Reading Rocks! Easy Accordian Books

Kedren Head Start of Los Angeles recently hosted a successful literacy fair called "Reading Rocks". The literacy fair included story-tellers, workshops and hand-on activities for 4 year old emergent readers, all intended to reinforce the joy and value of reading. Finding a hands-on bookmaking activity that was developmentally appropriate and affordable for so many children was a challenge. To solve this challenge we used simple sentence strips, cut them in half, then folded them into accordion books. Each child used colored markers and animal foam shapes to create a story narrative in their book. These four year olds had a great time working with their materials, and especially enjoyed the challenge of pulling the backs off the "peel and stick" animal shapes. While we were tempted to provide paints, this particular setting didn’t allow for fluid materials. Children had fun just the same, developed fine motor and problem solving skills, and each went home with a handmade book. Enjoy this same activity with any group of young children when you want to provide a creative, problem solving activity that promotes literacy.