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"Paper Blog Foldable" illustrates parts of a blog

This little project helps students (and adults) get their heads wrapped around the vocabulary associated with blogging. Titles, banners, side bars, widgets, pages, posts, comments. Each is represented in paper form that concretely reflects how online blogs work.

01 Gather Materials
You'll need 3 pieces of paper, pencil, markers, pens (blue, black, and red), scissors, glue, and a ruler.
02 Fold 2 sheets in half
Align two sheets of paper. Fold them in half along the short edge resulting in an 8.5" x 5.5" booklet
03 Identify Banner Space
Draw a straight line 3.5 cm from the top of the booklet along the short edge. This is the space for your header/banner.

04 Identify Widget Bar
Draw another line 3.5 mc from the open side of the booklet for the widget bar. This bar can be on either the left or the right but it must be on the open side.
05 Title and Widget Bar
Here are the lines sectioning off the banner and the widget area.
06 Cut top three pages on the long line
Cutting only the top three pages, remove the long side for the side bar.

07 Cut the short line to the fold
Cutting only the top three pages, remove the banner area to the fold.
08 Snip along the fold for the banner
Snip along the fold to remove the top three flaps for the banner area.
09 Large back page, small front pages
You should now have one large back page to represent the background, banner, and side bar. The top three smaller pages represent blog pages.

10 Draw borders
Use a marker to create a border along the top for the banner, and along the side for the side bar.
11 Create a banner
On the larger back page, use the markers to create a blog banner. It needs a title, your name, and some graphic elements.
12 Create Page Tabs
Draw a line along the top of the three smaller pages to create tab "buttons" for flipping between the blog pages.

13 Create Page Titles and Tabs
Cut through the top three smaller pages vertically to separate the tabs. The top page is HOME PAGE, the second page is the ABOUT PAGE, and the last page is the CONTACT PAGE. (NOTE: I mistakenly labeled all tabs on the front page. Don't label the tabs until you have removed the excess pieces.
14 Remove Excess
Each of the three pages should have a single title tab offset so the tabs behind are visible when the closed.
15 Contact Page
Make a heading on the page describing the content. List ways to get hold of the blog author: e-mail, facebook, twitter, blog addresses, etc. Talk about privacy what information is appropriate to share.

16 About Page
Make a heading for your name, include a picture, and write a brief biography.
17 Preparing Posts
Using your third piece of paper, cut a long strip of paper to the same width as the home page, about 10.2cm wide. (4" x 11"). From this length of paper we will cut our blog posts.
19 Fold in thirds
Fold and cut the long strip into thirds.

20 Cut apart
Cut into three pieces. These will be the blog posts.
21 Style Sheet
** afterhought... create a style sheet for your blog elements so there is consistency from page to page and post to post.
21 Title Date and Author
Create a title for your post. Add the date and the name of the post author.

22 Write Away
Create three short articles on different or related topics. Include a picture that compliments or enhances the content.
23 Fold and glue title area
Fold the title area forward and add glue to the back so it can be "published" to the home page.
23 Publish the post
Glue the post onto the home page. Like real blogs, the most revent articles go at the top.

24 Fold post
Many blogs only show an excerpt of the article on the front page. Fold the area below the glued title in half.
25 Tuck under
Tuck the folded portion behind the post. Users will "click" the post to see the full article.
26 Publish more articles
Add remaining blog posts below (but not behind) the article above.

27 Finished home page
You should have room for three posts on your home page.
28 Side Bar
The blog side bar can have a variety of different widgets - recent posts, archives, a search box, and a blog roll are common.
29 Comments
"Visitors" can post comments on small sticky notes to simulate online comments.

30 Finished Product
Here is the finished product.
Posted by milesmac on October 17th, 2012 Posted in Pedagogy Tagged as: ,,,,,

6 Comments

  1. mrslohr says:
    November 25, 2012 at 11:49 AM

    This is incredible- starting blogs tomorrow with special education English class. This is a perfect introduction- hands on and all! Kudos to you master teacher!

    Reply
    • milesmac says:
      November 26, 2012 at 1:08 PM

      You're too kind. I hope you share your experiences with the Paper Blog project. Would love to hear how the kids engaged with it and maybe see some pics of the finished products. cheers!

      Reply
  2. janetteclk says:
    April 24, 2013 at 5:49 PM

    Preparing a parent information session. Great resource. Another teriffic use of paper blogging

    Reply
  3. Brian Metcalfe says:
    January 11, 2014 at 4:37 PM

    Miles ... Thanks for re-tweeting your previous blog posts of ideas and resources. Unfortunately, I missed this engaging "Paper Blog" classroom activity the first time around. I have shared it with other educators who believe in the importance of "hands-on" learning. Thanks for sharing your creativity.

    BTW ... I'm searching you a WordPress plugin that adds sharable icons like "Twitter", "Google +", "Pinterest", etc. to the bottom of my posts. I'd like to consider the plugin that you are using if it doesn't add too much overhead to my page loading speed. Do you mind share your widget/plugin name and any recommendations that you might have through your experience?

    All the best for 2014 during your Australian adventure.

    Take care & keep smiling 🙂 Brian

    Reply
    • milesmac says:
      January 11, 2014 at 5:28 PM

      Thanks Brian - the sharing icons on the blog come from the JetPack widget. Quite easy to set up and customizable. Thanks for sharing this post - the paper blog foldable raw quite effective in helping students (and teachers for that matter) understand the difference between pages and posts. Hope you're staying warm! Cheers

      Reply

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