Heritage Arts Build-A-Picture – Teacher's
Create a Booklet

Kids Grades 4 & up

Booklets are a great way to finish up a project. A booklet can keep the pieces of a project together and help give it a sense of importance. Putting together a booklet can also help young students learn about the process of making books and encourage a greater respect for them.

Here is a suggested set of steps for finishing off the Heritage Arts Build-A-Picture Activities by creating a booklet:

1) Print out Heritage Arts Build-A-Pictures & poems
Ask students to print out their completed Heritage Arts Build-A-Picture pictures and poems as they create them and keep them in a special place until they are ready to assemble them into a booklet.

2) Make additional pages (optional)
Here are some ideas for additional pages:

A title page – This can include the name of the project, student's name, date, teacher and/or school's name.

A dedication page – Books can be dedicated to a family member, a teacher, a friend, or even an idea. A dedication page could be as simple as: This booklet is dedicated to … or it could have a short poem and/or illustration.

An introduction – This could include student's thoughts on New Hampshire history or traditional arts.

More information on the tradition(s) – Older students can use resource links from the Learning Center's NH Folklife Essays section to research more information and ideas. They can print out the essays or write a page based on what they have learned.

More poems – Poems by other students or published poets can be added.

More pictures – Pictures of the traditional art forms from other sources (from magazines, their own drawings, etc.) can be added.

3) Make a front & back cover
A cover adds beauty and protection to a booklet. It is best to use a heavy paper to give the booklet some strength. Students can use pieces of cardboard, mat board, cover stock paper or specialty papers available at office, craft, or fine art supply stores.

The front and back cover can be two separate pieces, each 8 1/2" x 11", or it can be one sheet of paper folded in half (17" x 11" for an 8 1/2" x 11" finished booklet).

Typically, the front cover of a booklet has the title of the project and the student's name and some kind of artwork or design. The back cover can be blank or have the date of the project. Another idea is to ask each student to write a few sentences about themselves and put this on the back cover and call it "About the Author."

It is fun to put a design on the both the front and back covers. Special treatments can include:

A drawing – It is best to use a non-water soluble paint or marker. Crayons, pencil, pen, or permanent ink are more durable for a cover.

A pattern or border – These can be made with a stamp. Stamps are available at office, craft and fine art supply stores. Homemade stamps can be made by carving potatoes or cutting up thin sponges. You can use an ink pad or inks made for linoleum block printing.

Glued items – Flat things work best on a booklet. Possibilities include cut out pieces of colored paper, yarn, string, or pieces of fabric. Things that are too bumpy, like dried seeds, rice, or beads tend to fall off easily and make it hard to keep the booklet on a shelf with other books.

4) Assemble all contents

• make sure everything is in order
• number the pages in the top right or bottom right

5) Bind the Pages Together
Binding the booklet will keep all the pages together. In commercial book binding, there are three basic methods:

Saddle stitch binding – In this method, staples go down the center fold of the booklet. This binding is usually for magazines, small publications or brochures.

Glued bindings – In this method, pages are glued to a paper or woven fabric spine. This method is used for thicker publications like books.

Sewn bindings – In this method, pages are actually stitched together and through a woven fabric spine. This is the most durable and expensive method and is used for books.

For a school project there are many different and creative options. Three methods are outlined below. For all three, use a ruler to make a light pencil line along the left edge of the booklet to create a margin (about 3/8" to 1/2" in from the left edge) to serve as a guide.

Staple – Staple every inch or so along the margin line.

Tie – Use a hole punch to make three or four holes equally spaced along the margin line. Make sure not to punch holes to far in so the contents of the booklet are damaged! Use colored string or thin ribbon to tie knots or bows in each holes.

Sew – Use a hole punch to make 12 to 13 holes equally spaced along the margin line. Use a heavy duty needle and yarn or very thick thread to sew stitches in and out through the holes. The student can double back to alternate the stitches to make it stronger. The string or yarn can be tied off at the end.