Bookmaking With Kids

Here’s another 10 to download, print and fold:

1. Collaborative House Accordion. Print this on four sheets of 8½ x 11 paper, single sided.
2. Dictionary Scavenger Hunt. Print this on 11 x 17 paper, single sided.
3. Frame Book w/ 4 Frames. Print this on 8½ x 11 paper, single sided.
4. Frame Book w/ 6 Frames. Print this on 11 x 17 paper, double sided.
5. Jack & the Beanstalk. Print this on 11 x 17 paper, single sided.
6. Japanese Punching Template. Print this on 8½ x 11 paper, single sided.
7. Presidio Book. Print this on 11 x 17 paper, double sided.
8. San Francisco Landmark Accordion. Print this on 11 x 17 paper, double sided.
9. Scenic Concertina. Print this on 11 x 17 paper, single sided.
10. Volcano Pop-Up. Print this on 8½ x 11 paper, single sided.

Most of the books introduced at the Bookmaking Intensive can be made from plain blank paper, without reference to written instructions or diagrams. But let’s be real: If you’re contending with 20 or 30 kids, it can be easier for starters to give them preprinted paper, complete with fold and cut lines.

So here are 10 templates (with more to come in subsequent posts). Clicking the titles in blue will open a dialog prompting you to download and open the PDFs.

1. Book Review with Sentence Starters. Print this on 8½ x 11 paper, single sided.
2. Castle Book. Print this on 11 x 17 paper, double sided.
3. Foreground/Background Book. Print this on 11 x 17 paper, single sided.
4. Guess Who? Book. Print this on 11 x 17 paper, single sided.
5. Mission Dolores. Print this on 11 x 17 paper, single sided.
6. Victorian House. Print this on 11 x 17 paper, double sided.
7. Whale Tails. Print this on 8½ x 11 paper, single sided.
8. Yakety Yak Faces. Print this on 11 x 17 paper, single sided.
9. Yakety Yak Text Page, Wide Lines. Print this on 8½ x 11 paper, double sided.
10. Yakety Yak Text Page, Narrow Lines. Print this on 8½ x 11 paper, double sided.

What if you don’t have access to a printer that can handle 11 x 17-inch paper? Just copy the PDFs onto a little thumb or flash drive and take it to a copy shop. The staff can plug your drive into one of the shop’s computers and print the templates for you.

As each class in the 2008 Bookmaking Intensive came to an end, my pile of workshop evaluations grew and grew. By week’s end they filled a large canvas bag. This weekend I finally had the time to read them. And that’s when I discovered how to thank my teaching colleagues for their hard work on the Intensive’s 16 classes: Just let the participants do it!

The colorful patchwork at left shows five of the more than 100 evaluations that came in from Intensive participants, one for each of us instructors. Here are just a few comments beyond those you can see:

• This is so awesome—what a treat to be able to have these skills and models to take back to my program …
• I can see millions of possibilities …
• I love the mixture of art, creativity and hands-on dexterity that is involved in bookmaking …
• Looked difficult but was made easy by the instructor …

Because I was privy to all the behind-the-scenes preparations that went into each class, I’m probably even more impressed than our students and deeply grateful …

… to Susie Peyton, who, as our “teachingest” teacher, led five workshops! Her talents ranged from injecting creativity into the Houghton-Mifflin curriculum to transforming ordinary stuff like envelopes into inspired books.

… to Marsha Shaw, who pioneered a new class for the Intensive. It was so popular that Teeny Tiny Relief Printmaking is being repeated in July.

… to Peter Linenthal, whose classes tackled the art part of book arts. His new instruction booklet, on basic illustration and how to encourage kids to draw, should be on every creative teacher’s shelf.

… to cj grossman, for her ever-popular Altered Books and Pop-Ups workshops, plus a new class that paired easy-to-make books with the work of famous artists.

Please feel free to contact these instructors to ask a question, share an idea and the like. Clicking on their names, above, will launch your email program, with the correct address automatically appearing in the right place. You can also send me email in the same way; just click Cathy Miranker.

Last week’s 2008 Summer Bookmaking Intensive for Teachers was inspiring, instructive and lots of fun. Here are some fun facts:

• 77 people took a total of 134 workshops in five days
• 47 people enrolled in one class each
• 18 people took two workshops
• Five people went to three sessions apiece
• Two people participated in four classes each
• Three hardy souls took five apiece
• And the winners were Janet, with seven workshops, and Lisa, with six!

Apparently Janet really couldn’t get enough of this stuff. She stayed late on Thursday for the drop-in book chat session, where she invented a fabulous book for her 1st graders (about which more in another post). Then, she stopped to shop at SCRAP on her (long!) way home to Felton. And on Friday, I bumped into her shopping at RAFT in San Jose!

More fun facts:

The largest contingent—five teachers of 2nd and 3rd grades—came from Dianne Feinstein Elementary School in San Francisco. There were also multiple participants from the Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts, Junipero Serra and Margaret Pauline Brown elementary schools in Daly City, Guadalupe Elementary School in San Francisco, Marin Country Day School, and Roosevelt, Clifford and Roy Cloud elementary schools in Redwood City.

The first person to sign up for Summer Intensive classes traveled from Phoenix, Arizona, and took five workshops.

Serendipity turned two out-of-town visitors into students. A retired teacher from New York, visiting her daughter in the Potrero Hill neighborhood, spotted our distinctive blue metal building, popped in to investigate and came back the next day for two workshops. Another retired teacher, making one of her regular pilgrimages from Newburyport, Massachusetts, for Bay Area book-arts activities, walked in just in time to join the last class and the drop-in book chat.

Congratulations to one and all for sharing your imaginative energy, high spirits and wealth of ideas for classroom creativity and for making sooooo many wonderful books.

A special thanks to the Summer Intensive teachers will be coming in the next post.

Plus ça change: This site has a new name, Bookmaking with Kids, and a new address!

Plus c’est la même chose: It looks and reads pretty much the same as before.

And it serves the same purpose: Bookmaking with Kids is a resource for you, a place to find book projects to make with kids—in the classroom, at home, in libraries and at community events.

For me, it’s part scrapbook, part notebook, a place to jot down my adventures in bookmaking with kids. I use it to think out loud about kids and books, arts, curriculum; to note my experiences, challenges and brainstorms. And I’d love you to join in. Teachers, librarians, principals, reading specialists, arts educators and parents are welcome.

You can find out more about me and Bookmaking for Kids in the About section. Feel free to emailwith questions. And please share your thoughts by adding a comment to any post.

This year’s birthday celebration for the Presidio of San Francisco is June 26th through 28th, and there are some great activities.

For kids, there’s storytelling, a ceremony honoring Los Californianos, adobe brickmaking, ceremonial horses and costumed riders, Ohlone songs, early California music and dance, a taste of Californio cooking, a visit with a Juan Bautista de Anza on the Anza Trail, and more.

Bookmaking plays a part in these festivities, too. Kids can make a 3D book featuring a panorama of the Presidio as it looked around 1799–1812, bringing the scene to life with their own artwork, stickers and paper puppets. You’ll find the bookmaking tables under the big tent in front of the Officers’ Club on the Main Post, from noon to 3 p.m. on Friday, June 27th.

For complete details about Pasados del Presidio, click here.