Help an elementary school teacher create a really cheap and cool year book.

June 7, 2006 8:31 PM

Home made year book. 5th grade teacher would like to publish a simple and inexpensive book of photos for her students.

My wife has hundreds of photos (digital) of her students from field trips class events etc. and would like to create something like a magazine to present to her students upon their graduation. The cheapest form is best as we're paying for it.

1. How do I format it? (free software?, photos with captions?)(We have WinXP)
2. Copy at kinkos or something?
3. I'm thinking about spending $50-$75 for about 30 copies of maybe 10 pages each.

(We know there would be other options available if we were actually charging for the books/magazines, but we're not because these might be the only "yearbooks" these kids ever get.)

posted by snsranch to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

For the copying, you might want to start with small businesses and tell them what you're doing, encourage them to support the students...they would probably be more likely to give you a break on price. If that doesn't work talk to the corporate offices of kinkos and the like and see if any of them want to help you in a charity type of basis. One of these options should drive the price down.

As far as formatting, you should at least start in picassa (the google image program) they have tools to make collages and the like.
posted by nadawi at 8:51 PM on June 7, 2006

Ditto Nadawi on finding a company to underwrite the cost. If your local copy shop won't, try maybe another local business and let them put their logo on the back cover.

Great idea, btw. Don't forget a few blank (non-glossy) pages for autographs and notes.
posted by radioamy at 10:03 PM on June 7, 2006

snapfish is pretty cool and not too pricey. I have used them before and been quite satisfied.
posted by ozomatli at 11:05 PM on June 7, 2006

my daughters teacher this year just made CD's of all the pictures she had taken and handed them out. we can print them ourselves if we want.

She also photocopies some pictures and let the kids cut and paste them scrapbook style onto construction paper. My daughters captions were really cute.
posted by domino at 6:45 AM on June 8, 2006

Not sure if she knows this (she probably does) but Staples offers a 20% discount to teachers for copying/printing services.

Also, what if the kids did a fundraiser? A bake sale, or a lemonade stand, or similar, might help defray the out-of-pocket costs. But I don't know if this is feasible.
posted by elisabeth r at 10:32 AM on June 8, 2006