Paper Toys & Lots Of Projects and Books About Creating With Paper!

Over the summer, I love it when I find extra special tweets and social shares with amazing resources.  It gives me time to really dig in and try things out.  

This happened a few days ago when my awesome friend Kathi shared this tweet above sharing the Paper Toys site. I have seen something like this before as I have been working on paper crafts in our library and other workshop events with teacher librarians and educators but this site was new to me and I just love it! 

 

You will find Paper Toys here.  It is filled with tons of free paper crafts including the ones Kathi shared,  famous landmarks, familiar objects,

 historical objects, famous places,

 and so much more.

Hagan and I loved finding one of his favorite places...Wrigley Field!  

When you click on any of the paper toys, you will find a place to view and print, and lots of ways to share on social media too.  

For these paper toys, I suggest printing them out on card stock for nice, crisp folds that hold up to being played with too.

My friend, Kristina, also shared another great resource today in this tweet....

 ...robives, 

where you will find lots of paper projects to download and make!  

As I added these sites to our resources to use next year at Van Meter School, I also thought about how we can tie in books and resources from the Let's Bring Literacy To Life Through Making Padlet under the Paper, Paper Planes and Paper, and Paper Doll categories. 

A few of my favorites are....

 Little Paper Planes which showcases 20 artists...

 ... and their versions of paper planes,

 After the Fall...How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again, 

 Baby Loves Areospace Engineering, 

 My First Guide To Paper Airplanes, 

 and the 4D Paper Airplane series from Capstone.

Over the summer, I will look for other cool books and resources to add to the Padlet and to this project of creating and testing out the paper toys and lots of other fun things to create with paper.  I can't wait to see what our kids come up with for their own designs to make and share too. 

Forky In Craft Buddy Day...A Craft & Story To Kick Off The Summer or New School Year!

With the new Toy Story 4 movie being released on June 20, 2019, it is so much fun seeing the excitement around this long loved series of Toy Story movies and beloved characters.

In this new one, there are some new characters including a very special one named, Forky!  The theme of Toy Story 4 still focuses on childhood toys coming to life, but in this one it is a toy made by one of the main characters, Bonnie.

I love the connection between making, friendship and relationships in this movie.  It is so fun seeing Bonnie, along with the other students in her kindergarten classroom, create Forky and other handmade toys with a few art supplies including paper plates, plastic sporks, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, toilet paper rolls, clothespins, bubble wrap and more.

We can't wait to see this movie in our family. 

Then something super fun happened the other day while walking by the Tattered Cover in the Denver International Airport. I couldn't believe it when I saw this new Disney picture book...

...Forky in Craft Buddy Day from my friend and author, Drew Daywalt, along with illustrators George McClements and Stephane Kardos. 

This is such a beautifully illustrated story that Drew wrote, which was inspired by Toy Story 4. 

In the book, Bonnie creates Forky and brings him to school.  Her teacher, Miss Wendy, loves her imagination and creativity so decided to have all of the students create their own toy on Craft Your Own Buddy Day! 

The children create characters with all kinds of craft materials and recyclables while using their own imagination and ideas to create a one-of-a-kind toy for themselves.

When the craft items and recyclables become toys, they have a hard time understanding what their roles are since they are not common objects such as a plate or bag to hold food anymore.

It is fun seeing Forky become a leader throughout the story and help the others understand they are still important and even more special now too.

After I read this book, I couldn't help but think of all the ways this can be used in the classroom, library and art room.  I decided to look for a few ideas and gather them together 

First, I found a couple little figurines and a plush Forky to have at school with the book.  They are so adorable!  This will be helpful for them to look at as they...

...make their own Forky's and other toys out of craft supplies and recyclables.  This video is super fun to watch with creating Forky. 

It would not only be fun for them to make their own toys from sporks, it would be fun for them to make toys out of other recycled utensils and materials too. 

I found a few more books for inspiration and added Forky in Craft Buddy Day to my Padlet,  

Let's Bring Literacy To Life Through Making.  These books are under a new category on the Padlet called Recycled Materials. 

I also created a new Collection by Destiny, Making Toys Out of Recycled and Craft Materials. 

I added several links to ideas, books and projects that will fit perfectly into this theme and book. 

You can find the Collection here. 

Thank you, Drew for creating such a wonderful and fun book to go along with a new movie I know all of our kids will love.  

I can't wait to see what toys our students will create to hang out with Forky on our very own Craft Buddy Day at Van Meter too! 

Here Is Where You Will Find Me At The 2019 ISTE Conference!

I am getting ready to head to the 2019 ISTE Conference in Philadelphia in a few weeks! I can't wait to learn, share and connect with lots of friends and fellow librarians, educators and others.

Here is my schedule....I will be adding a few more things before then too!

June 23  9-10:00am Leading from the Library with Bill Bass

June 24  9:30-10:30am Signing my books in the Capstone booth

               10:30-12:30pm Future Ready Booth in the Start-Up Pavilion

June 25 11:30am-1:00pm Skype in the Classroom in Microsoft Booth
1:00-2:00pm Buncee Booth for FRL Show & Tell

               2:00-3:00pm Future Ready Booth in the Start-Up Pavilion

               3:15-4:15pm FRL Lead with Literacy with Mark Ray