Overview

These do it yourself books are a fun way to support the development of early literacy skills. It’s also a great way to increase the size of your early learning library. I first shared this idea in my book, Everyday Early Learning.

Supplies

To make these freezer bag books, you’ll need:

• Freezer Bags
• Paper/Cardstock
• Markers/Pencils/Pens/Etc
• Scissors/Paper Cutter
• Stapler
• Duct Tape

Process

Create Your Pages

Cut pieces of paper or cardstock so it’ll easily fit into your freezer bags. Then add art and/or words to your pages. You can do this yourself, but it’ll be more fun if the little humans who will be reading the books are involved. Kids way want to write and illustrate their own stories or they may prefer to collaborate. Alternatively, you can collect objects to add to your book pages (see the coin book above).

Slip And Zip

Now, slip each page into a freezer bag and zip the bags shut, as illustrated below.

Staple Them Together

Now it’s time to bind your pages together. Just line up the ends of the freezer bags and staple them together. Double check to make sure they are in the correct order before stapling.

Add Some Duct Tape

Adding duct tape does three things. It hides the staples, it gives the book a more finished look, and it helps hold the pages together.

Here’s the process:

• Cut a piece of tape about two inches longer than the freezer bags (image 1 below).
• Apply the tape strip to one side of the book’s edge and make a small snip on each end as pictured in image 2. You want to snip up to the edge of the bags.
• Fold the first two flaps as shown in image 3.
• Fold over the other side of the tape as seen in image 4.
• Finally, flip the book over and fold over the remaining flaps.

Conclusion

We’ve been using this book making process with kids for over a dozen years and have found them to be pretty durable. They are also very flexible–you can create all kinds of interesting custom books. Here are some examples:

Looking for other DIY book making ideas? Check out this DIY Hole Punch Book idea.

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