Miniature Books

Making Miniature Books was a fabulous success. This is a great open-ended art project. Well the art is open-ended with a twist of product at the end which makes for a great balance. You can use whatever supplies you have on hand. WE used markers, oil pastels, collage papers, glue sticks, and scissors. The pages were heavy weight card stock cut down into 8 pieces…most students made a book of six pages over a 45 minute period. The covers were made from construction paper and were bound with a stapler.
Students were encouraged to choose their own content, to draw what they enjoy and are good at. We started with markers and then moved on to oil pastels.

As students slowed down drawing I introduced collage materials with glue sticks.

We kept the markers and oil pastels on the table to students could toggle back and forth between materials.

The very last material introduced were foam stickers in a variety of shapes…some with glitter and some without.

Some students developed a story to go along with their art. Along with the parents I supported this storytelling process by writing down their dictations.

Each child chose a colored cover. I had labels printed out with the following text, ” My Miniature Book, Studio Sprout – Summer 2014″. There was enough space under the title to write each child’s name.

The final construction was simple. Each student ordered their pages and then with two staples we wedged the pages between a construction paper cover.

This type of project always makes my heart sing in the final moments. The students are usually more interested in the process until it all comes together at the end and then you can see their light bulbs turn on when they realize they just created their very own book. I had one parent tell me their child carried around their book all day. Another told me their child kept theirs on their night table after requesting it for their bedtime story. Each student developed something incredibly unique to them and each student felt proud and accomplished at the end of the class.