Lapbooking

For those of you non-homeschoolers this post will probably be pretty boring. For that matter, it may be boring to you homeschoolers as well :0). I love helping the kids make lapbooks to go with what we are learning. It is such a fun way to display information and a neat thing to go back and look at and review what we've learned. For those of you unfamiliar with lapbooks--they are basically some sort of folded "book" with lots of little books or diagrams or drawings or whatever inside. I did a few lapbooks last year. You can design your own or there are a few companies that design them and you can purchase a "kit" and make a lapbook that way. I've done both and can't really say I prefer one over the other. Of course purchasing a kit is much easier but more restricting. Since we are doing a specific curriculum this year I haven't taken the time to plan for and do any lapbooks but these baby mantises inspired me. So, I forewent (is that a word) Grace's normal school and we blitzed our way through a lapbook. Here's how we did it:

Step 1 is my part. I planned out what I wanted to put in the lapbook. The praying mantises came with a great information booklet and so I used that to help me decide what to include.

Once I knew what to include I pulled out this--see the picture above. Michelle (a fellow homeschooler) does amazing lapbooks and held a workshop about a year ago. During this workshop she taught us various paperfolds to use in displaying information. This is really, really handy! I used this to help me decide what mini books I would make and where I would put them in the lapbook. I did this part last night while watching American Idol. Previous to making the mini books I had surfed the web and printed out a few things to include.

Here's the rough layout we started with this morning. Now, it's time for Grace to join me. I prefer that she do most of the "work" from this point on. I did help with some of the writing but not all of it and she did all of the drawing and coloring.

Here's Grace hard at work labeling the parts of a Praying Mantis.

And here's the finished product. This opens up right in the middle of the front to reveal...The pictures are on a big flap that can be lifted up to reveal more mini books underneath. I left some blank space to add more pictures later.

This is Grace's favorite mini book. On the front it tells what Praying Mantises like to eat and then when you open it a little mantis pops up and a fruit fly is dangling in front of it.

So, that's it! The long part on the side is a diary of our mantises. We will journal a little about them each week, recording their size and what they are doing, their behaviors, etc. I've talked to Joe's preschool about bringing the praying mantises in when they get bigger and Grace will use this lapbook to give a short presentation about praying mantises. It should be fun and a great way for her to further retain the information. A great way to learn is to teach someone else. Now that I've done one lapbook I kind of have lapbook fever. Next we are going to do one on flowers. It will probably be a little bigger than this one but we'll see. I haven't really started the serious planning yet. We will also be following Kirsten's idea and do an owl lapbook and dissect owl pellets. And, last night I bought two kits--one for Hannah about Mary Cassatt and one for Grace about insects and flowers. If you are new to lapbooking I highly recommend buying one to start with, it will kind of give you an idea of how to do it. My favorite place to order from is inthehandsofachild.com. You can have them send you a hard copy or buy an ebook.