Tuesday, December 6, 2011

How To: Make Your Own Field Guide

In yesterday's post I showed off our new A - Z field guide.  I kind of got the idea from Go Diego Go.  Munchkin is really into that show.  He was not into talking about animals until I told him we should make a field guide like Diego.  Anyway this is all we did.


 Gather your supplies, and definitely involve your little one.  We used a $1 notebook, brown paper bag, glue (in the picture you'll see a glue stick... it didn't work), scissors.


Trim your paper down to size.  Cut the bottom and handles off.  


Next let your munchkin crumble the bag.  He had a lot of fun doing this.  It's not often I actually want him to crumble paper.





Smooth your brown cover over and measure to be sure you have enough to cover the front and back.  I didn't really measure.  I just laid the book over the paper and folded it down to size.  Be sure to do this while your notebook is closed, otherwise you'll be a little short.



Then I let Munchkin go crazy with the glue stick (as I mentioned before... this didn't work, so I ended up going back over it with regular white glue.  Be careful not to get glue on the pages or the spirals.


Last I closed the field guide and let it dry.  I did have to use clothes pins to hold the bag cover to the book.  This also helps to keep the cover off the pages while it dries.


Last decorate your guide.  I found these movable stickers at the Dollar Tree.  Be sure to let your little one in on the decorating!!  I do have to admit.. Munchkin was having a two year old moment when it came time to decorate the cover... so he chose not to participate.  Have Fun!!

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