Deconstructing that artichoke and other bookmaking tales

Teaching the little 'uns

I haven't been writing about teaching book arts to kids, because I haven't been. After my stroke, it was just too much to teach at South San Francisco (my special ed teaching job, which doesn't involve any book arts) and to teach at San Francisco Center for the Book with Cathy Miranker. And being a public school teacher, you get great insurance, so I had to let my job with Cathy go.

But now I'm teaching with Cathy again over the summer. So I'm getting the best of both worlds! Public school during the school year, and book arts over the summer. I'm teaching three classes over the summer at Redwood Shores Library: Pop-ups; Japanese Books; and Maps, Maps, Maps. These classes will be for grown-ups who work with kids. Then I'm going to teach at 826 Valencia, which will be with the kids. I've taught for two years (with the exception of last summer) at 826 Valencia, and I love teaching there. The kids are great; they love bookmaking. And the staff and volunteers are great. It's going to be a fun summer!

What can YOU do with a single sheet of paper?

I've been looking forward to the Paul Johnson classes at San Francisco Center for the Book for months. He comes to teach at the Center every 2 years to share his wisdom about teaching kids literacy through bookmaking, and last time he came I couldn't take his classes. I often find that books I learn for children are books that I end up using in my own work. I had taken a class from Peter Linenthal, where I had learned about origami or lotus books. I ended up turning it into my book Disconnecting Constellations.

February 2nd arrived and I braved my way through the rain to the Center for the first class I had signed up for, "Children's Favorites." The class was basically, what cool things can you do with a single sheet of paper. I'm sure most of you reading this blog are like me, you know tons of one-sheet book structures, but the thing about Paul is he takes these forms just a little bit further. He cuts out doors or shapes to create one-sheet animal books or combines two one sheet books for a more elaborate book. He's always playing and pushing the form to see what new structures he can come up with from a single sheet of paper. He's also thinking, "okay, how can I use this with Kindergartners, with third graders, with middle schoolers, can I use it in my own artists books that I'll sell to special collections." I knew I would take away a lot of cool structures for my teaching, but I was also hoping to take away structures for my own personal work. Sure enough, that's exactly what I got. And what's more, I took away a new way of thinking: how can I push a single sheet of paper to create a magical world of play and discovery. There's a lot of joy in a single sheet of paper!

Today's class is "The Magic of the Movable Book: Children as Pop-Up Engineers." I can't wait!

Magic Materials

What's the secret to engaged elementary kids who don't want to leave your classroom when it's time to go?

...Fabric and ribbon!

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I work with an after school tutoring program, teaching the bookmaking elective. The kids are usually pretty excited about bookmaking, but yesterday was incredible. We were making a structure that we call the Storybook Theater at the San Francisco Center for the Book, so I brought in fabric and ribbon so the kids could glue "curtains" to the front of their book. The kids went crazy, cutting and gluing, re-cutting and re-gluing, tying ribbons. It was awesome, I couldn't get them to leave!

Wait until next week when we make puppets!

How to be a rockstar without all the drugs and sex...

...: Teach kids how to make books and then return the following year for more bookmaking. Today was my first day back at one of the elementary schools here in the Mission District. Last year I taught bookmaking to both kindergarten and first grade classes--four classes total. This year I'm adding both second grade classes to the load. I went into each classroom once a month for about an hour and taught a different structure each time that dovetailed with the curriculum being taught in the classroom.

Going into one of the second grade classrooms today, I had about 20 eight-year olds wrapped around my legs in a giant group hug. The first grade class was a little bit more sedate, but you should have heard the whispers of "Miss Nikki, Miss Nikki is here" that roared oh-so-quietly around the classroom. To use a cliche, the excitement was palpable.