When I was in the classroom, my students kept a math journal on their iPad. It was made in Book Creator and I’ve written about it here and here. They loved the ability to capture their thinking and learning on the iPad and it was a great way to show cumulative growth over the school year. We also enjoyed sharing the journals with parents both in person and electronically.

Another great way to use Book Creator in the Early Childhood classroom is to create an alphabet book.  With a page dedicated to each letter, students are able to curate images, create drawings, write or type text, and even dictate words on each page.  Here is a sample of a page from one of our ABC books:

This book can start at the beginning of the year and students can add to it throughout the year, or once all letters of the alphabet have been explored, students can create a culminating project. The children enjoy having the ability to be diverse in how learning is demonstrated. One page may have all drawings, another page all photos, or a combination. One student created a short video of her holding a block and describing it. She uploaded the video to her “Bb” page in one of the boxes. While I love using Book Creator for its simplicity and great accessibility features, you could also use Pages, or another book creation app.

Research conducted by the National Reading Panel (NRP) found that skills in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension are essential to literacy development (NRP, 2001). Immersing young children in a literacy rich environment is a building block of reading success.  Providing children opportunities to explore their environment and capture learning in creative ways allows for deeper and durable learning experiences.

The ePub of this book can be downloaded for free here.

Let me know what you think!