Scrapbooks
Suggested Group(s): Young/Middle/Teen
Purpose: To support a sense of being a part of a group, a process, a sequence of meetings and a sense of the importance of creating and saving memories
Task/need: Group building, group structure
Activity Setup Ideas:
- Ask the children if they have ever made or seen a scrapbook at school or at home.
- Why do people make scrapbooks?
- What types of things are included in scrapbooks?
- Let the children know that your group will be making its own scrapbook to capture the memories of their time together.
- As a group brainstorm about what should be included in the scrapbook, encouraging group members to include as many of the ideas as possible in their scrapbook.
Materials
- Digital camera
- Colored paper
- Markers
- Scissors
- Glue
- Stencils
- Other art materials as desired
- For multimedia — MacBook computer, color printer & projector
Description: As in the original activity, this activity can focus on either individual scrapbooks for each child, or on one group scrapbook. For either approach, document each meeting. Take pictures of the children participating in activities. Make copies of the pictures for group members, and allow them to use them in either their individual scrapbooks or the group scrapbooks. Children can write notes, thoughts and feelings; they can draw pictures; they can share memories in the book.
Scrapbooking can be done using the MacBook laptop computer. Digital photos can be imported and used in creating scrapbook pages. In groups of 8 or less, each child can be given the opportunity to create a page for a particular week of the program. In larger groups, individual pages can be assigned to groups of 2 or can be worked on with input from the entire group. (The volunteer would project the work on the wall using a projector and soliciting input from all group members to make design decisions.)
Note: **This activity can be started early in the 10-week session, and continue throughout.
Activity Wrap Up Ideas:
- At the last meeting, place the last piece or pieces into the scrapbook and look through their books together as a group to share the history of the session. If creating individual scrapbooks, they may want to autograph each other's scrapbooks.
