Overwhelming, it is -- just get it all sorted out on paper and that may relieve some of that weight on your shoulders. Your topics seem appropriate, so write those down and designate how many pages you think they should take up. I would say you'll be closer to 80 pages before you know it! Don't forget about the advertisements taking up pages, too.

Our school here is very small like yours (about 40 kids per class); we don't have a football team because of the size of the student body. But, if your school has any sports teams, don't forget to include them in that. I know our school plays basketball starting in 2nd grade! Also, if there are any honor societies or clubs/organizations, you'll want to pay tribute to those.

Perhaps if you're still trying to find content for filler, consider a page listing student awards, such as 'students of the month' or perfect attendance recognition? And, what about field trips? You could fill space with documentation of those -- or classroom party pictures.

Did your PTO have a carnival or any PTO events that you have photos from? Those could be in a "Looking Back" section that could have the captions denote the event & ID the kids in the pic.

I hope you find these suggestions helpful!!!

Hi AngiY!
Thanks for the info! It just so happens that we do in fact have a mom that works in Graphic Design and she has offered to help us out with layout and design. We also have a teacher in our school who's family owns a printing company and they have offered us a discount.

My new glitch is whether to go with that or go with an actual Yearbook Company. I have found a Yearbook Co. that can publish us for just over $2K which, in my opinion is completely affordable, however I must run it past our graduating families. Several of our 'deeper pocket' families have offered to underwrite some of the cost, I guess at this point I will see how that plays out.

I am still nervous about the content though. The yearbook company is offering 80 pages in their quote, I think that is an awful lot of content for 40 students. Not sure how big the book should be. I need to research more ... anyone have any ideas as to what I should include?

I have a section with Baby Picture, Current Picture and a brief Bio of each child (written by the child); a Booster section (to help us raise funds); a Most Likely To ... area; Favorites of 2005 - 2006 (movies, songs, actors, singing groups). I don't know if there should be more than that. I was thinking of doing a Remember When section and including things through the years (most have been together since Kdgn). I guess with all of that 80 pages sounds about right? Sorry for rambling. Just feeling a bit overwhelmed!

Hello there,
I actually own my own graphic design & marketing company and am very active on my PTO. This area is one way I contribute to my PTO -- since I went to college for graphic design and that is what I do daily.

You might try contacting your PTO members just to see if any work in the design industry. If so, see if they will help you out in the layout & design area. Chances are they will have the appropriate software to use, too.

If none are available, decide who will print your publication and see if they are staffed with designers who can take your information and design it for you. There are several factors that are involved with not only layout & design, but also getting the job setup correctly so the printer can actually print the job. If you decide to set it up yourself, you could set it up incorrectly and your printing company will spend a lot of hours getting it setup so that they can print it, which could cost you $$$ because of their time spent. (For example, if you're printing in color, all your images need to be in CMYK mode and not RGB, and at high resolution -- 300 dots per inch rather than 72 dots per inch.)

Sometimes a printer may give you a quote with the design included! Or, perhaps they'll contribute the publication by "throwing in the design for free!" You just never know until you ask!

Good luck with your project.
AngiY
www.angiyowell.com

Hi Everyone! I am so glad I found this post. I have helped assemble a yearbook in the past when my 8th grader graduated from 5th grade, but have never done it all before. It seems that this year I AM the Yearbook Committee! I figured that I would gather up a group of children from the graduating class and have them help me assemble the yearbook. The 2 fifth grade teachers have also offered to help, so that is great. My previous experience was going around taking digital photos of the children in action, but now I have to actually do the work, not just 'behind the scenes'.

We are a small school in NYC with a graduating class of just over 40 children. The cost of our yearbook will likely be high because we do not sell the books school wide. We will be doing 'business ads' in the back of the yearbook and boosters (personal type ads from parents to children, teachers, etc). Another way we are trying to subsidize our costs is through bake sales and other various fundraisers (which we haven't started yet! YIKES). Anyway, my question is, where do I start?!? I realize time's a wasting, so to speak.

I want to give these kids a great yearbook and keep costs down a bit, which will be hard since we are not going to purchase many books. I wish I could get in touch with DianeK (think that was the name I read) who posted back in 2005 that she had a long email with tons of info. I would LOVE to get a copy of that! Does anyone have ANY words of wisdom, guidance, ideas, anything they can toss my way to help get me started. I figured I would lay the pages out ala Scrapbook. Not that I have ever done that either! But it sounds like fun and I am looking forward to doing it. Any thoughts ... anything? Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

Has anyone thought to go to the local college and ask some of the people going to school for video editing to do it? Maybe they could cut you a deal and use it as part of their grade. Just a thought. I'm trying to talk my son and his friend into doing a video of the 5th grade.

OHMYGOSH--I LOVE having an elementary yearbook. It is so fun for the children to look back at themselves even 5 years before--they do SOOO much growing. We note old girlfriends, new girlfriends (you know the elementary kind) can track when/where 'best friends' are and I can see the boys friends by face which helps me when we're talking about them.
What I wouldn't give for a yearbook from way back when I was a kid. I cannot remember my elementary school teacher's names...that make me a bit sad....d