A Fold-Up Dinosaur Diorama

  

Dinosaur book and folder

There is generally one project that I am most smitten by each year. This year’s dinosaur project, which first grade teacher Mrs. Kaveny and I put together, is my star of the season.

Here's the Generic Dinosaur Sample Book that I Made to Show Students

We folded two 11″ x 17″ cover weight papers, a blue paper for the background, and a white paper for the foreground. Using pre-pressed score lines, students folded the sides of the white paper in 4.25″ on both sides, so that the paper closed like a set of french doors. We added a pop-up on the left  fold, and cut curvy mountain ranges on the top edge.  The blue paper was folded just a bit differently than the white so that the papers overlapped in an interesting way.

Jake's Dinosaurs

For me, the highlight of the project was bonding to our dinosaurs. Students were assigned a specific dinosaur. The librarian, Mrs. Fields, downloaded line drawings of dinosaurs from the Enchanted Learning website then students colored in their dinosaurs. Mrs. Kaveny and I both agreed that no one really knows what colors bedecked the dino’s bodies, so these  7-year old artists used colors at their own discretion. After the coloring was done, I took their drawings home, scanned them into my computer,  then copied the image three times, doing some shrinking and stretching, so that I was able to hand back three dinosaurs -a family!- to grace inside of the book.

Of course we needed to insert the research writing. There are two books within this book. On the right hand panel there’s a folded page which contained “fast facts.” In the center of the book there is a pocket which contains another book, which is filled with complete sentences and paragraphs.

Here’s what the pages for the writing looked like in my sample. After the part of the project that I facilitated was done, my time at the school was over, so I didn’t have a chance to see the project completed. Students did the writing and the rest of the landscape decoration with their teacher.

The finishing touch to the book was Mrs. Kaveny’s title for the book, Dino Details. We cut out the title in the shape of a dinosaur egg and made a crack. The students were talking about adding a baby dino on the cover too. Wish I had thought of that!

Royalty Check!

Nine years ago Kathy Pike, a seasoned Scholastic author of educational books, asked if I would like to be a co-author on a book that has been entitled 25 Totally Terrific Social Studies Activities: Step-by-Step Directions for Motivating Projects That Students Can Do Independently. I did my work, received an advance, and for years and years that was the last I heard of the book. It seemed  to have been shelved and forgotten.  A couple of years ago I discovered that it had been published. Scholastic sent me ten copies of the book. It was a thrill to have the book in my hands. Now I’ve unexpectedly received a few hundred dollars of royalty money in the mail. I guess the book is selling…as well it should .

First, let me say there’s nothing fancy about this book. On the other hand, it’s only $9.00 and it’s full of really  accessible projects.  When I first saw the book I was sad that it wasn’t one of those full color glossy bookmaking books, but when I took the time to really look it I have to say that it’s diamond in the rough.  The title references social studies projects, which is just fine, but it’s really a great resource about making books in the classroom.

The picutes in the book are all in black and white, but I still have some of the orginal color photos from my old camera. Here’s a color photo of one of the projects.

I bribed my children into doing the writing and making the images for this sample book as I wanted it to look authentic.

No one asked me to look over the way that the publishers presented the directions in the book, so some of the directions are not quite on target.  Here’s a tip: if you buy the book and want to make the Origami Pamphlet you can print up a better set of Origami Pamphlet directions right here.

Here’s another page. I’m showing this because it describes a clever structure, submitted by one of the other authors Jean Mumper. I’ve never made it this one, but I keep meaning to try out.

At the time that we were working on the manuscript Kathy directed me to a group of students who had made this folded circle book. I took some photos which (hopefully) give a sense of the circular way that the pages of this book open.

Folded Circle Book, unfolding

This circle is about the size of a coffee can lid.

Folded Circle Book, folded

The title fully shows only when the book is fully closed.

The first quarter revealed

When each quarter of the book is opened, a picture is revealed, and, as an added bonus, there is room on the folded piece to write a caption. The books that I saw were made with layers of  circles so that there are more than  four quarter pages to the book.

Folding Circle Book, with pages unfolding more

These folding circle books had some fun sculptural possibilities.

 It was a good experience to write my part of this book. It was a real pleasure to get a surprise check many years later. I want to say, though, that the best part of putting a book into the world is that I was able to write a dedication. While my children were young their nursery school teacher and day care provider, Becky Potter, was an angel in my life. There is no way I could adequately ever thank her for the support and care and wisdom my family found in her generous spirit. I was so happy to dedicate my part of the book to her.

 

Graphic Design Elements for First Graders

Book Covers Designed by First graders

Book cover design has its challenges for all ages.  When the books that I make with children have a title page,  rather than repeat the title page info up front,  I like students to design a visually stunning cover. I used to give first graders lots of bits of cut paper, with the directions that they should cut and glue a nice design on to their covers. Those of you who work with first graders know exactly how that goes…..I’ve tried many approaches to the cover graphics, and recently I tried something out that is an elementary version of something I have done with adults. I was happy with the results, so here it is.

2'" x 8" strips of paper, plus assorted bits

I started out by letting students pick just one strip of 2″ x 8″ paper. They then took just two small pieces of paper from an assortment of bits of paper that were in a box. The technique that I encouraged was specific:

• make just three or four cuts in the larger paper, to create small cut-outs
• make just one cut in just one of the smaller pieces
• arrange the papers on the cover so that the cut-outs from the larger paper are near to the places they were cut from
• arrange the other piece as desired and glue down well.

I think I also mentioned something about “less is more” to these budding graphic designers. Most of the students were able to resist the urge to cut and paste any which way, and they came up with a variety of really fine book covers.

Modern Art Design Covers by First Graders

An added bonus to this technique, besides looking good it took only minutes for these designs to be completed.

Now, here’s some cut paper designs, using a similar method of working, that I do with adults.

Cut Paper Designs by a Grown-Up

 Most first graders aren’t up to creatively cutting long edges of paper, but that will change in a few years. For now, a few snips here and there, and thoughtful placement works just fine.

Fractions / Accordion Book

Accordion Fractions Book

Here’s the rest of what I started in my last post about this book with the narrow accordion spine.  What I like about combining this structure with fractions is that it makes a concrete (ok, paper) connection  between the relationship of different “families” of fractions to each other.  For instance, just by looking at the pages when the book is expanded, as it is in the photo above, it’s clear that two-fifths is bigger than one-fourth, and 2/2 is the same as 3/3.

After making the accordion spine in the last post, there’s actually one more step, because I needed not four, but  five accordion folds.

To make the fifth accordion, start by folding just one edge over to meet the closest crease.

To make the fifth accordion pleat the students folded one of the edges to the closest crease, pressed down the fold then turned the paper over and brought the crease up to the master fold.  Done.

Accordion spine with covers

Now the covers go on….

pages of fractions, 8″ x 5 1/2″

…and the pages go in.  After a conversation with  my wise special ed friend teacher, Melanie, I decided to label the left side of the pages with part of the fraction that each slice of paper singularly represents.

Gluing pages into Fractions Book

Students cut the papers  to their appropriate sizes  (on the lines that were printed onto the papers).  This step, to my surprise, didn’t take long and went quite smoothly.  There was the occasional leaking out of glue that made some pages stick a bit to each other, but that was easily fixed.

The students labeled the right, exposed edge of the fractions book, with the fractions written sequentially.

Now it’s time to decorate the cover, using 2 inch squares to cut into fraction pieces.

And decorated they did.

The only thing left to do, if they choose, is to write on the blank parts of the pages, perhaps adding in math facts.

A big thank you to the teachers who trusted me when I said, hey, we can do a fractions book…I’m sure they had no idea what I was talking about. And it worked out so well! Everyone was happy.