Oh, how I love book making!  It’s such a fun way to extend a traditional material or assess how much your child has retained, and kids love showing off their books to family members!

There are so many ways to do it!  One super fun way (especially for kids just learning their numbers or letter sounds) is to use the sandpaper numbers/letters.  Show your child how to do a crayon rubbing over the letter or number that she has just mastered, then let her add to that page pictures of words that start with that letter or put dot stickers on to match the number.  Each time she masters another one, she can add to her book with a new page!

You can also find lots of “black line masters” included with Parts of a _____ printables.  This will have just the outline of the whatever the topic of the cards is, so you can make copies of it and color in the parts in your own book.  For example, if you’re learning about butterflies, find some Parts of a Butterfly Cards that include a black line master.  Your child can color in just one part of the butterfly on one of the black line masters and label it, then repeat with all of the other parts on different pages.

A lot of printable bundles come with book making activities — Every Star is Different has several, and a couple of my own bundles include them.  They usually include cutting and pasting pictures onto each page with an option to trace or write the word that describes the picture underneath it.  This is also something you could do completely freehand — again, if you’re learning about butterflies, look at pictures of different types of butterflies.  Have your child draw each butterfly on a page and label it underneath.

To introduce it when you’re using a pre-made material, you usually have a “teacher copy” of the book and your child can use that as a control of error.  If you’re making your own with sandpaper rubbings or drawing freehand, I would make one page myself while the kids observe, then ask if they would like to make their own.  In can be an ongoing project, not just something that has to be done in one day.

Start with your child’s current interests or something they’ve been working really hard on and you want to give them that inspiration to keep going!  If they’re struggling with sounds, this is a fun way to motivate them to learn new ones so they can add to their books.

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