Crafts Made from Books that Kids Can Make

April is School Library Month and National Librarian Day is celebrated on April 16, so I thought it would be fun to look at some crafts made with books and book pages. (Your librarian will want to suggest you only do this with damaged books, or old books from the thrift store, I’m sure.)

First, if you have whole books you want to craft with, you can make a cute monster out of a book with this tutorial from DIY N Crafts.

Or try this super cute hedgehog from Pink Stripey Socks. This one is a little smaller so kids might actually be willing to fold the pages long enough to finish it. But these kids of crafts are great for downtime or when you’re watching a movie at home.

This elephant from It’s All Kids Play is also done in a faster way that I think kids could make it through in order to finish it. You can also break the folding up into multiple sessions if you need to. And of course you can use this same idea to make all kinds of animals, so each child can decide what they want to make if you’re doing it with multiple kids or a classroom.

What if you’re working with a bunch of kids but don’t want to have to gather a bunch of books to craft with? There are plenty of crafts you can make with single book pages or a smaller quantity of pages than a whole book.

Book page bookmarks are super simple to make but also really cute. These instructions from Thrifty Fun use a gift tag as the template and to make the bookmark stronger, but you could make them different shapes and just use several layers of page or laminate them if you have a laminator to make them stronger.

These cute shape penguins from DIY Thought were actually made with newspaper, but you could use book pages as well and make different animals if you don’t want penguins (these could be bookmarks, too). And these folded paper stars are shown made with kraft paper, but the original inspiration, which you’ll see in the post at All Things Paper, was made out of book pages.

I also love these sweet pinwheels from Maya Smart made out of book pages, or your can make little paper bows out of book pages like these from Dukes and Duchesses. Turn the leftovers into a book page bunting like this one from Laura Radniecki to decorate the classroom and you’ll be all set for any book-related celebrations.

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Celebrate National Sock Day

A lot of kids aren’t in school for the Fourth of July, but whether you’re in a classroom or at home, you’ll probably want to mark July 4, 2026, in a special way because it is America’s 250th birthday. And there are lots of ways to learn and celebrate, as we’ll see below.

The Homeschool Bee has a big bundle of resources for the big day, including timelines, information about the founding fathers, silly word fill ins, pages showing the evolution of the American flag and information on constitutional amendments. In all it is 35 pages and it’s great for a variety of ages. You can find it on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Another printable activity set, this one aimed at grades 2-5, is available on TpT from George Kipriot Classroom Resources. This one includes a word search, crossword puzzle, maze, word scramble, coloring pages and more, plus a timeline and reading about the Declaration of Independence.

It wouldn’t be a birthday party without party hats, and there are a few different versions of print, color and cut party hats with a patriotic theme at Teachers Pay Teachers. The Internet Research Project has a set with an Uncle Sam kind of hat, a crown with the Statue of Liberty on it and one that says America 250.

There’s also a Happy Birthday America hat from Sweet Sensations, which features the years, fireworks and the Statue of Liberty and declaration of Independence.

You can find a lot of Fourth of July coloring pages with a 250th birthday theme. For example Britts Digital Paper Co on Etsy has some cute pages, including a patriotic goose reading a book for some reason (I also like their printable firework craft). eParenting also has an America 250 coloring page that includes the shape of the country and an American flag.

And if you want to try some more general Fourth of July projects, check out this collection of patriotic STEM activities from Homeschool Giveaways. Make your own “fireworks,” sensory activities, make a fizzy flag, build a graham cracker White House and more.

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