Two handmade, recycled notebooks

for a rainy Sunday

Frog Troublers, we have two crafts for you on this cold and rainy Sunday. Both are inspired by Harriet, who (like her mom and dad) is always writing and drawing in a notebook (or looking for said notebook).

Either craft would also work well in a classroom—in fact, I made the first notebook last week with my creative nonfiction students, and have been really happy to see them writing in them during class.

Both notebooks also put last year’s old stuff to good use. They use common, everyday items, including something you may not have recycled yet: last year’s wall calendars!

For the Japanese stab-bound notebook, you’ll need:

-an old calendar

-blank paper

-a pencil and ruler

-needles and embroidery thread

-a candle (preferably beeswax)

-an awl or a pushpin

-a binder clip or clothespin

-a paper cutter or scissors

1. We used last year’s moon calendar for this one, but you can use any pretty calendar pages you like. The calendar will be the cover. Set it aside, and cut your inside pages first.

2. Using your paper cutter, cut blank paper (grid or computer paper works well) into a size you like. It’s easiest to cut notebook-sized paper in half, then half again if you want a very small book. Stack the pages.

3. Next, take one of your sheets of paper and use it as a template to cut a front and back for your notebook.

4. Using that same piece of paper, draw a line down the spine (shorter) side, 1 or 1/2 inch from the edge. Fold that paper in half three times (see video below!).

5. Starting with the first fold, make four evenly spaced dots where the fold intersects with the line (see below).

6. Use this as a template to punch holes through your paper and covers where the dots are (stacked neatly and secured on the side with a binder clip). We don’t have an awl, so I used sharp pushpins. If your book is thick, you might have to do this in sets.

7. Now you’re ready to sew! You can use plain embroidery floss, but it’s smoother and easier if you wax it first. Cut a length of thread about five times the length of your book’s spine. Hold it next to a beeswax candle or ball of beeswax, and run the full length of thread along the wax about four or five times. This will stiffen and coat the thread. (You can buy waxed thread online but it’s harder to find 100% cotton waxed thread. The poly-blend thread does not work as well!)

8. Follow directions on the video (below) to sew your book:

We made one of these for Uncle Skipper, who gave us our new telescope and loves to look at the moon. I think I’ll put another one in the mail to a friend tomorrow.

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The next notebook is easier for kids to make, and can be very simple or a little bit fancy. For this one, you’ll need:

-a pencil, stick, or old watercolor brush

-a rubber band (we save the rubber bands from produce like broccoli)

-plain paper

-the back of a watercolor tablet or other stiff board fished out of the recycling bin

-scissors or a paper cutter

-a hole punch

Optional for the fancy version: old magazines and Mod Podge, paintbrush. Calendar page for cover.

1. Cut your stiff cardboard into the shape and size of tablet you like. Next, cut your white or lined paper a little smaller than this.

2. Optional: cover your stiff cardboard with pretty paper, decoupage style. Using a paintbrush, apply with Mod Podge thinned with a little water. Allow to dry.

3. Punch two holes into the white paper at the top. Set this on top of your stiff cardboard and draw two circles with a pencil. Use these marks to hole-punch the cardboard. Stack these together so you can see through the holes.

4. Now, hold your pencil or stick above one hole. Loop your rubber band over the pencil, then thread through the holes. Stretch the rubber band taut and bring it up through the other side. Snap it over the other end of the pencil or stick. This will hold everything together.

I’d use this one with a group of kids going on a nature walk—it’s so easy to make, the stiff cardboard backing makes it easy to take notes on the go (like a clipboard), and if you choose sticks instead of a pencil, it looks natural and rustic, like something Little Witch Hazel would take notes on during her rounds.

You can also, of course, just let your kids go crazy with paper and a stapler:

Thanks for reading, Frog Troublers! Any new crafts you’re into?

Also, we enjoyed listening to this NPR interview with Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith on the 30th anniversary of The Stinky Cheese Man (one of our readaloud favorites). Turns out, Scieszka spent time as an elementary school teacher:

[…] Scieszka had earned his master's degree in fiction writing, done some apartment painting ("Because that's about what you can do with an MFA."), gotten a lot of rejections for book manuscripts, and had turned to teaching elementary school, where he was exposed to some truly terrible leveled reading material for children.

"My second graders were going, 'Mr. Scieszka, why are we even reading this?' "

So he started testing out other material.

"Like, 'Hey, have you ever heard this story about a guy who woke up one morning and he was a bug?'"

The second graders were completely taken with Franz Kafka. He read them George and Martha, and Frog and Toad — anything other than the leveled readers.

On a hunch, I looked up Louis Sachar’s website (we’ve been listening to a lot of Wayside School stories lately), and learned that he had a real-life “Louis the Yard Teacher” experience, way back in college:

On campus one day, I saw the unlikely sight of an elementary school girl handing out flyers. I took one from her. It said: "Help. We need teachers aides at our school. Earn three units of credit." I thought it over and decided it was a pretty good deal. College credits, no homework, no term papers, no tests, all I had to do was help out in a second/third grade class at Hillside Elementary School.

Besides helping out in a classroom, I also became the Noontime Supervisor, or "Louis the Yard Teacher" as I was known to the kids. It became my favorite college class, and a life changing experience.

When I graduated 1n 1976 I decided to try to write a children's book, which eventually became Sideways Stories From Wayside School. All the kids at Wayside School were based on the kids I knew at Hillside.

You never know what a bunch of kids will inspire! (Or, where boredom with standardized tests and staffing issues will get you?)

See you later this week with more recycling content, Frog Troublers!