In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday on Monday, March 2nd,
we are making little books around here. Want to join in the fun?
This book is made from
ONE piece of paper with just 3 cuts! Here is what you will need: 1 piece of 12"x12" CARD STOCK works best, but paper might do if you don't have some. You will also need some scissors and a glue stick. That's it!
This is what our "Book of Love" looked like from
Valentine's Day. You can make yours be about anything. My friend Jessica taught me how to make these. She used them to teach a pre-school lesson. Some things we've tried: my 5 senses, nativity book, shapers, letters, math, my favorites, etc. There are 15 pages when we are done!
This time I will have the
kids illustrate the book and then ask them to tell me what each picture is about and I will write that in.
Here are the instructions. I used paper that is green on one side and blue on the other to help you see the process better. Let me know if you need more info :)
1-Take your 12"x12" cardstock paper and fold it in half.
2-Then take one side and fold it into your middle-fold.
3- Do step 2 with the other side too.
4-Then turn the paper so the folds you just made are going horizontally in front of you and fold the paper vertically in half the other way too.
5-Now repeat step 2 folding the paper into the middle-fold.
6-Now repeat step 3 and fold the other side into the middle-fold.
Here is what your paper looks like now. There should be 16 little boxes.
You can see all the boxes here.
7-The
1st cut: Start from the lower left side and cut up the first strip along the fold line-
STOP---before you cut the last box. You should only cut the first 3 boxes and then stop at the fold line for the last box.
I must have not photographed the next part well...so here is what the next 2 steps look like done!
This is what I did:
8-The 2nd cut comes from the other direction. Start cutting from the top of the paper----and STOP---when you get to the fold of the 4th box. You should only cut 3 boxes.
9- The 3rd cut comes from the lower side again-like the 1st cut. Cut 3 boxes and then STOP! Don't cut into the 4th box. All of these cuts are just cutting along the fold lines.
Now you start folding.
We are just folding along the lines you have already created. Some will fold
Up and some are
Down. It's kind of like folding a fan :)
1-Start from the lower left side and fold
up. You can see here that my paper is blue on the other side. Hopefully that will help you see how this is done.
2- This is kind of like folding a fan...Then next fold goes
down:
3-The last fold for the first cut goes
up. It should look like this:
4-Now take that bunch and fold it
down, under the 2nd strip of paper like this:
5-Now fold
up for the next fold like this:
6-Now fold
down to go under like this:
7- Now fold
up so that when you finish that row it looks like this:
8- To start folding into the next row you need to fold
down to bring the bunch under like this:
9-Now fold
up to look like this:
20-Next fold the bunch
down to go under like this:
11-Here you are at the end of that row by folding the bunch
up:
12-To start the last row, just fold the bunch
down to go under like this:
13- Now fold
up, so the bunch is on top, like this:
14-Now fold the bunch
down to go under-you're almost done!
15-Now fold
up to finish like this:
Good job! It was just like folding a fan (sort of)!
Now we GLUE:Put your folded paper down so that it looks like this:
You will have MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS. Then you will have a few folds that open to the
front or the
back that don't make good mountains and valleys. Those are where you glue first.
1-glue here (not a good mountain/valley)
2-Then glue here, towards the middle:
3- Here is the last "non-mountain or valley." Do you like all these "technical" terms :)
4-After you finish those 3 glue spots, your book looks like this: all mountains and valleys!
5-Now lay the book on it's side like this:
The "blue" side of the paper is on the inside. That is the side we will be gluing.
6-Glue here on the "blue" side:
7-Next glue here on the "blue" side:
8-Now glue here on the "blue" side:
9- Lastly, glue here on the "blue"side:
This is what the book looks like after gluing all the "blue" sides:
You can be done right now and you will have 9 pages (including the front and back cover) or you can glue the ends in to make them sturdier and finish with 7 pages (14 front and back).
10-If you want to glue the covers to make them sturdier, glue the "green" side here:
11-And glue the "green" side here:
Now your book looks like this:
Now lay your book back down and it looks like this (size compared to the scissors).
Yippee, you are done!
Now, you can title your book anything you want and start writing!
There you have it: your own book! That was a fun Little Project! If you would like more Dr. Seuss fun, check out how to make a
Wocket Pocket and
ABC Word Food.
