Pre-K Accordion Book Project

About a year ago a school that I have visited many times asked me to work with their youngest students.  I was more nervous about working with these four-years olds than I have been with any group in years.  The teachers wanted to do a book that would help the students grasp the concept of seasons.  The project turned out well, and we repeated this same project last week.

We made a French Fold Accordion  out of a large sheet of paper (23″ x 35″).  This paper arrived in front on the children pre-folded, except for the last two accordion folds.   Drawing on my fondness for stick figures, we glued popsicle stick/craft sticks to the accordions to make our people.

Using a combination of 3 inch squares of fabric and paper we then “dressed” the stick figures in season appropriate clothing. Full squares were used for jackets.  Sqaures were cut in half for sleeves and pants.

Children were also given circles, punched out from cover stock,  which they used to enhance their drawings: for winter they made snowmen; spring, an umbrella (half-circle); summer, a sun; fall, a pumpkin.  They then wrote the name of the seasons by tracing over dotted lines which spelled out the seasons.

To finish off the project, students arranged some bright color squares on the cover, we traced their hands and then the students wrote their names.

A good time was had by all.