15 Yearbook Ideas That Change the Game

Creating a yearbook requires months of planning. After ordering the exact number of pages for this year’s edition, you may struggle to come up with ideas to fill each empty spread. It’s time to think outside the box and check out these yearbook ideas that change the game. You’ll produce more exciting content than traditional headshots and make every student want to buy a copy.

1. Recognize Your Support Staff

Teachers get small gifts from parents and classroom donations to recognize their hard work. It’s a thoughtful gesture, but 3 million support staff professionals also keep schools open to students. Janitors, administrators, counselors and others don’t get shout-outs. That all changes if the yearbook staff recognizes them.

Include pictures of each staff member and a fact about how they help students every day. Even if students don’t know them well, the support staff will appreciate feeling recognized and valued.

2. Request Educator Fun Facts

Educators always do little things behind the scenes to create welcoming classrooms for their students. Interview teachers within your school and to discover those fun facts. Whether they made up songs to help their kids memorize math equations or started 30-second dance parties on Friday afternoons, parents and students will love learning about all the ways their teachers worked hard to make their education enjoyable.

3. Highlight Popular Field Trips

Middle and high schoolers often take field trips to extend lessons beyond the classroom. Yearbook staff in those grades can take photos while they’re adventuring with their classmates. If an English class reads Shakespeare, they might attend a local play to see the dialogue in action. Pictures of everyone posing outside of the theater or enjoying concession snacks will make anyone smile as they flip through their yearbook.

4. Interview Students About Internships

Internships are crucial for young people to prepare for their post-graduation college experience or career. Still, many young people don’t think about them until long after their high school experience ends. Empty yearbook pages are an excellent opportunity to raise awareness and introduce students to the many options at their disposal.

A yearbook staff member could interview another student who completed a virtual internship. They might discuss how they used a celestial mapping system to chart stars with astronomy experts without leaving home. It will expand the world of possibilities for young people who want to find unique internships to prepare them for their dream careers.

5. Provide College Study Tips

Graduating high school seniors are more likely to purchase a yearbook to remember their fun times back home. A page or two dedicated to college study tips will help those who plan to earn a Bachelor’s degree. Colorful backgrounds and geometric designs could inform readers about burnout symptoms and the importance of meeting with their professors for help. The seniors who read those tips will have an easier transition to a higher education study routine.

6. Create an Autograph Page

After receiving their yearbook, students of all ages want their friends and favorite teachers to sign every empty space. It leads to cramped signatures and thoughtful notes squeezed in the margins. Making an autograph page is one of the best yearbook ideas to defeat this unfortunate tradition.

As long as the autograph page has an explanatory header and plenty of blank space, staff members can make it match your annual theme. Everyone will appreciate the extra room to write notes and sign their names, leading to autographs that make each yearbook priceless to every student.

7. Provide Entire Pages to Graduates

There’s something extra sweet about pages dedicated to graduates. Parents of fifth, eighth and twelfth graders can purchase a full or half-page to submit pictures and notes about their graduating child. It’s a nice way to celebrate their accomplishments and recognize how hard they worked while growing up. If a yearbook team wants to do this idea, ensure that photo and notes deadlines are at least a month or two ahead of final proof submission and printing.

8. Research Facts About the School

Every student knows general facts about their school, but interesting factoids from the property’s history might surprise them. Research the school’s history or upcoming renovation plans to put factoids into your yearbook. It could be a fascinating step back in time or showcase what upcoming students can look forward to, like new vending machines or cafeteria menu options.

9. Preserve Social Trends

Young people are always jumping to new trends, so preserving what they’re currently into will provide a fun flashback when they flip through their yearbook in the years to come. Sure, TikTok might have accumulated 105 million North American users by the end of 2020, but it could join MySpace and Yik Yak sooner than people expect.

Include photos of students wearing popular fashion styles, posing with the latest Snapchat filters or using their favorite apps. You’ll preserve this period of their lives and give them fun memories for future reflection. It’s what making a yearbook is all about.

10. Take Surveys by Grade

Surveys are another way to memorialize what young people currently love. Students of all ages can participate and answer questions about their favorite things. Ask them if they prefer:

• Cats or dogs
• Milkshakes or ice cream cones
• JoJo Siwa or Millie Bobby Brown
• Netflix or Hulu
• Mario Kart or Fortnight

Their opinions will eventually change, but they’ll vividly remember their preferences when going through their yearbook as adults. You could host your surveys through a virtual link for older students or provide paper ballots to young kids in elementary or middle school.

11. Display an Art Show

Kids can always sign up for art classes, so ask them to submit their favorite drawings, paintings or pictures of their creations for the yearbook. They’ll love having their name next to something that requires so much of their time and energy. It’s also a treat for parents of young students to have their child’s colorful scribbles memorialized while they’re growing up.

12. Talk About Traveling

Most people are at least a little bit interested in traveling, so it’s one of the most widely approved yearbook ideas. Dedicate a few pages to where students traveled over the past year. Family trips from summer, fall and winter breaks could include pictures from their destinations and snippets about their experience.

You could also make a travel section about dream bucket list destination if traveling wasn’t an option due to local or global health concerns. It all depends on your students’ interests and what they’d like to see in their yearbooks.

13. Reflect on Championship Wins

Student-athletes put everything into their practices and games. It’s only fitting to save some space for their most significant wins. Include pictures from games and talk about how well the football or soccer players did. Snap photos of baseball players sliding across home plate and include their seasonal stats to celebrate their hard work.

14. Give the Principal a Mic

Many principals get to know their students personally, so it’s an emotional time when those same students walk across the graduation stage. Your principal might love the opportunity to write a goodbye letter to the graduating class and have it framed as a full-page spread in the yearbook.

15. Include Virtual Event Photos

If students had to attend class from home due to temporary shutdowns, ask parents to send pictures from their virtual activities. Photos of costumes from Super Hero Day or other Spirit Week dress-up themes would look great in any yearbook. It would also help students feel more connected as they reflect on their at-home education experiences.

Discover New Yearbook Ideas

There are so many great yearbook ideas to choose from, so consider what your students would enjoy seeing while flipping through each page. Whether you’d love to include letters from proud parents, student artwork or travel photos, you’ll create the best layout possible for your yearbook’s theme.