Set Up:

• Set up two stations: one for painting and one for folding
• Cover tables with newspaper
• Make smocks available
• Fill containers of water to dip brushes
• Fill paint containers
• Pre-cut card stock for folding pages
• Pre-cut paper for book covers

Fun Fact: Paste paper originated in Germany hundreds of years ago as a way to decorate book covers.

Step 1: Introduction

“Today, you will work in two groups. You will do two activities to make your book, and everyone will get to do both activities. You will make paste paper for the cover of your book and you will fold paper to make the pages of your book.” Divide the class into two groups.

Step 2: Create the Book Structure

Model the following steps and allow for questions before asking students to complete them.

Paste Paper Station:

• Have students write their name on the back of their paper.

• Wet the paper with a spray bottle and spread the water with your hands. Use a sponge to mop up any excess water. *Tip: You do not want the paper to be too wet.

• Paint one color onto the whole page, using broad strokes to go back and forth. Make sure you cover the whole page, and work quickly so the paint does not dry.

• Using texture tools (combs, forks, brush handle, etc.), create designs in the paint

• Add a second color, but only use a little as an accent color. Use small dots of paint or lines of paint on the paper. *Tip: You do not want to paint over all the design work you just did.

• Use texture tools again to create more designs and patterns. 

Accordion Fold Pages Station:

• Show students an exemplar book and explain where the information and drawings will go in the book.

• Choose a color of pre-cut rectangular card stock. 

• Turn the paper to a vertical orientation and fold the paper in half. Then fold each half to meet in the middle. Next, re-fold the center fold so the book makes an M or W-shaped accordion. There should be four panels in the book.

Teaching Tip: When the paste paper covers have dried and you cut them to size, save the scraps for gluing puppets in Lesson 3.

Step 3:

When students have finished both activities, they will create a second drawing of their animal, using pencil, then permanent marker, and then markers or colored pencils. This will be used as the pop-out in the book. Students will cut this out during the next lesson.

Extra Time? 

• Students tell a story about something that might really happen to their animal in its habitat.
• Provide a Maine animals coloring station for early finishers.

Looking Ahead:

Share some exemplar “About the Author” texts, and ask students to be thinking about what they will share about themselves in that section.