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How to Make Pop-Up Books for Children

Making pop-up books for children is a great classroom and after-school activity. Parents who want to make pop-up books for their children or with their children should practice making one or two independently before helping or demonstrating for the kids. Remember that the point of a pop-up book is for illustrations to lift off the pages as they are turned and then compressing once more when the page is closed. Single page pop-ups are simple to make.

Things You'll Need

  • 9" x 12" construction paper 8.5" x 11" construction or standard paper Glue sticks Crayons, markers or paint
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Instructions

    • 1

      Create book cover. Take a 9"x12" page to decorate. Fold the page in half. Use crayons and markers to draw directly on the cover or create pictures and cut them out and paste them on to create the front and back cover. For fun, decorate the inside back cover with an about the author note and photo of the child.

    • 2

      Draw background on one 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper. Use crayons, markers and/or glitter to decorate the scene. Examples include fields, skies or a playground. Add text if desired.

    • 3

      Create tabs on the background page. On the undecorated side, measure to the 3.5" and 4.5" mark. From the fold, draw a 1 inch line at each mark with a pencil. Use scissors to cut each line. Open folded paper; gently press the created tab forward so that the fold is now on the inside. Close the paper. When you open it again you have a tab in the center of the page that 'pops-up'.

    • 4

      Create pictures, shapes or illustrations that you want to 'pop-up' on a separate piece of 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper. Cut the shape out and affix to the tab with glue and allow the glue to dry.

    • 5

      Gently glue the pop-up page into the cover, leaving back cover unglued if using an author page. To make a larger book, create more single pages and affix the pages together one by one in order. (For example, first page front half glued to inside cover of main cover, second page front half glued to first page second half, etc).

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