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

When I was writing about France the other day, it occurred to me that Bastille Day was also coming up (July 14, to be precise), and I wasn’t sure that I had written about it before. On further digging I realized I had, but it’s been a few years, so let’s take a look at some more ideas for celebrating this pivotal day in French history. Of course anything in the post on France would be great to do as well.

First, if you want to start with a kid-friendly explanation of Bastille Day, get the basics from Britannica Kids.

Learn more about the French Revolution and play the Storming the Bastille game from Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool +. It looks a little like Chutes (or Snakes) and Ladders to me, but I think you might start over instead of just going back when you hit a guillotine space. She also has a France unit study that includes a printable lapbook and making pain au’ chocolat.

The Princess and the Frog made a wafer cookie Eiffel Tower (which they originally found on our Edible Crafts site; love a full circle moment!). When I went looking for that I also saw Eiffel towers made of pretzels and gingerbread, so get creative with your building challenges.

Make a fun French flag collage with this tutorial from Sparkle Living Blog (via Real Creative Organized). Search for French clip art or royalty free photos online to add to your artwork. And if you’re looking for more France themed crafts, check out this collection from Artsy Craftsy Mom. My favorite is the little printable city, which came from Handmade Charlotte, but there are lots of cute craft ideas here for Bastille Day or an day.

Grab some Bastille Day coloring pages from Plantz Matter, which also has a little French lesson if you want to learn some basics. Coloring Pages for Kids also has some good options for Bastille Day coloring.

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