The kindergarten life notebook, what is it for?

It’s the arrival in kindergarten for your child! We do not count the number of things he will learn and discover during these first years of school. Among them, the notebook of life. What is this notebook for? We take stock!

The notebook of life, on the program from the small section

The life book has been used for a long time by alternative pedagogies of the Freinet type. But it was consecrated by the official programs of the Ministry of National Education in 2002, which evoke a “book of life”, either individual or common to the whole class. In general, there are one per child, from the small section. On the other hand, it stops at the large section: from the first grade, the children no longer have any.

The presentation of the collective life book in kindergarten

The life notebook allows you to communicate with parents, to tell them what is going on in class, but also to individualize the child’s work: unlike the banal file which contains the files produced by the pupil, with the standardized presentation, the notebook of life is an object ” customized With its nicely decorated cover. In principle, the content of each notebook differs from one pupil to another, since the child is supposed to express his ideas and his tastes (story of scientific experience, drawing made from a snail farm, her favorite rhyme, etc.).

What notebook for a notebook of life? Can it be digital?

If the format of the kindergarten life book may vary depending on the teacher, most require a conventional format. A classic notebook in 24 * 32 format is most often requested as a supply. Increasingly, we can also see appearing in certain classes a digital notebook. This is regularly fed by the teacher and the students to communicate with the parents throughout the year.

The notebook also talks about school

Often the notebook is a catalog of songs and poems learned by the whole class. It is therefore more of a pretty showcase for the school than a real personal tool for the child. Likewise, the life book, to be really useful, for example by helping the child to be situated in time, should be exchanged between families and the school at least once a month. But often mistresses send her to families only on the eve of the holidays. If you have events to tell, do not hesitate to ask the teacher during the school period, for a weekend.

How to fill out the maternal life notebook: the role of the teacher

It is of course the teacher who fills in the notebook of life. But at the dictation of the children. The goal is not to make beautiful sentences, but to stay true to what the students have said. In large section, children often have the opportunity to type themselves on the classroom computer the text that the teacher wrote in capital letters on the poster collectively produced. So it is their work, and they are proud of it.

How to make a notebook of life in kindergarten? The role of parents

The birth announcement of the youngest, a wedding, the birth of a kitten, the holiday story… are important and memorable events. But the notebook of life is not just a photo album! A museum ticket, a postcard, a leaf picked up in the forest, the recipe for a cake you made together or a drawing, are just as interesting. Do not hesitate to write in it and have your child write (he can copy the first name of the kitten, the little brother, etc.) or to caption, at his dictation, a drawing he has made. The important thing in the end is that you have spent time together putting in order what he wants to tell, and that he has seen you write word for word, so he is aware that the writing is used to tell. important things in his life (not just the shopping list). This will make him want to learn to use a pen too.