Folded book art
Turning a book into an artistic present!
Folded book art is a captivating craft activity that involves transforming the pages of a book into intricate three-dimensional sculptures. This creative endeavour begins by carefully folding the pages of a book in a specific pattern to create a desired design or shape. The process requires patience and precision, as each fold contributes to the composition.
This fun craft activity for secondary school students allows learners to express their artistic flair and create unique pieces of literary artwork they can give as Christmas gifts. This activity not only repurposes old books but also celebrates the beauty of literature by transforming its pages into stunning visual displays.
Activity: Make folded book art
This activity is one of a series of STEM resources designed to allow learners to use Christmas themes to develop their knowledge and skills in Design & Technology, and Engineering. This resource involves upcycling an old book to produce folded book art, which could be used as a great Christmas gift.
In this activity, students will develop their skills to manipulate paper products by folding while creating folded book art.
Hardbacks are typically preferred to softbacks, as they stand easier. However, students can use softbacks, as demonstrated in the example in the presentation.
When choosing a shape, students should remember that shapes with open features are significantly more straightforward to create than those with enclosed features.
As a fun extension activity, students could try to make complex shapes, including multiple enclosed features. They could produce the enclosed features by folding, not cutting, to make this more challenging. Finally, they could decorate the book cover to make it more attractive.
This resource could be started as a main lesson activity to develop creativity and folding skills in design & technology. As the folding is typically very time-consuming, this could be continued at home, run across several sessions or during an off-curriculum day.
The engineering context
By reusing, repurposing and upcycling products, you can help reduce the demands on the environment for new resources.
Suggested learning outcomes
By the end of this activity, students will be able to accurately manipulate paper products by folding, and they will be able to produce a creative, artistic 3D graphic product.
Download the free activity sheet below!
All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable so that you can tailor them to your students and your schools’ needs.
The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, helpful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
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