Supplemental Sunday: File Folders - Not Just for Filing

I love file folders.

I am such a space miser that I look for things that I can store using a minimum of surface area and that I can use over and over again with different clients doing different things and working towards different goals and objectives. File folders help me do just that - store a multitude of things within limited space.

For me, however, file folders are more than just storage. They are container, visual aid, and sometimes an entire TME. 

File folder activities are not for large groups. It's important that the person who is using the file folder be able to see and interact with all parts of the folder itself. (Having said that, I think that anything you can put on a file folder you can also make large enough for an entire group to use - just think bigger and bigger!) 

I make and manipulate file folders often. I cut them apart, make flaps and pockets, smoosh several of them together to make larger pockets and areas. I Velcro them back together, laminate them, and then take them to my clients to work with, destroy, and take back to remake again and again.

I get to find fun folder patterns to manipulate. I get to draw, color, and letter to my heart's content. I don't use patterns - I make my own. I illustrate songs, I make games, and I have fun!

I know that making things like this is not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoy it. It is part of my creative process to make things that I can use in my music therapy practice, and file folders offer so many outlets for creativity.

So, the folders included in this post are things I have made over the years including Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Instrument Family Lapbooks, Manners Lapbooks, An Austrian Went Yodeling, B-I-N-G-O, Do Your Ears Hang Low, a scheduler, mini file folders, One Of These Things Are Not Like the Others, a generic game board, a transportation folder without a song at this time, and the graphics for I Don't Want to Live on the Moon that someone won a couple of weeks ago at the AMTA conference...

If you are interested in any of these folders and want either kits or completed projects, please let me know through the website.

Happy Sunday!