Saturday, January 2, 2010

Assembling the book packs

I thought I would write a post about how I assemble the book packs to prepare them for "drop off." First of all, the books I am using are books that we have duplicates of or books that I've picked up at thrift stores or garage sales. I am not financially blessed enough to be able to go out and purchase brand new books for this project. With that said, I am going to be picky about the condition of the books. They must be in VERY good used condition, preferably without any marks or writing. I am also going to be pretty particular about what books I drop. I plan to only drop off books that I consider to be quality children's literature.



The books will be packaged in plastic Ziploc bags. For the larger books I will use 2-gallon bags, but many will fit into gallon-sized bags. Each bag will be labled as shown below with a "Take me home!" sticker and a sticker that briefly explains the project. I am covering the stickers with clear packing tape to be sure they will still be readable even after being dropped off. If an activity is included in the book pack, the materials or pieces will be contained in a separate Ziploc bag which will have a sticker label providing the directions for the activity.



This photo shows a book pack and activity bag.









Here is a close-up of the stickers on the outside bag.







Here is a close-up of the sticker on the activity bag. I am just printing these out on large (2X4") Avery shipping labels. Same for the "Take me home!" and description labels shown above.






Here is a photo of the activity for this particular book.






And this final photo shows everything neatly packaged in the bag and ready to be dropped.



5 comments:

  1. Paperbackswap.com is a great source for books!

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  2. This looks great! What fun.

    Will you have a spot where we can download the labels and activities if we want to join in? We might have an extra copy of Corduroy around the house... :)

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  3. I am very involved with sending items to deployed soldiers. I recently received this request:

    "WE have the capability for military members to read to their children and record it to a DVD and send home. However, we do not have any children’s books to read to our children. "

    Thank you again!
    Angela Zephier, MSgt, USAF

    I wonder if there is a way to make a connection. For more info look at www.anysoldier.com.

    Thanks

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  4. This is a great, fun idea! Can't wait to hear about the book drop offs!

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  5. Neat! Please share your activities, so we can do it with our kids and hopefully help out your cause!

    ReplyDelete