Last week I co-taught a winter arts camp over two afternoons for a group of 6-12 year-olds. We played tons of games and created books, using (among other things) fabric collage and block-printing.

Doing internet research before the camp, I came across some really useful bookmaking websites. In particular, both Bookmaking with Kids and makingbooks.com are awesome resources. After trying out a few different simple book patterns, I ended up settling upon the Stick and Elastic Book.  I followed the pattern pretty much exactly, but added covers to this pattern, made of a thicker paper.  This meant that the children had a stiff front and back cover to decorate, as well as 8 ‘inside pages’ to work with.  I pre-cut, folded, and hole-punched the inside paper and cover paper.  During the camp, the children went outside to select their own sticks.  They also chose their own elastic band colour.  I then walked them through the assembly process (in groups of 6). This was fairly simple, and it was nice that it didn’t involve sewing (some of the younger children still needed help threading their elastic bands through the pre-cut holes). Because of the book design, the children were also able to take apart and put together their books if they wanted to.

The books were all very unique and beautiful.  I’m excited to try out more bookmaking activities in future classes!