How to Create an Elementary School Yearbook

The fun tradition of elementary school yearbooks remains popular with students, educators, and parents alike. Before you get the joy of handing out books f at the end of the school year, it all starts with some teamwork, editing and design decisions, and capturing a whole lot of smiles on camera! Luckily, an elementary school yearbook project has never been quicker or easier, thanks to online platforms like the Mixbook Studio™.

One of the challenges particular to elementary schools is creating a book that pleases kids ranging from Kindergarten ages (and sometimes pre-K) all the way to the upper-grade tweens. An elementary school yearbook shouldn’t be too formal, nor too childish. Mixbook’s yearbook themes make it easy to achieve the right balance. Whether it’s for a small or large school, public or private, charter school, Montessori, or even homeschool, the following tips will help you create an amazing yearbook in no time.

Check out our ultimate yearbook guide: How to Make a Yearbook with Mixbook

Assign roles to yearbook team members

Elementary school yearbook projects call for a teamwork approach – one overseen by a project manager. The manager could be a parent or PTA volunteer, a teacher, or other faculty member. Your team can definitely include students, with tasks assigned according to their ages and skills.

Gather your team together for an initial brainstorming session. You might browse yearbook themes together for inspiration, discuss content ideas, sketch out some ideas for pages, and establish deadlines. During your meeting, assign the following roles or assignments:

• Manager(s) to oversee other team members, enforce deadlines, oversee collaboration, get final approval, and organize payment and ordering details.
• Photographer(s) to take new photos for the yearbook, collect photos from existing sources, organize files, and edit photos.
• Designer(s) to choose a yearbook theme, layouts, backgrounds, typography, and all the visual elements of the book.
• Editor(s) for writing text elements, checking spelling and grammar, conducting interviews for fun features etc.

Another key team member will be your Mixbook representative, who will get in touch with you within 24 hours after submitting a quote request on the Mixbook education page. Your rep will be a yearbook expert who can help every step of the way.

Categorize your yearbook contents

Yearbooks have certainly evolved over the decades, but their typical contents tend to stick to tradition. The yearbook team should start with a checklist of essential pages/spreads and categories of content, and brainstorm ideas for optional extras. All the following categories can be customized to match your unique photo collection and the character of your school.

• Class/grade pages with individual portraits or headshots of each student, plus their teacher, and an optional group shot.
• Message from the principal
• Meet the faculty
• Academics such as reading, math, art, and science, including academic awards and big projects
• Events and programs such as the first day, dances, school spirit, field trips, fundraisers, fairs, and holiday celebrations
• Extracurriculars including clubs, sports, and music
• Student profiles for standout students, honor roll etc.
• School motto, mission statement, mascot etc.
• Collages for miscellaneous photos of day-to-day school activities, highlights of the year, trends etc.
• Blank autograph pages

Make sure there’s a balance in content covering all classes and grades, students, and activities. Be sure to acknowledge all faculty and volunteers such as the school nurse, maintenance staff, and room parents.

Gather and organize photos

Once you have your content plan, you need to gather or take plenty of photos to fit each category.

Portraits

Some elementary schools use a professional photographer for portraits and group shots, but those can also be done informally using a digital camera or smartphone. Choose backdrops that aren’t too busy, and aim for a cohesive style, such as headshots from the shoulders up, looking forward, and smiling.

Candid photos

For candid shots, send volunteer photographers to capture candid moments around campus. Have photographers and interviewers work together on yearbook features.

Photos from apps and email

Most elementary schools share photos with parents throughout the year using communication apps. These are a treasure trove for yearbook photos!

Send group emails to everyone at the school who might have photos to contribute, including teachers, faculty, and parents. Give a deadline for these submissions.

Organize images

Organize all the potential yearbook images into a central folder, then create subfolders for each classroom or grade, plus the categories you’re using for yearbook content. You will probably need a “miscellaneous” subfolder for photos that don’t fit into other categories – these can be turned into fun collage spreads in the yearbook.

Tip: Use Google Photos for a yearbook project and upload the files directly to Mixbook.

Choose a yearbook theme

While you can start with a Blank Canvas template, we highly recommend choosing a theme designed especially for elementary school yearbooks – it will save you tons of time and ensure a high-quality, professional design.

Browse Mixbook’s comprehensive collection of yearbook themes and filter for elementary school options. All themes are 100% customizable, so you can switch colors, text, stickers, page order, and more. Here are some of our favorite themes for elementary school yearbooks:

• Colorful Chalkboard Yearbook

• School Days Yearbook

• Modern Elementary Yearbook

• Watercolor Yearbook

• Yearbook Primaries

Once you have chosen a theme and uploaded your photos, simply drag and drop the images into place.

Tip: Upload your photos and work on the matching pages and spreads one category/subfolder at a time.

Add text elements and more

Along with eye-catching images, yearbooks require a wide range of text elements. Assign team members in the editorial department to write useful captions and fun features. Examples include interviewing students with set Q&A like “what do you want to be when you grow up?” or “what is your favorite subject/extracurricular?”

You also need an editor on your team to check that everyone’s name is correct, and that all spelling, grammar, and details are correct as well.

Other customizable elements of the yearbook include stickers and backgrounds. You can easily customize these using the “Backgrounds” and “Stickers” panels in the Mixbook Studio™, and even create your own. Your school mascot, logo, or crest could be used as an accent sticker, for example.

Ready to get a speedy yearbook quote?

Kudos to all elementary school yearbook project managers – it’s a big job! Mixbook can help make that job much easier, and it all starts with a quote. Head to our Yearbook Page, enter your info, and a dedicated account rep will be in touch within 24 hours.