We have a Young Authors night every spring. The kids work, usually for a few weeks, on their books. The children write their story, get it corrected for gramatical errors. Then the teachers (or parent volunteers) type the story into the computer, leaving the top of each page empty for a child to do a drawing to go with that part of the story. Usually it is four or five sentences per page by about second grade. The cover (and back) of the book is oaktag paper and it is bound together (using the same kind of machine mentioned before) by parent volunteers or the teachers as their schedule permits! Usually we bind it before the pictures are done. The kids get to color pictures on the cover too. Then one night in spring, usually the same night as our book fair and ice cream social, we have Young Authors Night. All of the classrooms have a table where that classes books are put on display. All of the parents get to walk around looking for their childs' classroom table and read the books. They come home about a week later for those who can't attend. They get to keep them. The kids are SO proud of their work. Everybody loves that whole night! It is a great family fun night! Plus the books at the book fair are buy one get one. So it works out well for everybody!
We have a "publishing center" in each school. It's actually just more of a book binding room, but we call it the publishing center. Kids work on books in their classrooms, and when they're finished and edited, their teachers can sign them up for this. It's entirely run by parent volunteers, though our literacy curriculum director loosely oversees it (it was her idea in the first place.)
Let's see if I can remember how it's done- it's been a few months. Kids make covers by gluing large sheets of construction paper over 8*10 size pieces of cardboard. They make a "spine" for the book with duct tape over long, thin pieces of cardboard,m and the spines are attached to the covers. The pages are placed inside the coverand clipped together. Parents drill holes through the spine, and the child then sews it together. They decorate the covers on their own time back in their classrooms.
The kids LOVE this. They're so proud of their work.
We don't have a separate publishing shop. To publish "books" the kids have written, we use the laminating machine and a binding machine whose name escapes me.... It's one of those machines that punches little rectangles in the paper, and then you take those long plastic tubes with the prongs on them and bind them together with that (I hope I made this clear enough for you to understand what I mean--I'm really drawing a blank here on the name of this thing). The kids just draw a cover on construction paper, and we laminate the front and back. The covers get bound with the pages.
Do any of you have a publishing shop in your school? For those that do not know, it is a place where children can "publish" their work into a book or can frame a poem that they have written. The kids love it:)
I am new to this-a good friend started it up two years ago when our school opened--but I can see making a few changes. Possibly in the way we currently bind the books.
We take 2 pieces of cardboard, cover them in wallpaper with hot glue...this is now the cover. They fill out a nameplate with name, title, year, teacher, we duct tape the book into the cover. The kids decorate the cover with diecuts, stickers, writing, etc...We then cover it with Mod Podge, it actually keeps all the things glued onto the cover on the cover.
Anyway, I was just lurking around here and thought that I would search for ideas. Feel free to email me.
Thank you,
Jen This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
