Recycled Books: Folded Paperback Trees #FamilyActivities #Christmas

Three folds per page, a little glue and a few minutes will give you a tree craft
that is family friendly and can be decorated with paint or left plain.

We went to a craft fair last Saturday and were introduced to a couple new Christmas crafts. The paperback book tree was a very busy craft table and while my girl decorated her tree, I asked for one to dissect in hopes of unlocking the mystery of it's construction. The volunteers hosting the table said it was easy to fold the pages into a free standing tree and suggested looking on youtube. 

What I Did:

Almost any book can be used for this craft, a larger book can be sectioned into 30-40 page sections. Use an exacto knife to slice the book into sections. Be sure to keep the spine intact. It will be the backbone of the tree. I suspect the sturdy newsprint type pages work better. FYI-I tried it with a small magazine and it was not a success. When all the pages were folded, I used paper clips to hold the first and last page together while the glue was drying. I painted my tree all one colour, with gold glitter paint and added a foam star to the top using a tooth pick into the spine.

Learning Outcomes:

After observing the children working at this craft table, I think this activity was best for children ages 6 and older. It helps build on their fine motor skills, helps regulate attention, and gives a fairly quick reward for a finished project to decorate and give as a gift.  To promote patience and dexterity in younger children, model the three step folding process and get them to repeat the pattern. The best moments were watching the children who had mastered the technique pass their knowledge and assistance onto their peers.

Here is the video showing the triple fold technique.

Disclosure: This post is not sponsored nor endorsed. All opinions remain my own.