Accordion Books

A Favorite Project Inspired by an Author

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For some time now, our class has been lucky enough to be in communication with a favorite author and illustrator from Vermont. We’ve been emailing and Skyping with Lizi Boyd since the beginning of last year; so exciting!

A Favorite Project: Guest post by McKinley

One day, we were just sitting there learning when Ms. Boyesen opened a package from Lizi Boyd! We got some folded paper, envelopes, and Sharpies from her! “Time to make accordion books!” we thought.

There are four steps involved in making an accordion book:

Step 1: Make a Plan

We had to keep in mind that we only had eight scenes, so out came our hard worked writer’s notebooks, and we made a sketch. And now while we were all drawing, I can tell you what an accordion book is… It is an accordion (the instrument) shaped from paper that we had to fold. And there is a cover, a back, and usually eight scenes. We had to draw a simple-ish drawing. Not crammed or too many drawings or words on it.

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Step 2: Now we get checked…

So we can make sure we don’t have any spelling mistakes, our teachers checked our work (after all, you want to do a good job when emulating an author!) Then comes the trickiest step…

Step 3: Fold and Do Our Final Draft

So we got a paper and folded it in half. Then we folded up the edges. And then we folded it in, and then in half again. So now we have our accordion books. So then we drew our story (faintly) on each page. Now we’re at our final step…

Step 4: Waiting and Getting Called to Trace

We now waited and got called back to trace and add a splash of color! So we traced a thin-tipped Sharpie over our sketch. Then we got to our “stations,” the color groups, like pinks and reds, blues, greens, and purple/brown.

This was an amazing art project to do. I loved it a lot!

A few videos to share the final accordion books in all of their glory!

Thank you, McKinley, for sharing this wonderful post with us!

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