Posted in Science and other Hands On activities
This week's Unplugged Project over at Unplug Your Kids' blog is all about books so what would be more fun than making a hollow book for hiding your most treasured items!
You'll need one thick book, hardcover ones are the most suitable but we didn't have one on hand so we used an old phone book that was about 2 inches thick. You can find lots of hardcover books at thrift stores for under a dollar usually or rummage sales are another good place to look :) You will also need white glue, a film canister, a paintbrush, a popsicle stick, a ruler, saran wrap and an exacto knife.
To start with fill your film canister about 1/3 full with white glue and then pour in enough water to create a runny glue that can easily be spread with your paintbrush.
We then used our popsicle stick to stir the glue and water mixture together. You could use anything though to stir just make sure that if you are keeping it you rinse it off really well right away before the glue dries on it!
To make your book look more authentic if someone opens it up you will want a couple of loose pages under the cover to hide the hollow spot. We took the first 4 pages and then wrapped them with the saran wrap to keep them from accidentally getting glued down. Repeat this with the back couple of pages to.
Now you're ready to paint your glue on. Brush on an even amount of glue all around the 3 exposed sides to saturate the pages thoroughly and then close up the book and set something really heavy on top of it to keep it tightly closed while the glue dries and sets the pages firmly together. It took about an hour to dry well enough to move onto the next phase.
As soon as your book feels and looks dry and the center pages have fused together tightly you can start to get ready to cut out the center. Measure a 1/2 inch grid all around the outside of the top page. These are the lines you will use to guide where you cut.
Now comes the dangerous part! I let my son who is 9 do this while I supervised the whole time, but this is up to you as to how old your child should be to use an extremely sharp exacto knife. To start the first cuts into the book he used the ruler as a guide to keep the knife straight on the lines, and went over each of the 4 lines.
After the first cuts all around the perimeter he was ready to peel out the first pages and start again :)
This part of the project takes the longest and of course the more careful you are keeping all of your cuts the same the smoother the finished inside will be, but hey, we're not going for perfection, just fun! *grin*
Phew! All done and as you can see above we have a nice deep pocket :)
Time to get the glue out again and give it a good coat all around the inside walls now to create a really sturdy pocket.
After you've finished gluing it again, weigh it down with something super heavy to keep the pages firmly together while it dries and sets hard. K thought that the Lego bucket would add just the right amount of pressure *grin*
Once it's all dry you can load it up with whatever you want :) So far K's is home to his spy light and some change *grin* but you never know what else might make its way into it!
Blessings,
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