Making Books with toddlers - HELP!

[MelanieMC]

I am working with a group of 2 & 3 year olds at church. I remember when I was in kindergarten my school teacher had us make books (I think she used thick cardboard for the covers and covered them in wall paper and filled them with regular paper) that we decorated and made pages for it throughout the year with diff. holiday themes and pictures.

I want to make this type of book for my kids, but I'm not sure what would be the best way. What do you think would be good material for covers (I've seen ppl use foam or felt sheets, cardboard, etc.)? How should I bind them together?

When I decided to do this I thought it would be so simple, but now I'm sorta at a loss for ideas. : TIA!!!

[Montessori Mommy]

you could use thick cardboard (cut out from a cardboard box or pizza box), cover them with wrapping paper. 3 hole punch the covers and paper, and tie each hole with yarn or ribbon. You could also make fun shaped books this way (heart, star, teddy bear, etc.). You could also use heavy duty paper plates (like the chinet kind) and cut a circle or other shape out of the middle for the covers. You could draw directly on the covers, use stickers, cutouts, etc. this way instead of covering them with paper. You could also make your book from 8.5x11 sheets of paper and then have it bound at a store like kinkos (they have several options for binding). My sister has used this method to make reports for school projects, it's inexpensive and turns out quite nice. Hope that helps!

[MelanieMC]

Thanks!

[Flor]

I love making books by hand, but an easy and even cheap idea is also to use this company:

www.barebooks.com

They have blank white, hard cover journals and even blank white board books that you can decorate, color, or glue the kids' work into. They cost about 1.50 each and the journals could last a year. The board books (chunk bare books ) are around a 1.25,too. I ordered some for ds and colored/drew a story about him. I am ordering the journals for my classroom to glue their best work into.

[MelanieMC]

Jennifer, thank you so much for that link!!! I just ordered 10 of the chunky bare books. I think they will be perfect for what we are doing.

Thanks!
Melanie