Bookmaking

We make a lot of books in our house! It’s a really fun thing to do with the kids and is a great writing activity for them. Sometimes kids do journals or writing in school but they do a new story every day. The message this sends is that writers are always working on something new. Bookmaking is a different approach because it’s done over several days so children learn that writers are working on a project for awhile and they are constantly revising.

I just take 3 or 4 pieces of printer paper and fold them in half. Then I take a piece of construction paper and fold that in half. I put the white paper inside and staple the edges so it looks like a real book. The boys love it! They love choosing the color they want for their cover.

We recently read a book called The Things I Can Do by Jeff Mack. It inspired me to make books with the big boys. So one morning we read the book again and then we made our own books about things we can do. The boys loved it! I had my middle guy (he’s almost 3) dictate his book to me and my oldest guy (who’s almost 5) wrote his own book. It was great because he had to keep writing the phrase, “I can…” This helps a lot with sight words because he’s learning those words in an authentic context by reading and writing them again and again.

In true bookmaking form, we will go back and revise and add more tomorrow but here are a few pictures of their work thus far.