Read and Create

Children’s books, crafts and activities

Everyone Counts Pop-Up Craft

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This week we’ve been reading One by Kathryn Otoshi. The story tackles the issue of bullying, the powerful message that everyone in this world counts and that it can take just one person to stand up in order to bring a community together. Big concepts for a children’s picture book but handled so intelligently that this book is suitable for children from any age. We wanted to work on a project that would illustrate the message of standing up and being counted and this seemed like the perfect time to introduce Burt to pop-up!

To make the Everyone Counts Pop-Up you will need:

  1. 2 sheets of A4 white paper or thin card
  2. grey, yellow, green, purple, orange, blue and red card or white paper painted or coloured in
  3. glue
  4. ruler
  5. pencil
  6. scissors
  7. coloured pens or pencils for decoration
  8. Everyone Counts Pop-Up

 First I took a sheet of A4 card and folded it in half lengthways. Then, along the fold, I measured 7 rectangles roughly 4cm long and 1.8cm wide and marked them out with a pen so you can easily see it but you might want to use a pencil.

Next, I took some scissors and cut along the lengths of the rectangles (only cut the lengths, don’t cut them out completely as these form the supports for your pop-up).  The next bit was quite fiddly: open out the paper and fold the edges of your rectangles furthest from the centre fold so that they bend in a different direction to the rest of the paper. If you have done it correctly the rectangles form a row of seven squares when the paper is open at right angles.

Then, take your second piece of A4 paper and fold that in half lengthways, this will form the cover. Glue your cut piece of paper to the cover, making sure all the edges match. Now you can cut out numbers 1 to 7 and your circles.

Glue the numbers onto the pop-up supports.

Then, fold the paper over and stick your circles onto the outer cover and decorate.

As we were making our Everyone Counts Pop-Up we talked about the story. To begin with all the colours in the story are afraid to stand up to ‘Red’ the bully but when they eventually stand together Red doesn’t want to be the bully anymore, he wants to join in. The victim Blue, becomes stronger and more brave and he eventually invites Red to join in the fun because everyone counts. Burt liked the fact that the numbers do stand up when you open the pop-up. They are standing up and being counted.  He also liked talking about the expressions of each of the colours and how different parts of the story make each colour feel.

You can read more about the story that inspired us One by Kathryn Otoshi or discover some more crafts and activities linked to the book.

Have you been inspired by a book to craft, go on an outing or do an activity this week?

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Comments

  24. It is so important to tackle the issue of bullying with children, and books are the best way to do it I think, but so few do it well. This sounds really interesting

    Reply

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