End of the Year Coloring Memory Book

I wanted to create a memory book for my students but with pictures that they could put their little hands on.  I have done slide shows in the past, but I love giving my students things that they can see and hold!  I have had so many former students come back to me and show me pictures and books that we created in kindergarten that they still have that I decided to create a coloring memory book... After all who doesn't love to color and it gives them another activity to do during the summer!  It was such a hit with my students!

It was so easy to make and took about 20 minutes total.  My students enjoyed it so much that I wanted to share how I made them.

I started with the app Pic Sketch.  This is a free app that I downloaded on my iPhone.  I selected pictures from throughout the year and it turns them into a pencil sketch.

I used PowerPoint to make it into the pages of a book.  I made the PowerPoint slides the size of a normal piece of paper so it was easy printing.  Doing this is pretty simple.  You select "File" and "Page Setup."  In page setup, I changed my paper size to 8 by 10.5, which is about the size of normal printer paper.
 
I added the pictures to the slides and enlarged them to the size of the slide.  I tried to find as many group pictures as possible because the students love seeing picture of themselves.

I printed and copied these pages.  I selected about 15 different pictures.  This gave us a variety of pictures and different events and activities that we did all year. 

I added this adorable poem as the first page, with a picture of me and the students on the top:

I found this poem here: http://secondgradesugarandspice.blogspot.com.co/2015/05/ten-months-of-memoriesa-lifetime-of.html and retyped it for our book.
I bound the pages, but you can easily staple them and added a simple cover.

You can grab this cover as a freebie here:Coloring Memory Book Cover

I loved seeing the students looking through them and talking about them.  It was such an easy end of the year memory book that I know they enjoyed.
What type of end of the year gifts do you give to your students?