Hello teachers, TAs, volunteers, Early Years Practitioners…

Background

Have I got a treat for you?! Yes. Yes I have. When I used to teach, at the end of the year, I’d give each child a hand painted pebble and a book I’d made as a memento of our time together. I know. I sound like one of those Miss Honey annoying types, don’t I? If I tell you that I ignored a lot of the paperwork and assessment and was basically living out my frustrated illustrator dreams, will that help?

Anyway, I know these end of year gifts were appreciated as I’ve heard from plenty of former pupils now into their late teens and twenties who’ve told me they have kept their pebble pet and book from when they were 5. It mattered to them that I’d taken that time.

If you’re lucky enough to work with Early Years, Year 1 or 2 children, you will be one of the most important adults they have encountered in their lives. You are forming their ideas around learning, trusting and becoming themselves (no pressure.) Why not give them something precious to remember you by?

Now I know you might not have bags of time to paint a class’ worth of pebbles which is why this download works equally well with just the books, but if you did want to paint a pebble or two (or 30) I’ve kept the characters as simple as possible- bee and ladybird - so a night in front of a-not- too -complicated -to- follow film and a set of acrylic paints should do the job.

OR

You could use these cute wooden craft ladybirds and bees as your characters to go with the books. This is just from a quick search online, but you can find these in craft shops all over the place (support local or independent if you can!)

And you don’t have to come up with a story and draw out a book because I’ve done that for you!

Contents:

4 versions of each book - one about a bee called Buzz, the other a ladybird called Dot.

1 x full colour and text. I have tried to make the handwriting clear and legible and chosen easy to read words in the story.

1 x colour no text (This could be saved to use as a free writing activity with your class or for you to write in your own story and photocopy)

1 x suitable to print in black and white no text (I’ve removed backgrounds as an ink saver)

1 x suitable to print in black and white with text

1 x instructions for assembling your books

Directions:

Can be printed at A4 or A3. I don’t recommend going as small as A5 as the pages will be tiny weeny!

When you print, I recommend checking the printer settings and choosing borderless A4/3 and the highest quality photo print you can achieve for best results.

Follow the instructions for how to put your books together.

Print a page of class photos- the individual images of the children work best at about 2.5 cm x 4.5 cm if you’re making A4 books. You could use existing photos of your class from displays or pegs maybe? Waste not, want not!

Cut out the children’s photos and stick them on the penultimate page, in the window frame.

Alternatively, you could draw a simple representation of each child with their name above their head if you don’t have photos.

Write the name of the child and who it’s from on the final page and… hey presto! A unique, thoughtful gift that they’ll treasure all for under a fiver!

The small print: I am very keen to keep this download as affordable as possible, so I’d ask you to please direct your colleagues to me rather than share the files. It should be within everyone’s budget to afford £3.50 for a 30 child licence and it means I can keep producing things like this for as long as possible.