conventional Character Scrapbooks Make conventional character scrapbooks using traditional scrapbook papers and other elements, or print out the pages provided in this project (shrink to fit). Print one copy of each page, or several copies of the pages you like best. Create additional pages if you wish. Carefully remove the white spaces inside the frames on each page. Mount photos in the frames. Then write notes about the photos on separate paper. Tell how each shows honesty, courage, responsibility, respect, self-control, or some other character trait you have taught. Paste the notes on the pages. Angle them, or overlap the photo a little for more interest. Write the name of the character trait on a separate piece of paper. Paste it on the page. If you want, you may add other embellishments. Use various colors of paper for notes and embellishments. How to Make Digital Character Scrapbooks Students who are comfortable with computer graphics programs can make digital character scrapbooks. Download png files for scrapbook papers, frames, embellishments, etc. A good source ($19.95 for lifetime membership) is www.mangelsdesigns.com/frames/oval.htm Open the files in Photoshop or another graphics program. Import photos and slide them under layers to show through open frames. Add journaling (notes), and embellish each page with the name of the character trait and other items. Teenagers should be encouraged to create their own, digital character scrapbook page layouts. Students can retain digital character scrapbooks on CD. If desired, they may also print out their scrapbooks and create a hard copy presentation piece. WHOLE-CLASS PROJECT Your class can undertake a whole-class project of making a character scrapbook. Encourage students (many of whom carry phones with cameras) to take photos of classmates exercising a clear character trait. Upload the photos to your computer and print to desired size for use in the scrapbook. If you are making digital character scrapbooks, simply import the photos into your graphics program and resize to fit the desired location on the page. Use your whole-class character scrapbook as an ongoing project, with frequent review of its contents, and you will find your lessons sticking! Copyright 2015 by Elizabeth L. Hamilton