Lovely childcare

Handmade ideas to brighten up your preschool graduation album: fun to create, delightful to receive!

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked as a kindergarten teacher for 10 years and as an after-school childcare instructor for 7 years, then took a position as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I engaged in activities that introduced Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational activities, working with many children. Later, through freelance writing, planning, and editing at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and sharing. Drawing on the perspective cultivated in the field of education and my experience as an editor, I provide practical information with an emphasis on both input and output, mainly in areas related to music and children. My hobbies include instruments, singing, handicrafts, toys, drawing, traditional games, the outdoors, and books. My special skill is spinning-top tricks.
20 years of experience as a nursery teacher / kindergarten teacherhiyoko sensei
I’m Hiyoko-sensei, a former nursery school teacher from Hyogo Prefecture. Ever since I was five, my dream was to become a childcare worker, and before I knew it, 20 years had passed since I achieved that dream. Through singing and playing with the children, I kept working with the spirit of someone in their twenties, even as I increasingly felt my physical limits year by year (haha). From here on, I’d like to share helpful information carefully and thoughtfully, drawing on my on-site experience.

We’ve gathered wonderful ideas for parents and teachers creating handmade graduation albums.

You’ll find tips for heartfelt albums, including decorations using construction paper, ways to incorporate children’s drawings, and how to make individual pages.

We also introduce ideas you can use for albums presented to teachers, as well as decorations with origami and felt—perfect for capturing kindergarten and nursery school memories.

Try making a one-of-a-kind graduation album together with the children!

Handmade touches to brighten the preschool graduation album! A collection of fun-to-make, joy-to-receive ideas (41–50)

Accordion album

Handmade accordion album project for a preschool graduation memento

Accordion album

To help them look back on their memories, it can be nice to give an album at the graduation ceremony.

While a book-style album is lovely, why not try making an accordion album that’s easy to unfold? Wrap pieces of thick cardboard with fabric, attach them to a sheet of drawing paper folded in a zigzag (accordion) pattern, and then paste photos onto each piece of cardboard to complete the accordion album.

Choosing which fabric to use and how to add decorations besides fabric offers a wide range of creative variations, which is part of the fun.

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Frame the photo with a frame illustration

If simply pasting photos feels a bit bland, a great trick is to frame them! You’ll be putting lots of photos in a graduation album, right? There are probably some you want to make stand out.

Printing them larger can work, but they might not fit in the album.

In that case, try drawing illustrated frames to highlight the photos! Using masking tape to create frames is also recommended.

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Use speech bubbles

Speech-bubble icons are a great idea that can instantly make your album look cute—just add them in.

You can buy ones that say things like “HAPPY!” at a 100-yen shop for a cool look, or use smiley faces for a more playful vibe.

The fun part is that you can try all kinds of arrangements depending on your ideas.

You can also have kids handwrite simple messages like “Congratulations” or “I had fun,” and just frame them with a speech bubble to create an adorable design.

Try coming up with lovely designs that match the children’s reading and writing levels.

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Use origami

Origami, which the children got familiar with during their time at the kindergarten, is perfect for decorating a graduation album filled with memories from school! Decorate each seasonal page with origami that evokes the time of year—cherry blossoms for spring, sunflowers and morning glories for summer, acorns and sweet potatoes for autumn, and Santa Claus for winter.

It’s also a lovely idea to paste in pieces the children made themselves.

Once they enter elementary school, kids have fewer chances to do origami.

As a play activity that symbolizes their days in kindergarten or nursery school, why not include origami alongside the cherished photos in the album?

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Decorate with polka dots

Let’s fill the slightly plain areas with polka-dot decorations! Draw dots with a pen or paste on circles cut from construction paper to instantly make a simple album look lively.

There are tools like circle cutters for making perfectly round shapes, but slightly uneven, hand-cut circles also have a charming handmade feel.

Try unifying the colors of the circles or, conversely, making them colorful—have fun decorating with different variations.

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