Bookmaking With Kids

Seven years ago I had the pleasure of teach-
ing at a family bookmaking event and help-
ing kids turn colorful recycled frames into goofy book structures. One 7-year-old used her frames to showcase two short poems, one about flowers, the other about a “mistery stew” made from ingredients she didn’t want to eat! (Click the photo for an enlargement so you can read the text.)

We’ve stayed in touch And today, to mark Poem In Your Pocket Day, I have the honor of presenting a recent poem by the same youngster, now about to enter high school. Thanks for letting Bookmaking With Kids share your work, Abigail!

CREDO

I believe in darkness
The chocolate-smooth
Comfort of no light

The open, blind eyes
Of someone not blind.
The pearl-strung sky

Heavy with velvet,
I believe in unseeing minds
Lost while the moon turns

Her face away, in tall weeds
stalking her with a rustle
as clouds cover.

By Abigail Schott-Rosenfield

This little sketch shows the bare bones of a Scenic Concertina, an appealing book form that invites kids to create a background illustration, add three characters and make up a story about what their characters are doing together in that setting.

The large fold on the left serves as a prop-up easel for the scenic backdrop; the little pleats (known as concertina or accordion folds) hold up the characters; and the flat panel on the right is where kids attach the pages of their story. This post is the first in a series chronicling all the steps it takes to transform a single sheet of paper (half a tabloid sheet, measuring 5½ x 17 inches) into a richly illustrated book about macaws of the Central and South American rain forest.

The 1st graders (students of my friend Debra at Lawton Alternative) began work just before spring break and continued through April with a goal of finishing in time for schoolwide activities in May devoted to endangered species.

Today’s post presents photos of the first two stages of the project.

• Step I: Draw and color elements of the rain forest as the book’s background illustration. The kids started by making a light pencil sketch on 5 x 4 inch card stock, filling into detail with crayons and markers.
• Step II: Fold the book structure, and glue the backdrop in place. You can download a template by clicking here. (Note that two are printed on one 11 x 17 inch sheet.) For instructions, click here.

Click to see more pix! more…

Here are some step-by-step photos showing the transformation of plain paper and a die-cut envelope into a colorful poetry booklet.

The first photo shows the folded envelope. (Click here to see what it looked like before folding.) Next you see students tucking one end of the text paper into the envelope. Then students folded the remaining text paper into four panels to form an accordion. With the decorative flap folded over the paper, each booklet was ready for words. The final pix show finished books, front and back.

A few words about dimensions: To fit a die-cut A2 envelope that measured 5¾” x 4¼” (slightly different than standard A2 dimensions, BTW), we used text paper precut to 5½” x 21¼”. Click here for information on the Ellison die that I used for cutting the envelopes.

I love using die-cut shapes in bookmaking, with barns and envelopes tied for first place in my affections. Kids love them, too, because they’re new, intriguing and mistake-proof. And for teachers, they make for projects that are quick to prepare and complete, leaving students lots of time for the important stuff … like writing and making art.

Many schools (or county education offices or public
libraries) have die-cutting machines and may already have dies that you can use in bookmaking. In the San Francisco Bay area, RAFT, the Resource Area for Teachers, has an abundance of dies that members can use for free. What if you can find a die-cutting machine to use but not the die you want? Consider ordering from Ellison, with lots of choices and reasonable prices.

For National Poetry Month I had the pleasure of conjuring a book project for three classes of 1st graders, using accordion-folded paper as pages for their poems and a die-cut envelope as a cover. To spice things up, we used individual artwork from each child as paper for the envelopes. The results were eye-popping.

And here’s the best part: their teachers said that because the kids had a creative hand in all stages of the project—painting the covers, folding the text paper, assembling the book, de-
signing a title page and then writing—the students felt a greater-than-usual personal stake in their work. And no surprise: their work was better.

The pictures you’ve been seeing show the raw ingredients for the project: a die-cutting machine, an A2 envelope die, a pile of student artwork, the die and artwork in position for cutting, one die-cut envelope and then a whole bunch of them! I’ll be following up in another post with pictures of the various stages of folding and assembly.

Recognize these images?

They’re 1st graders’ visions of the Milky Way, the final drawing in their Me on the Map books and a resounding stamp of originality in a project that introduced them to maps. This post, the last in a series, shows what Debra’s students did with preprinted maps in handmade books that were otherwise lush with original artwork. I see more than cutting, pasting and wild coloring in the pages below. I see kids spending time with new images and the new information they convey and, with a fistful of crayons, taking the first steps to making it familiar.

Kudos to Debra and her 2009-2010 class at Lawton Alternative!

Click each picture to see an enlargement. And click here to see all the posts in the Me on the Map series.

Stick-figure self-portraits by Debra’s 1st graders occupied the biggest part of their Me on the Map books because kids believe they are, after all, the cen-
ter of their own universe! After that first spread, the kids combined original artwork and cut-out maps. There’s one page apiece for their home, their city and their state. A map of the United States and another of the North American continent share Page 6. And a world map occupies the last page, along the kids’ drawings of the Milky Way.

Today’s post showcases the books’ second spread, with drawings of their homes—some showing the city’s legendary hills!—and a map of San Francisco. Click each photo for an enlargement. Click here to see all the posts in the Me on the Map series.