Bookmaking With Kids

Last week’s bookmaking ses-
sions for teachers, librarians and parents was just fabulous: fun, inspiring, informative, friendly, high-energy and relaxing, all at the same time.

You wouldn’t believe how many books we all made!!

Our thanks and congratula-
tions to all participants, with a special thank-you to the Redwood Shores Library for the use of its spacious Community Room.

We were honored to have a truly long-distance participant, Rosanna, who teaches kindergarten in Bangkok, as well as Sushmita, who joined us from Virginia. (Check out her fabulous web site here.) Our bookmaking posse also included a librarian and her son, four Americorps members, several moms, plus teachers from the East Bay, San Francisco and the Peninsula.

Kudos to …

… all the teachers who wanted to learn something new when they could have had their feet up after a hard school year

… the moms who had to arrange babysitting

… our Americorps contingent for your commitment to kids … you’re all going to be great teachers!

… and our able and eager assistant, Molly.

In the coming days and weeks, watch for posts about the books we made, our templates and instruction sheets, our resources and more. And watch your in-boxes for a follow-up e-newsletter. Meanwhile here are a few photos.

Kudos to the Presidio Trust for its successful three-day celebration of Presidio history, Pasados del Presidio. The event drew hundreds of kids and adults for concerts, hikes, historical re-enactments and hands-on crafts from early California rancho life like adobe brick-making, pottery, pump drills, tortilla making and more.

Bookmaking With Kids was privileged to be part of the fun. These pictures show the handiwork of some of the youngsters who spent time weaving together the pages of a souvenir book and coloring its many activity pages.

Thanks to the Presidio Trust for the opportunity to participate!

If you visit the main branch of the Redwood City Public Library, you’ll find a display case filled with examples of the many books we’ll be making at Bookmaking With Kids: Summer Camp 2009.

We hope you can join us for some of our inventive how-to sessions from Monday June 22nd through Friday June 26th. Ideal for teachers, librarians, principals, reading specialists, arts educators, parents or home schoolers, these inexpensive summer-camp workshops are packed with ideas and inspiration, instantly do-able projects and easy-to-follow instructions.

There’s still time to register. Click here to learn more.

International Orange is the iconic color of the Golden Gate Bridge. I love its contrast to the water of San Francisco Bay, the sky and the coastal bluffs that seem to vary with sun and fog and rainfall, from the newly minted green of late winter to sage to tawny.

It’s a color you won’t find in a box of crayons or markers, however. But kids somehow manage, and I always love their interpretations. Here are five drawings by 3rd graders plus a big one at the end by a kindergartner!

Our summer book-arts workshops are beginning to fill but there’s still time to register.

Bookmaking With Kids: Summer Camp 2009 runs from Monday June 22nd through Friday June 26th. It features 14 inventive how-to sessions packed with ideas and inspiration, instantly do-able projects and easy-to-follow instructions. Whether you’re a teacher, a librarian, a principal, a reading specialist, an arts educator, a parent or a home schooler—these inexpensive summer-camp workshops are for you.

And it’s in an especially great location—the new Redwood Shores Public Library—that’s an easy distance from San Francisco, the Peninsula, the East Bay and beyond.

Here are some useful links for learning about Summer Camp 2009:

• For an online round-up of all 14 workshops, click here.
• For a calendar that shows the class schedule at a glance, click here.
• For a registration form, click here.
• For a flyer with full descriptions of each session, click here.

Bookmaking With Kids: Summer Camp 2009 has a session for every age, from pre-K through high school, and for all areas of the curriculum, from language-arts to social studies to science. Here’s a complete list. Just click the highlighted text to link directly to information about that workshop.

Books from a Single Sheet of Paper
Fun with Collaborative Books
Phenomenal Pop-Ups
More Books from a Single Sheet
Bookmaking for Events
Paper Decoration for Bookmaking
Bookmaking With Envelopes
Room to Write: Sewn Pamphlets & More
Books for Budding Scientists
Easy-to-Make Japanese Bindings
The Littlest Bookmakers
Maps, Maps, Maps!
Teeny, Tiny Printmaking

Hope to see you June!

Part of a series of posts about the professional-development workshops in our Summer Camp 2009.

Marsha’s technique for making tiny prints will blow you away! She uses a credit card machine (the non-electronic kind) modified to make impressions from lino cuts and eraser carvings. The resulting prints are the size of a credit card, 3″ x 2″ inches. Participants will carve images into several mediums and print on a variety of papers, as well as small 8-panel booklets.

Everyone will print multiples from one of their plates, share them with other participants and create a collaborative, accordion-fold sampler. Terrific for art teachers. Suggested for teachers of Grades 3 & up.

This workshop takes place on Friday June 26th, from 9 a.m.–1 p.m., in the Community Room at the Redwood Shores Public Library.

Marsha Shaw holds an MFA in printmaking from California College of the Arts. She teaches bookmaking and printmaking to adults and children at California College of the Arts, The Museum of Children in Oakland, the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, the San Francisco Center for the Book and elsewhere.

Got questions? Want more details? Need help deciding if this class is a good fit for you? Just email Cathy for fast, knowledgeable answers. For a Summer Camp overview in calendar form, click here. You’ll find complete workshop descriptions and a registration form in this downloadable flyer.

And to see all posts to date about Bookmaking With Kids: Summer Camp 2009, please click here.