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Make a Love Bug Book

You can make this adorable, tactile book for Valentine’s Day, but you’ll love to read it year-round.

Books with textured illustrations you can touch help children who are visually impaired build tactile skills, which are important for understanding their environment and eventually learning braille. They also teach the concept of turning the pages of a book.

This tactile book idea from Paths to Literacy is based on a poem, “The Love Bugs,” and it’s perfect for making and reading with your child. The bugs (portrayed as hearts) have different colors and textures that you can touch, explore, and say, “I love you!”

Materials

• Love Bug printable template
• Avery #15264 printable labels, 3 1/3 “x 4”
  
• White cardstock or poster board
• One sheet each of red glitter cardstock, blue foam sheet, yellow cardstock, green cardstock, and pink felt
• Small yellow feathers
• Green sticky gems
• Heart-shaped cookie cutter or stencil to create the love bugs
• Hot glue gun or tacky glue
• Scissors
• Black, fine-point Sharpie marker
• A hole puncher and ribbon or yarn for binding the book

Directions

First, cut the cardstock or poster board into seven 5 x 7-inch sheets. If you’re binding the book yourself, with a hole puncher, make two holes on the left side (the short edge) of each piece. Make sure you punch the holes in the same place on each page so they line up for the binding.

With a computer printer, print out the words to the book using our template and Avery #15264 printable labels. If you don’t have a printer or labels, you can also write the words on the pages with a Sharpie marker.

Attach the title to the cover. Cut out five hearts, one in each color, to go on the cover of the book. They don’t have to be the same size or style. Glue the hearts on the cover of the book.

For the additional pages, attach the remaining labels in the order of the poem.

Cut out a heart out of the red, glittered card stock for the red love bug and glue it on the first page. Add legs and an antenna to create a bug.

Cut out a blue foam heart and glue it on the second page. Add legs and an antenna.

Cut out a yellow heart and attach it to the third page. Glue a few yellow feathers to the heart. Add legs and an antenna.

Cut out a pink heart from the felt and attach it to the fourth page. Add legs and an antenna.

Cut out a green heart and attach it to the fourth page. Decorate the heart with green sticky gems. Add legs and an antenna.

For the final page, make five small hearts out of each color and glue them to the page. Decorate the yellow heart with feathers and the green heart with sticky gems. Add legs and antennas to the bugs.

Bind the book with yarn or ribbon threaded through the holes you punched in the pages. Don’t use metal ring binders because they can be a choking hazard. You can also take the pages to an office supply store for the spiral binding as shown in the picture.