Friday, January 11, 2019

A Print-and-Fold Book of Poems #1

I'm a big fan of making things, especially easy, fun things that are inexpensive and simple. So, when I discovered that one could make a tiny book out of a single piece of paper (8.5 x 11), I was hooked!  I've used this technique many times over the years and it always gets a great reaction from children. Once, a little boy sitting in the front row gasped, "It's magic!" And you can do all kinds of things with this mini-book format, from vocabulary practice, drawing, math play, and of course... POETRY! 

So, Janet (Wong) and I decided it might be fun to offer a ready-made printable poetry mini-book for teachers (and others) who want to inject a little more poetry into their work with children. So, here's our first installment, with a handful of poems from some of our Poetry Friday anthologies. See what you think!

Here's the printable page below and you'll find the pdf version at this link.


And here's a simple video showing you how to fold the paper into a mini-book:



Now look for more Poetry Friday fun hosted by Kathryn Apel, all the way in Australia! Here's the link.

15 comments:

KatApel - katswhiskers.wordpress.com said...

Oh!!! Thank-you! How many ways do I love this?! (Love the video to go with.)

Carol said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love this! What a great way to get poetry into the hands of kids! Can't wait to share this with teachers at my school!

Liz Steinglass said...

I love this! I can't wait to try it!

Catherine Flynn said...

Thank you so much for this little treasure! I have been making these versatile booklets with students for many years and you're right; they are magic! Filling them with poetry makes them even more magical!

Linda said...

I love this! When I was teaching, my students and I made folded booklets like these. They are easy to make and very useful. I agree with Catherine, filling them with poetry is magical!

Tabatha said...

Terrific! Thanks for this.

Buffy Silverman said...

Now this is fun!

Mary Lee said...

Way cool! Thanks!!

Michelle Kogan said...

Ah What fun!!! Thanks Sylvia!

luzdelmes said...

This is an awesome idea. Thank you!

Molly Hogan said...

Thank you so much for sharing this and for including the how-to video. I can't wait to try it and share it with my students!

Robyn Hood Black said...

What a fantastic idea! YAY! :0)

Sylvia Vardell said...

Thank you all for your enthusiastic responses! This mini-book is an old idea, but we've had fun adding poetry to it and thought others might enjoy a ready-made sample. We hope to create more (and share them) in the future too. I'm always looking for more great ideas-- and I get TONS from y'all all the time!

Heidi Mordhorst said...

Oh boy oh boy! This is going to be big, and if I'm reading the clues, "January 2019" is only the first in a series! Of course we all know about this, but having a ready-made one makes it easy to plunge in, so that by April, say, my 2nd graders will be able to make their own Poem-in-Your-Pocket Anthologies. Thank you, Sylvia and Janet.

Unknown said...

This is wonderful! More please! Thanks so much.