Ideas for portfolio formats

[Laiorwyn]

I'm new in my center, and have only been in childcare for 8 months now, but I was appalled that my great new center (with all its fancy equipment, strict adherence to rules and regulations and great programs) was using brown paper scrapbooks for their portfolios.

I want to suggest something really nice for next year, but am not wanting to suggest something too time consuming or expensive. what great ideas have you had to improve the system or make memorable keepsakes for your parents??

[catchmeifucan]

I am using the portfolios available in this site because these are the best I've seen and are exactly what I am looking for. (if you havent checked them out yet, go to online tools menu at the top). For presentation this year for each child's portfolio I have used three ring bind folders with plastic sleeves and dividers to divide each section. Such as learning stories, observations, all about me, parent feedback etc.etc

For next year I am thinking of doing scrapbooks and using each portfolio template as the main theme on the page. This way the children have an opportunity to get more involved in their portfolio rather than just looking through a folder. I want the children to create a page in their scrapbook around the template by drawing, colouring, writing, decorating etc. Like if I was doing a learning story on bubbles and adding it into the scrapbook I would get the children to do bubble painting around their learning story on bubbles.

I am hoping you get what I'm trying to explain.

[Laiorwyn]

XD I wish my centre was using the pages from here. I was looking through a portfolio by one of the other teachers and there were exactly 10 photos of that child and 2 artworks from the last 6 MONTHS. I couldn't believe it.