Bookmaking With Kids

This post, inspired by a New York City teacher doing a Colonial unit with her 1st graders, is the third of four exploring book structures that are well-suited to compare/contrast reports.

In a Staggered-Page Book, each page is offset from the adjacent pages by a fixed distance, say ¾ of an inch. When all the pages are offset, have kids paper-clip them in posi-
tion, fold the entire group in half, then staple or sew them through the fold.

I use colored papers, because that makes it easier for kids to offset each page. The finished book ends up with pages of different sizes, so you may want to provide 1-3 sheets of each color, so kids have enough space to write. The colored pages in the left half of the book could represent colonial topics; the same colored pages on the right side could represent similar topics in 2010.

As you can see in the photos, the books can oriented vertically or horizontally and are useful for many others kinds of writing projects.