Age Level: Toddler to Primary grades
Subjects: Anything. (The example quiet book is made for church, but a quiet book can be used for any subject being taught- reading, math, science, etc.).
Materials: Binder, dry erase markers or crayons, sheet protectors (unless laminating everything), and activity sheets (I recommend making sheets on cardstock), sticker magnets. small zip lock bags
Home Use: The quiet book is a perfect tool for parents to use with their individual children to work on things the child struggles with. I made mine for church, so my little boy would sit quietly during the main church meeting, and remember things I want him to remember about church- including songs.
Classroom Use: The quiet book is perfect for centers. You only have to make enough for the amount of students in the center, and it can be used for any center subject.
Idea behind the Quiet/Centers book: The idea is so students and children can work individually at their own pace by doing fun activities that reinforce a subject, story taught, or song learned. My sample quiet book mostly has activities in it from Primary children songs from church. It also has a coloring page from a scripture story. Children use dry erase markers or crayons to write on the sheet protectors to color the pages or do the activities. The markings wipe off easily, so other children could do the same activities, or if used for individual and reinforcement use, the individual child can do the activity multiple times until he/she is bored with it, or fully understands the concept. When new subjects, stories, and songs are learned, new activity sheets can be placed in the sheet protectors, and the old sheets can be stored for next years class or the next child.
The activities that do not involve dry erase markings use magnets to attach pieces to the activity sheet.
To Make the Quiet book Binder is simple: The activity sheets will go in the sheet protectors which go in the binders. There are lots of ways to make activity sheets. You can get a bunch of free pintables from this website: http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/2011/03/tot-school-printables/
I also created some of my own activity sheets using Paint or searching for certain clipart. If using the quiet book for certain subjects, you can get lots of free pintables from teacher sites. I am giving you a free printable from one of my activity sheets to get started!
To make activity sheets using magnets, you will need the activity sheet and the pieces that will go on the sheet. I recommend laminating the small pieces so they will last longer. I used self sealing laminate sheets. After laminating your pieces, cut sticker magnets to the size of piece that will go on the sheet, and put the sticker magnet in the proper places on the sheet and on the pieces.
Sample Quiet Book:
Dry erase crayons go in the front pocket of the binder. (Markers or crayons can also be put in a zip lock bag that is whole punched and attached to the binder.
Activity sheet that use dry erase writing utensils:
Activities that use magnets to attach pieces to the activity sheet. The small pieces are stored in a small whole punched zip lock bag. Used one zip lock bag per activity page, so the small pieces don’t get all mixed up.
The activity pages can go in any order in the quiet book. The ones in this book are ordered with the dry erase activities first, the easier magnet activities second, and the harder magnet activities last.
A few things to note: The quiet books can also include pictures of what is being taught or reinforced, such as pictures of animals, letters, or even family members. This way little children will learn using visual arts before doing the activities.
If you need ideas or have questions on what to do with your quiet or centers books, let me know! I have lots of ideas!!!
