Saturday 3 November 2012

A concertina-ed effort

photo courtesy of cheeky @elvisrunner

A few weeks ago I mentioned on Twitter that I would be taking part in a short presentation at Language Show Live.  One of the cheeky #MFLTwitterati (yes, Prim, I'm talking about you!) asked if it would involve paper folding.  I suppose if you look back on my more recent posts, it does appear that I am particularly keen on the art of papiroflexia.  

And here is another one - the concertina book.  Here's how to make it:

2. Fold it into a concertina.
1. Halve a piece of A4 paper lengthways
3. Write or draw on each section of the concertina
except the very top one and the very bottom one.
4. Stick something at the top and the bottom sections of your concertina.

These mini-books are ideal for anything that requires a sequence, as they provide ready-made 'steps' on which to write.  So you could use them for recipes, and have foodstuffs or utensils at the top and bottom, or even for a more formal piece of writing which requires the use of time sequencing phrases:



Another variation on the theme is the accordion book.  In this example I have stuck together two zig-zag folds and shaped them.



Concertina books and accordion books are small, non-threatening and easy to store and display.  Why not have a go?

UPDATE 2.3.13:

Here is a variation on the concertina book which was invented by Rachel Smith.  The concertina forms the the steps up which the animals climb into the Ark.  My Year 2 class loved this!



UPDATE 14.5.13:

I have been doing Les Planètes with Year 5 this half term, and was after some kind of writing activity to show off our extended sentences.  Enter the concertina book!





5 comments:

  1. I love this idea! I will try these soon in my French class. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  2. Great idea! This can be used as a greeting card/message card, as well.

    Thanks for posting instructions.

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  3. These are brilliant ideas - can't wait to use them and create more. Pupils could doubtless come up with their own ideas too. Thank you so much, Another paperholic!

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  4. Great idea. I'll use it in my science class. Thank you

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