Art at Home for Week of 5/25

Welcome back! This week's theme is bookmaking. Making your own books opens up a world of possibilities. You can use hand made books as journals, sketchbooks, a place to write stories and more.  Scroll down to find your lesson for this week.  Grades 4 and 5 have a bonus lesson to try as well.  Have fun!

Bookmaking: Texture Book

For Grades K and 1

Texture is the way something feels. How does sandpaper feel? How does cotton feel?

Today you will make a book with different kinds of textures.

Materials:

*Large square paper, (12 x 12 works well)
*Plastic sandwich bag
*Tape, scotch or masking
*Items with a variety of textures: foil, sandpaper, felt, cotton, burlap, bumpy cardboard
*Paper for the back of the textures
*Pencil
*Small circular lid
*Scissors
*Glue

Steps:

*Fold the paper in half twice into a square. This is your book. (It is a book with one page!) *Decorate the cover and write the title, Textures, How does it feel?
*Cut off the top closure of the sandwich bag.
*On the inside of the book, attach the bag with tape on the sides and bottom. Leave the top of the bag open.
*Look for items with textures that you can place inside your bag (see suggestions above).
*Once you have five or six items, trace the round lid on each one and cut them out.
*Now you will make circles for the backs of each texture. Trace the lid on the paper and cut out one circle for each item.
*Glue the textures to the paper circles.
*On the inside cover of your book, write words to describe each texture. For example, cotton is soft, sandpaper is rough.
*Place your textures in the plastic bag, and your book is complete!

Rubber Band Books

For Grades 2 and 3

Materials:

3-4 sheets of copy paper
Hole punch
One rubber band
A stick that’s a little shorter than your book or a popsicle stick

Steps:

*Fold each paper in half, like a card.
*Place all the pages inside one another.
*Using a hole punch, make two holes on the fold, about 3 inches apart. 
*Make sure they are not too close to the edge.
*Thread one end of the rubber band through one hole.
*Position the stick through the rubber band’s loop.
*Wrap the rubber band around the back through the second hole. The stick should fit through both loops in the rubber band, keeping it in place.
*Fill your book with drawings, stories, whatever you want! 
*Decorate the cover. Add your name and a title for your book. Have fun!

       Back       Front

All About Me “Stretch Books”

For Grades 4 and 5

Materials:

One sheet of photocopy paper 

Scissors

Gluestick (any other glue if you don’t have a gluestick)

Materials for filling in and decorating your completed book: markers,

colored pencils, stickers, stamps, small photos or

magazine cut-outs...

This book is able to stretch because of one simple origami fold. 

They are also referred to as “Explosion Books” because they

kind of explode outward when you open them. 

Today you’re going to make a mini-stretch book using four pages. 

But once you know the simple fold, you can make stretch books

of any size and with as many pages as you like!

First watch the video where Ms. Goldman shows you how to fold

each page, and how to glue them together. Here's the video:

Ms. Goldman's Stretch Book Video

Here’s the step by step:

Start with one sheet of copy paper, cut it into a square.  Now

take that square, fold it in half twice and unfold, so you now

have 4 squares.  Cut these squares out, they will be your pages.

Starting with your first square, fold in half diagonally.  Unfold.  

Then flip the paper over.  Fold in half (so it looks like a rectangle)

and unfold.  Fold in half (like a rectangle again) in the other direction. 

Unfold.

It will look like this when unfolded.

Now press in the creases, until it smooshes flat.

Repeat this with all four papers.

Now it’s time to glue your pages together. 

Keep the 4 pages smushed down, like the picture above.

Cover the top square of your first page with glue. 

Stick the next page on it, so the bottom of one page

is sticking to the top of the other page.  Now cover the

top of that one with glue, and stick the next page on top. 

Repeat, until they are all glued one on top of the other in a stack.

Make sure there’s not so much glue that it will stick where it’s

not supposed to!  Leave the pages to dry for an hour or so.

When the glue is dry, your stretch book is almost complete,

all you have left to do is fill it with pictures, stickers, drawings,

magazine cut-outs, little photographs..….. All about you!

Be sure to decorate the cover as well as fill in the pages.  You

could add your your name in fancy writing, your favorite foods,

activities, sports, animals, or maybe fill it in with pictures of your

family, friends and pets, it’s up to you!

Have fun!



Bonus Lesson
"Zines"
For Grades 4 and 5

Making a Zine, 

an 8-page booklet made from one piece of paper.

(directions, diagrams and videos below)

Zines (pronounced “zeens,” shortened from the word
“magazines”) are small, independent publications that
come in the form of mini pamphlets or magazines.
Zines are easy and inexpensive to make.

Making a zine is all about self-expression and creativity.
Sound good? Okay, let’s get to it!

Zines are written to explore things that are happening
in your life. You can write and use a combination of collage and drawings to document your feelings.
But you can make a zine about anything;
Recipes, directions, comics, stories, drawings, announcements, artwork..anything! Have fun!

Watch the video below with instructions for making a zine. You can pause it to follow along, and you can x out the ads!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixqr9e3wCxI

And here's the step by step:

Here is a guide for knowing which space on the page is going to be which page in the book.