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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The NWT Literacy Council held a bookmaking workshop last Wednesday at Northern United Place, offering parents, early childhood educators and families the chance to make original reading material for early learners.

Jill Vaydik, a community literacy co-ordinator with the NWT Literacy Council, was one of the instructors at a bookmaking workshop last week. - Jason Emiry/NNSL photo

Some 20 participants from throughout the territory took part in the workshop, including health educators. Health was among the top themes at the educational event and participants had a chance to include this theme in their work.

Parents and educators got to learn how to make a variety of books to introduce reading to young children, starting with "binder books," said to be a great way to hold the memories of babies and young children.

"This would typically be used for baby memorabilia," said Kathryn Barry Paddock, community literacy co-ordinator with the NWT Literacy Council. "You could do like 'My Mom and Me,' those types of things."

Workshop participants also had the chance to make foam books and flip books. Orlanda Patterson works at Growing Together in Hay River. She said bookmaking is a great activity to do with children.

"We do a lot of programming," said Patterson. "Kids enjoy making books when they're learning about themselves. I work with children aged zero to six."

Flip books are made by cutting the pages of the book in half. Children get the opportunity to match up pictures on the top of the page with words on the bottom half.

"We are going to be doing a few quick books out of paper," said Paddock. "Just different ways of folding paper."

The participants also created envelope books. Envelope books have cloth covers. The pages are made out of envelopes where parents can keep pieces of memorabilia. They can also be used for matching games, learning shapes or whatever the creator wants to make. The envelopes work great for keeping pieces of games in the envelopes.

Pop-up books and pop-up cards were also made during the day's activities.