Muscular Bookends
Show off your reading muscle with bookends that beef up as you read.
By Jessica Tom
What you need:
- skin-color craft foam
- clear plastic vase or cup
- clear packaging tape
- small, medium, and large rocks or marbles
- glue
- markers
- beads (optional)
What to do:
- Make a flexed arm by cutting out its components (muscle, forearms, palm, and fingers) from craft foam and gluing them together. If you'd like to make a pair of bookends, construct two mirror versions.
- Detail the arm by drawing knuckles, beauty marks, or painted fingernails. Or, accessorize the arm by gluing on beads.
- Once the glue has dried, tape the foam to the side of the cup so that it extends outward like a real arm.
- Place the cup or vase at the end of your child's book collection. For every small book he owns and has read, put a small rock or marble into the clear plastic vase. For every medium-sized book, put in a medium rock, and so forth.
- In the future, your child can add rocks for every new book she receives and reads. You can also simplify this project by skipping steps 1 to 3 and just using the clear vase with rocks or marbles to show reading progress. Decorate the vase with stickers or permanent markers, if desired.
Learning benefits:
- Demonstrates reading progress visually
- Facilitates pride in reading
