DIY Journals

DIY Journals @ the library

 

Supplies Needed:

•  Journal Pages
• Cover and Back of Journal (cardboard pieces)
• Construction paper
• Hot glue gun
• Rubber Cement
• Duct Tape
• Decorating Supplies
• Binder Clips (not required but helpful)

Journal Pages

The goal for this journal was to be very interactive and non-standard. This meant creating many different pages that included writing prompts, coloring pages and general journaling prompts. These sheets were designed beforehand using Microsoft Publisher and printed off. These were made with  pictures pulled from google images and most of the fonts are from Fontmeme.com

DIY JOURNAL PAGES

How to make your journal

1. Choose your journal pages and put them in any order you want.

2. Choose 2 sheets of construction paper and fold in half  (the fold will be towards the spine of the journal).  Hot glue pages together. The paper clips help keep all the pages pressed together tightly while the glue dries. 

3. While your pages are drying, decorate the Cover and Back of your journal. 

4. Once the pages are dry and the cover/back are complete, align the spine evenly. Use Duct Tape to tape the book cover to the pages. 

5. Use the Rubber Cement glue to attach the construction paper to the cover and the back. This also helps to reinforce everything... you know, so the whole journal isn't just being held together with duct tape...

And that's it!

This was done as a come and go craft one afternoon after school with school aged kids and it went fairly well! 

If I could go back and do this differently, it would have been alot easier to have done this craft as a group, with everyone on the same step at any given time. 

                         💚💛💜 

Boys Vs. Girls SRP Bulletin Board

For a little extra challenge this summer, our bulletin board was an interactive competition between boys and girls. 

Every time a reading log was turned in, participants came to the desk and placed a sticker on the current weeks section. 

Here the how...

The lined paper was made on poster board. This year, our program was 7 weeks long so there were seven lines. 

Each lined section had a duplicate blank piece of poster board cut out just smaller than it's section.

Can you see the duplicate sheet in this picture?

Each week, we'd have the duplicate, blank pieces sitting on the desk, attached to clipboards. 

Each gender had their own clipboard so they knew which piece to put a sticker on. At the end of the week, I'd attach the newly stickered piece to the main lined poster board posted on the bulletin board. 

Because I failed to get a picture of the bulletin board in its entirety, this was to the far left. 

My thought was to keep track of how many books were read each week and update thermometer to reflect that. 

That was a stupid idea. It was a pain and too much effort during the midst of all the summer craziness. After the first couple weeks, I started randomly raising the level just to show that we were still reading. No accurate groundwork or counting. 😬 It's not my proudest moment. 

 

You can see part of the thermometer in this one! 

💚💛💜