Value Bookshop’s Reading Notes

I’m not sure if you’ve played with this before. I know I did when I was younger. I don’t even know what is it’s proper name. Let’s just call it an open-close paper thingy. Hahahah.

INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO PLAY:
Find a partner and have them choose a question to answer. If the question is “what’s your name?”, spell their name out loud. Open and close the crafted paper once for each letter you say. Have them choose another question. Open and close the crafted paper accordingly again. Next, have them choose one of the colored circles. Open up the flap and read what’s written under it.

To make one, just print the ready made layout here. I have already done it for you.

The yellow squares at the corner is where you write the questions. What you write here is very flexible and depends on what lesson/skill you want to enforce. For example, I wanted to help my son learn how to spell his numbers, so I wrote different numbers in the boxes. I would choose a number and he would have to spell it out for me, opening and closing for each letter he said out loud. For children that cannot spell yet, they can count the number of times to open and close instead of spelling it out.

With my daughter, I wrote down different questions such as “who do you love?”, “what is your favorite color?” etc…. You could even write down names of nursery rhymes and choose which one you want them to sing. So you see, this paper craft can be adapted to what you want to teach.

Have your child color in the circles with different colors. If you want them to learn how to read, you can assign colors to the circles by writing down the color names and have them color accordingly.

The blue triangles end up being the instructions under the flaps. So, you can write an action you want them to do (jump like a frog, quack like a duck), write a compliment (you have lovely eyes, your smile lights up the world), throw in some admonishments (finish your food, sleep early tonight) or offer some treats (ice cream, chocolate).

INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO FOLD:
This is one I made.

Turn the paper over so you have the blank side facing up. Fold diagonally (the left bottom corner to the right top corner). Open the paper up.

Now, fold diagonally again but the opposite direction (the bottom right corner towards the top left corner). Open the paper up and you should see lines that cross to make an “X”.

 Fold each corner to the center.

 It should look like this.

Turn it over.

Fold the corners to the middle. You should see the colored circles now.

Fold it horizontally in half (up-down), then open. Fold it vertically in half (left-right) now and open again.

Slip in your finger (index or middle finger) and your thumb under the flaps in the corners, and push upwards and to the middle. You should end up with this:

This paper craft also helps children’s finger coordination. My kids struggled a bit at first figuring out how to maneuver the paper craft open and close. Be patient and gently show them how to do it. Once they become experts, they will wear out the paper in no time. So, be ready to make a few. Oh, it also makes a great toy for car rides.