Two Birds, One Stone- Class Quilts

If you are a kindergarten teacher you are probably familiar with the  frantic end-of-the-year memory book making sessions...or maybe not if you don't have serious problem with procrastination like me. I'm not sure where the whole kindergarten memory book tradition came from but in May of my first year in kindergarten it caught me completely off guard. I frantically printed out pictures from our year and haphazardly glued them in a bare book a few nights before our end of the year party. The next year I was slightly more organized but only slightly. Then last year I knew I had to end the madness so I came into the year armed with a plan. The best part of my memory book solution was that it also served as a great hallway display monthly (also something that caused me great anxiety each month!)- two birds, one stone.

So each month each student makes a 12 x12 inch square featuring their hand print, their name, and their picture. I put all the quilt squares together to make a class quilt (so cute!) and then save the individual squares. At the end of the year we stack all the pages together to make individual class memory books. The parents loved them last year (really who can resist hand prints!), and the process was amazingly easy. I'm tweaking some of the quilts this year but for the most part keeping the project the same. I place the individual pages into a quilt made from scrapbook page protectors taped together.  I will not take credit for most of my monthly quilt ideas as I got almost all my inspiration from Kinder By Kim and Mrs. Shehan's Kindergarten. If you're considering making a class quilt you should really check out their amazing websites. Here's a peek at some of our quilts from last year (unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of them all- I'll try to track them down!):

This was August (last year)- each students' square features their hand print, their picture, their name (written by them), and a self-portrait.

This is my August quilt from this year- a little bit different. I think red hand prints kind of look like blood so I changed the format a bit.

September- picture inside apple die-cut, apple tree hand print with patterns, and name.

October- name with pattern, bat (so cute- right?), and picture.

I couldn't resist showing you our full October wall- it's my favorite. We do conferences in October so we really go all out. The owls are our "Whooo" Are We Owls. The kids write clues for their parents and then their pictures are hiding under the owls. The pumpkins on the fence are actually glyphs.

January- snowflakes, name, picture on the face of the snowman (didn't love it but it was kind of cute), and hand traced on paper to look like mittens). This one was one of my least favorites but it was still cute.

Obviously this is our February quilt- name, picture, and heart handprint.

I'll try to track down pictures of some of our other creations. The November one is precious. This really is such a fun project. It was so cool at the end of the year to look at all the pictures from each month to see how much the kids have grown. The name portion of the quilt is like a little mini-assessment of your kiddo's name writing (so maybe this is a three birds, one stone project!).  Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for all the comments- it really makes me happy to hear what y'all think!

Happy Weekend!
Jessie