How to Make a Children's Book With Construction Paper

You can encourage a love for reading with a creative homemade storybook project. Whether you and your youngster are creating a storybook together, or you plan to surprise her with a brand new story by Mom, construction paper can make bookmaking inexpensive and simple. If you're working with your child, write the text in the story for her and then encourage her to get creative and design each page's artwork all by herself. Now this is a book she'll be able to show off with pride!

Assemble the sheets of construction paper. You will need one sheet for the front and back cover, and one sheet for every four pages of the story.

Fold the pile of construction paper in half width-wise to make a storybook 8 1/2- by 5 1/2- inches.

Make two to three holes along the folded edge of the construction paper book, using the hole punch. If the layers of construction paper are too thick to punch through, punch the holes through the cover of the book and use the holes as a template to punch holes through the remainder of the pages.

Cut three lengths of ribbon, each about 12 inches in length, and thread one through each hole in the book. Tie the ribbons in bows. You can also use one long piece of ribbon, thread it through the top hole, down through the lower two and then back up to the top. Tie the ends of the single ribbon in a bow. Do not tie the ribbon too tightly, or it will eventually tear the pages when opening and closing the book.

Write the title of the story across the front of the cover and draw a feature picture above or below the text.

Plan the layout for the text and illustrations in the book. Alternate writing at the top, middle and bottom of the page and incorporate hand drawn pictures around the text to avoid making each page a monotonous copy of other pages.