School Teachers Fold
This School Teachers Fold was conveyed to us by Dave Hawk. He recounts the days when he was a schoolboy in England and the teachers would write notes for the students, fold them up, and then clip them to their notebooks. The notes were written on 3″ x 8″ note slips of paper. The original method of School Teachers Fold used paper that is 3″ x 8″ in size but a different sized rectangle also works.
Back in the 1970’s, before the international standard A4 was adopted, Europe’s standard-sized writing paper was 13″ x 8″ in size and it was called a “foolscap” (see below for explaination of foolscap) . Printers made business letterheads to be 10″ x 8″ and have a leftover piece that is 3″ x 8″. This leftover sheet can have the business letterhead printed on it and it serves as a “compliment slip”. Or, the leftover pieces are sold blank as “note slips”. In some ways, they serve a similar function as today’s post it notes – small peices of paper used to write quick notes.
School Teachers Fold – Diagram
- Fold the paper in half lengthwise.
- Fold in half crosswise. Unfold. This gives you the center crease.
- Fold the bottom half of the paper up and towards the left. Make the fold across the central crease.
- Fold down the top half of the paper.
- Fold the left arm of the paper towards the right.
- Turn the paper over.
- Fold the left arm of the paper towards the right and tuck it under the existing layer of paper.
- Fold up the bottom arm of the paper and tuck it under the existing layer.
- Done! You can write the student’s name on the front side of the folded paper.
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Where did the Term Foolscap come from? The term foolscap is from the watermark used on paper to designate that size of paper. The watermark was a picture of a jester; later it was simplified to a cone representing a dunce hat = a fool’s cap. Image from National Gallery of Australia