We’ve gone geocaching many times & decided it was time to try letterboxing.

The first thing we each needed for our letterboxing adventures were journals. Of course, there’s always the option of buying a journal. But I like the cost of making our own much better, so that’s what we did.

We used the instructions at Layers of Learning.

THE COVER

I tore paper bags into a rectangle shape. Then the kids crumpled the rectangle.

Next they rubbed crayons on the crumpled paper.

When they were done coloring their cover, I wet them just a bit & put them in the oven to melt the crayon wax. Honestly, melting the was didn’t work as well as I was hoping. Probably just doing the rubbing would have been good enough.

After the covers cooled we used stamps & oil pastels to decorate them.

For the most part, the kids went for an abstract look.

I opted for a minimalist approach.

THE PAGES

I used regular copy paper, folding 4 sheets in half & sewing a line on the crease. I made four sets of these for each journal.

Then I stacked the four paper sets together &, using a hammer, nailed a hole through the stacked paper. Each place I needed a hole for sewing the cover & paper together I used the hammer/nail technique. This section is described much better at Layers of Learning.

SEWING THE COVER & PAGES TOGETHER

Next, I played around with where exactly I wanted to place the paper on the cover. Once I figured that out I placed the paper on the cover. Then, came the hard part.

Why this was so difficult, I don’t know. It seems so simple. But, I had a heck of a time with it.

I liked the look of the binding on the example at Layers of Learning, so I wanted to replicate it.

I used embroidery thread and a needle to sew the cover & paper together. The outside turned out the way I wanted, but the first & last pages don’t look too tidy. The middle pages look ok, though.

Our completed journals.

I had originally thought I would sew buttons on the front cover to help hold the cover closed. But, after a couple days the journals quit trying to open on their own. So, I didn’t mess with it.

We’ve gone letterboxing a couple times & so far these journals are working out great.

The post Making Letterbox Journals appeared first on .

When spring break was over, I was conflicted about whether to teach a unit studying the 7 continents or study the biomes of the world. When I saw this post on their virtual voyage, I decided I could do both. So, we are going to travel the world, stopping once on each continent. The main focus during our visit will be to study a biome on each continent that we haven’t studied before. Our travel itinerary is:

The first thing we had to do for our trip was make a map. All three kids helped me with this. I changed things just a tad from the map on se7en’s site.

Making the Background/Ocean

• poster board cut to roughly 26″x16″
• cut little, square-ish shaped pieces from colored tissue paper
• water-down glue & spread a thin layer over entire poster board
• let the kids stick tissue paper pieces all over the poster board

Coloring, Cutting, & Gluing the Map

• Printed a world map, scaled to fit our poster board
• I really liked the randomness of se7en’s map, so I told the kids to color the continents anyway they wanted, just be sure to color the entire continent.
• After the kids colored the map, I cut it out – which was tedious.
• Then we glued all the land pieces to the ocean.

Our Finished Map

The Map on Display

I’m excited to start this unit. It should be fun.

The post World Map Craft appeared first on .