Sunday, March 11, 2007

Grocery Bag Biography Book

Cover


http://www.makingbooks.com/hotdog.shtml


I have started to use recycled materials as much as possible in my workshops. One of my favorite materials is brown grocery bags. The inventor of the flat-bottomed grocery bag is Margaret Knight. March is Women's History Month.

Cut out the front or back panel of a brown grocery bag. Make a hot dog booklet. If the bag has writing on it, it should be on the inside (not showing) when you make the first fold (like a hot dog).

Links

Article about Margaret Knight from the Portsmouth Herald
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/04232006/maine/99159.htm

Women Inventors: Improving Our World
A small website from Girl Scout Troop 2409 in Briarcliff, NY about Margaret Knight which includes a mix and match quiz about other women inventors.
http://www.engineergirl.org/Troop2409/index.html

Marvelous Mattie by Emily McCully
A wonderful book about Margaret Knight's determination which led to her invention.
Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor

For Adult Readers
Henry Petroski who has written a number of books on objects, The Pencil, The Book on the Book Shelf, has a chapter on the grocery bag in his book, Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design.
Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design

Adapted from the March 2007 issue of Making Books Monthly
Free subscriptions available at makingbooks.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the great ideas, Susan! For more activities with paper bags, check out:

http://www.amazon.com/Brown-Bag-Ideas-Many-Cultures/dp/0871922479/ref=sr_1_1/104-8436423-3581565?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173675242&sr=1-1

Holly

Anonymous said...

Wanted to quickly say that I adore your work Susan!

I am very much inspired and I, too, love to hold, touch, twist and create! I have a link to you and hope that many more Mamas come and see what a fabulous resource your knowledge and creativity is!!

Many scrumptious blessings!