5th grade Yearbook

Yearbook message from Tami Oki -- J-5 bookbinding expert -----

JSIS 2010 5th Grade Year Book/Memory Book

The 5th grade usually has a year book or memory book. When my son Akira was in 5th grade (2006), I volunteered to coordinate that effort as I was really interested in bookbinding. I decided that it was possible to teach the kids to make a hardbound book. Carol Nakagawa did a wonderful book design and over 4 months I taught the 5th grade to make a hardback book, about 5.5” wide x 8.5” tall. Carol and I and Heidi Favour have signed up to do it again this year, and we’re hoping that other parents will be interested in helping the kids do this.

Each student has 2 pages in the yearbook. On one page, the student will write something about his/her time at JSIS in English and the other page will be in either Japanese or Spanish. There will be a portrait on one page and a candid shot on the other.

There will be a section of the book for color photos. If you have a particular photo of your student that you’d like to use, we can do that. Otherwise, we have a lot of photos taken at school over the past 6 year from which we can choose. Let me know if you’d like to peruse them.

I will introduce the yearbook idea to the students in class, and they will have some class time to work on their entries for the yearbook. For the Spanish class Isabel D’Ambrosia:

1. Will be making sure that the kids have written and typed up the essays.
2. Making sure that the Spanish language entry has been seen by Japanese/Spanish language editor.
3. Making sure that the student has made a file for their entry and putting it on a flashdrive for Heidi Favour.

While this is going on, I’ll be teaching the kids bookbinding. It isn’t difficult, but it is a bit slow, as we need to wait for the glue to dry between steps. And there are 53 5th graders.

1. Sewing – This is where the kids sew the 6 “signatures” (3 pieces of paper folded in half) to each other to make the “text block.” (30 minutes) 2. Glue spine and end papers (10 minutes) 3. Trim text block (I’ll take them home and do it on my paper guillotine.) 4. Glue headbands (10 minutes) 5. Case in (make the cover, and glue the textblock into it. (20 minutes)

We will be making one blank journal for practice and then we’ll make the yearbook.

Schedule

I plan on being at school from 8:15am – 9:15 am on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from February 1 on. Please contact me at via e-mail to schedule your student. Students who are not able to come in before school will have an opportunity to work on the project during class time. I may be able to schedule some time after school if it is necessary.

Feb 1 - Start the writing process – in class Feb 2 ~ March 31 – Start teaching the students bookbinding on the blank book Mar 5 - Turn in text and photos to yearbook designers Apr 5 - Start binding the yearbook Jun 3 – finish

Volunteer opportunities

1. We need a parent in the Japanese class who will make sure all students have submitted entries in 2 languages.
2. We invite all the teachers who have taught the class of 2010 to write an entry. I’d like a parent from each class to keep track of the entries for the Japanese, Spanish, music, PE and other teachers.
3. I would love to have parents who are interested in helping or learning about bookbinding to come in and help. I am trying to do most of this before school, but I can be flexible. It isn’t difficult work, and mostly consists of helping keep kids focused on the task, untangling thread, etc.

Please contact me at via e-mail if you are interested.