It has been great being an elementary school yearbook adviser for my kids school, Park Trails elementary, for the past four years! With an elementary school Yearbook I try to make it as fun and interactive as possible. I try to keep the pages themed with current events, pop culture and popular movies. A great example was photographing and all the children that had minion shirts on for the “We are one and a minion” page. I also included a step-by-step diagram of how to draw a minion.

I have received a great response from a lot of parents that their children enjoy writing in there Yearbook. I always include the “all about me” page at the very front of the Yearbook. I include an image of a blank Polaroid picture which says “place photo here” to make this page even more personalized. The teacher name word scramble page was a fun layout a couple years ago and since our mascot is the panther, I’ve done a connect the dots to create a panther page for the kindergarten and preschool age children. In last year’s yearbook, I did a page spotlighting our music teacher. Not only did it include photos of the children with their instruments and music teacher, I also found a word maze through the word MUSIC on the internet. If you have some experience with Photoshop, you can do a “Spot the difference” page. Duplicate one photo and make slight changes to one of them. Some examples that I have done is removing a tree in the background or changing the color of a child’s shirt. I have done this every year and have discovered it’s not only fun for the kids but the parents also!

A great source that I use for inspiration and ideas is the children’s Highlights magazine. I really enjoy going to a bookstore, grabbing a cup of coffee and scrolling through children’s activity books & magazines. Quite often there will only be one or two pages that give me inspiration so I just snap a photo of it.

If you are an elementary school yearbook adviser- Have fun, be creative, but most of all enjoy knowing you are creating a keepsake that will be cherished for many years to come!!!

Kelly Kiernan
Park Trails Elementary’s proud yearbook adviser