Informational Flip Books

Flip books are fun to make and to read.  This past week my students made great flip books to help illustrate their understanding of informational text features.  We focused on what to look for as we pre-read informational texts through a picture walk and text walk.

Here is what my students created:

If you are interested in how to make a flip book, here are the directions:

1. Get 3-4 sheets of paper.  (For this project, we used 4 sheets.)
2. Fan out the paper to about 1/2 inch or the width of a finger.
3. Keeping the papers lined up, carefully fold so that the fanning meets and you have the desired number of tabs for your book.
4. Saddle staple on the fold or staple at the edge.

Notice the flip books we created are cut up the middle to create a t-chart.  (We did not cut the outside paper which creates the cover, though.)   The students used only one color so that they had to find and use a variety of media to create interest and also to differentiate among the title and headings.

Inside the flip book, students glued examples of each of the text and graphic features.  This took a long time, but it was a great exercise.  The students discussed the features as they looked through old magazines, searching for something that would add to their flip books.  If they couldn’t find something to cut out, they found something to photocopy in one of the many resources we have in the room.

Here is a flip book opened:

These books are so much fun to create!  You can use them for just about any subject area or purpose and I encourage you to try making one with your students.

Creating a flip book to focus in on textural features was a great way for my students to show their understanding of the variety of features.  They were asking great questions, sharing ideas and enjoying their time while they worked.

~EMP

 

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