The MiniBook

Phil Pasmanick

The MiniBook offers teachers a simple way to create eight page booklets without staples or tape, and with a single scissor cut. For the last few years I have made six or seven different books with each class, with good results. The present example is on standard 8 1/2 x 11" paper, but legal size and 11 x 17" work well too. Kids do make mistakes the first few times, so make extra copies and be prepared to help them fold and make the cut. You may just want to make blank books that the children fill in themselves. But pre-printed books are good too, either as texts or as workbooks. The easiest way to make these is to make a blank book, unfold it, write or paste up the pages, and copy. I now do the whole job on the computer, rotating the text and graphics so that they are correctly placed. This gives good results but is time-consuming. Be careful to center your copies so that the sections stay within the folds and don't draw lines for the foldsthey always get misaligned. Make sure to practice the procedure explained below before you show this to your class. It's easy once you get the hang of it, and you'll enjoy making your own minibooks.

How to fold the MiniBook:

vertical axis

horizontal axis

1) Carefully fold your paper into eight rectangles. Unfold.

2) Fold in half along the horizontal axis. (Make a hamburger.)

3) Make one cut halfway through this fold (that is, through the vertical axis). Unfold. 4) Fold along the vertical axis. (Make a hot dog.) Push the ends together so that the center opens up.
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5) Fold the pages back and smooth them down. If your book has pre-printed pages, turn the pages so that they are in order.

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My MiniBook

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