Simple Book Binding for the Classroom
One of my greatest resources for my Daycare is garage sales. I am always amazed at what I can find and the many uses I find for things people sell. A month ago, I found a treasure. I almost passed over it, but the price tag sold me. It was a pretty blue and white laminator, and are you ready for this....bookbinder! It is called 'Your Story'.
I didn't need another laminator, but for $5.00, I could sure use a bookbinder. Here is how easy it is.
I made a few books using 8.5 x 11 cardstock for the cover and copy paper for the pages.
Materials:
Copy paper (cut into two 5.25 x 8.5-inch pieces)
One piece of cardstock (8.5 by ll inch)
Scoring board
Glue Gun and gorilla glue
Your Story Book Binder (or hot plate)
Directions:
I printed out my paper from the booklet I created in PowerPoint. The slides in my PowerPoint project were the same dimensions as the inside booklet paper. If you were leaving the papers blank you would cut the copy paper into 2- 5.25 x 8.5-inch pieces and this leaves about a 1/2 inch waste. Use a paper cutter to get straight cuts.
To make the book cover, Place the cardstock lengthwise on the scoring board and score at 5 2/8, 5 3/8, 5 5/8, and 5 6/8. inch. Fold or bend the two middle lines like a mountain and leave the other two scored lines for now. You should have a book cover shape with a 1/4 inch spine.
The machine comes with some premade book covers (hardcovers) and you can order more. I wanted to see if I could do it myself and so I got out my glue gun and made a thick line down the inside of the spine and let it dry. I was careful not to take it right to the top and bottom edges. Once it had cooled, I put my stack of papers into the book and knocked it down so they were flush with the spine and straight on the edges. I stuck this into the binder part of the machine with the spine down and held it there. The machine will beep when it is done. Then I put it into the cooling rack and the process was complete. The book is strong and I can bend the cover back (thanks to the fold lines) and the papers stay where they should.
You can do this with any size book (as long as the cardstock or poster board will cover back and front with the spine.
How could I do this without this amazing machine? I think the magic is in the glue gun. All that is needed is a heat source to reheat the glue and bind it to the paper. A hot plate could achieve this just as well as long as you keep the spine pressed against the heat source until the glue melts into the paper. My little machine is handy but not essential for this activity.
This past week I made two books for the Littles. One is an Alphabet book with pictures of items around our outdoor space, each starting with a different letter of the Alphabet. This is a very personal book for them and one they can use together to explore their play space.
The other book is for our farm theme and gives clues to the animals hiding behind the fence. You can just see parts of the animal. I love this book for circle time as we explore the unique features of each animal on the farm.
This book will be part of my Farm theme in My Store at 'Teachers Pay Teachers'.
I can see us making books a lot in the near future. What kind of books can you see yourself making?
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