We are back with our third installment of our Book Art Series in collaboration with Erica from What Do We Do All Day! Here’s the series low-down in case this is your first time: Erica creates book lists for kids based on a topic and I supply a companion activity. We want to inspire the young creators and authors in our children! For the first two projects/booklists in the series hop over to Pop-up Books and My Shape Book.

With summer in full swing, hopefully your children are spending at least part of their vacation reading. Summer is the perfect time to get older kids hooked on chapter books. The beach is one of my favorite spots for a good read; encourage older children to bring along a book while they soak up the sun and fun. At home remind kids to turn the word bored into book, make sure to have a few chapter books on hand when they come to you seeking something to do. Erica’s booklist below is a great place to start!

And of course when reading chapter books you will need bookmarks, right? We dreamed up this super quick and easy mini bookmark project to accompany many a summer read. Have your kids make a few dozen not only to keep their place in a book but also to mark favorite passages. If you don’t have Perler beads on hand check out Erica’s take on the project using a variety of  beads.

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Mini Bookmarks

Materials 

• Perler Beads, boards, and ironing paper
• Standard Metal paper clips- Be sure to use this type of paper clip!
• Iron

Instructions

• Step One Create a design out of Perler beads using the Perler grid board.

• Step Two Have an adult melt one side of the design according to the directions on the Perler Bead Package. I melted ours by placing the ironing paper on top of the design then pressing down with a hot iron for several seconds.
• Step Three When one side is fused, remove it from the board, flip it over and place a metal paper clip near the bottom of the design. Be sure to have the opening end of the clip opposite the Perler beads so that the clip can open once everything is fused together.
• Step Four Place the ironing paper over the beads and paper clip and press down with a hot iron until the clip is fused to the beads. Let cool.

You’re done! Can you say easy summer breezy three times fast?

So yes, this is clearly a fun project for grown-ups as well as kids…here is my daughter hard at work and a few samples of bookmarks with the kiddos’ books:

Tips

• DO NOT use paper clips with plastic coating! The coating will melt.
• Larger paper clips will not fuse to the beads. Stick to standard size paper clips.
• If your paper clip pops off try fusing it again to the Perler beads with the ironing paper and a hot iron
• If you want to use thicker paper clips you will need to use hot glue to attach them to the Perler bead design.

Don’t have Perler beads?  Pop over to What Do We Do All Day to see a different take on mini paper clip bookmarks. Erica and her kids used beads in a completely different way! Here’s a teaser…

Book List

Now you’ll of course need some chapter books to show off your fancy bookmarks! Here are 4 chapter books to get you started, for 4 more pop over to What Do We Do All Day. Take it away Erica!

Stink and the Midnight Zombie Walk (Book #7) You’d never think from the cover, that this is a book about kids who love books! This is one of the first chapter book series my oldest son loved reading and with large font and lots of illustrations, it’s perfect for new chapter book readers. You may be even familiar with Stink’s more famous sister, Judy Moody. In this installment, Stink and his friends are gearing up for the book release party of the new book in the Nightmare on Zombie Street series. Stink and his friends have to figure out a way to raise money to buy the new book, and that involves a lot of creative — and rather stinky — fun.

Kelsey Green, Reading Queen (Franklin School Friends)is the first book in the Franklin School Friends series. Kelsey and her classmates are participating in a school reading contest. Kelsey is distressed to find out that she is not leading the pack with the most books read so she starts to read shorter books in order to catch up even though she is an advanced reader. Kelsey, however, ends up finding more pleasure in helping one of her friends who is a struggling reader than she does is reading the most books.

Summer Reading is Killing Me! (Time Warp Trio, No. 7) part of the Time Warp Trio series, is lots of fun. The series follows three boys who travel back and forth between worlds via their time travel machine which they call “The Book”. It’s summer and they suddenly find themselves transported to and trapped in a world full of famous literary characters gone wrong. The boys have to set things right before the bad characters take over. As you can imagine, hilarity ensues. There are so many literary references that parents will have a great time reading this aloud.

Your child may not need a bookmark to get through Nate the Great and the Hungry Book Club, part of the well-loved early reader series about an intrepid boy detective, but this classic series is perfect for new readers. Rosamund runs a book club and the cookbook she uses to make treats for the group has been ripped up. Nate joins the book club as an undercover detective and is determined to solve the mystery. Their hunt for clues takes them into the kitchen and even to the local library.

Conclusion

Summer is the best time of year to get your kids reading; encourage young readers to fall in love with chapters books by giving them a few fun ones to start with! And make a few of these easy bookmarks as a simple extension project to add a little flair to their reading experience.

For more projects in this series check out Pop up Books and My Shape Book.

And don’t miss out on more Book Arts here on Babble Dabble Do! Subscribe below or like us on FB! I’d also love to see you all on Pinterest! We have a few boards dedicated to books.
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