The tunnel book starts off as a regular accordion book and then halfway it flips up exposing a tunnel to the back page.
The tunnel section can represent a transition in the story, literal or figurative.
With the Grade 6'rs it was part of their novel study. The had to choose a portion of the book they had read and then incorporate this into a tunnel book.
MATERIALS REQUIRED:
- 1 piece of 11x17 white paper for practice and planning
- rectangular piece of wc or good weight paper, by good weight you want it thicker than printer paper but not 300lb wc, a 90lb would work well here, I use roughly a 12.5 x 19.5 which is a 1/4 sheet of the 90-110lb wc we have on hand
- ruler
- pencil and eraser
- scissors
- watercolors, tempera disk, acrylics, colored pencil, etc. any medium to add color
- fine sharpie
- cardboard
- tacky glue
PROCEDURE:
Now bear with me here. It really is easy once you get the hang of it. I just need to break it down into step by step.
Fold in half both vertically and horizontally. I added black lines to show the folds. You do not need to add these.
Lay out flat.
Starting on one side cut along the horizontal fold line up to the last 2 sections.
When you hold it up it looks like a pair of pants.
With young kids you might want to make a mark at the stopping point to remind them.
Now in book making there are 2 main folds, a mountain and a valley. Mountains poke up and valleys go down. Click and the photo for a larger image. I have them marked.
You want both pant legs starting on the left to have a valley fold, then a mountain, and then another valley.
Fold up the top leg accordion style keeping the folds as outlined previously.
In the tunnel book these pages will form the tunnel which sits up.
Incidentally if you wanted to just make an accordion book with no tunnel. Just flip these pages the other way to the back. This would give you a nice accordion with single pages and one double in the middle.
For both books you now can fold up the remaining leg of the book keeping those same folds.
Now the tunnel.
Ovals are the easiest but once you get the hang of it you can experiment. The windows do not need to all be the same shape but you want to get smaller as you go making sure you can see thru them all to the final page.
Just like before.
I also find it best to cut the large window out first.....I can then figure out where I want my second window and then again for the third.
Now add color using whatever medium you wish. For grade 6 they painted all the backgrounds and then added all the details. They drew the details onto plain white paper, colored them in with pencil crayon and then cut and pasted onto their painted backgrounds. 
You need to paint the backs of the tunnel pages for a finished look.
You can now add text if you wish. I printed out my story on the computer and then pasted it on.
I also used a fine sharpie to add some outlines to my paintings.
For the front and back cover you might want to add some weight to your book.
Cardboard covers are a nice touch.
Cut 2 rectangles, the same size as your pages, out of cardboard. (chipboard or corrugated).
Paint the cardboard and then add a title.
Fold up your tunnel book and glue the cardboard cover to the first page.
Now the back cover is glued on. It should be the back of the 4th page on the bottom leg of the pants.
That's it. My tunnel book is called 'Finding Paradise'.
I know I still have Maui on the brain.....why not give a tunnel book a try!
See you next time.
