Interactive Foldable Book

I love foldables!

I’ve been a fan of foldables for years – I just love the way so much content can be summarized in one handy location.  Many of my 8th grade Algebra students are visual learners and all of them seem to enjoy the change in pace when we create foldables.

Even though the foldables individually were helpful to students as we created them and used them in each unit, this year we’ve gone one better!  Borrowing an idea from a colleague, we have glued the foldables into a marble notebook as we’ve created them.  We have a table of contents to help keep track of all of these great resources, and students can easily refer back to previous content as needed.  This is hands down my “new favorite thing” I’ve tried this year!  We have many different types of foldables covering key major Algebraic concepts.  The picture on the bottom right shows a foldable for graphing linear equations. 

My favorite foldable so far is one that includes a little bit of paper weaving that then opens into another space.  My students call it the “coolest foldable EVER.”

To create the foldable students need one 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper.  In addition, they will need half of another sheet, cut in half.  Start by folding the larger piece in half, and then fold each of those sides in half again (so it likes like an accordion).  Set aside the two smaller pieces for the moment.  

If you hold the big piece so it looks like a W, you will next cut a slot down on the pointy, middle part of the W all the way to the fold.  Make this cut at the half way point length wise, then make two other cuts half way on either side.  This will result in three cuts that divide the paper into fourths.

Fold the paper back out flat and weave one of the smaller pieces over and under the slots on the left hand side.  Then, take the other smaller piece and weave it in the opposite way, under and over the slots on the right hand side.  It should look like a checkerboard.

This is a pretty cool foldable as is, but wait!  There’s more!  If you fold the pointy part of the W back up, you can gently pull those two pieces apart and Voila!!  There’s another “hidden” part to the foldable for recording more info!

My students are usually quite taken with this foldable and will spend some time opening and closing the middle piece to try to figure out exactly how it works.  I’ve used it this year for recording Property Rules and also Exponent Rules.

I’m always looking for cool foldable ideas so if you have some please share!  You can find me on twitter @merryfwilliams or email me at merryfwilliams@gmail.com.  Happy folding!

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