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Lapbooks: An Exciting Adventure!

Another engaging endeavor for the whole family is lapbooks. When we occasionally get into a slump with Notebooking, we switch gear and start creating all together through lapbooking. We discovered lapbooking a long, long time ago, it was probably our first method of Notebooking now that I think about it. I enjoy it because it involves the whole family working together.

What are lapbooks

First and foremost lapbooks are another arrow in your Mama’s quiver. They are a great way to check your child’s understanding of what you are learning as well as an opportunity to create something memorable all together. But technically speaking they are a manila file folder turned into a book  with the help of pockets, flaps, mini-books and other interactive elements. They contain narrations on the different things learned from one topic or book. They are the recipient of the knowledge acquired during a unit study, of a biography, or an event. For demonstration purposes I will be using lapbooks that we created. I just had a 21 year old walk by, pick up the Viking lapbook and tell me how much fun she had had making it and how well she remembers it! That was wonderful!

Note: I list many lapbook resources at the end of this post, do not think you have to figure it all out on your own. I am writing as if you were to make it neutral. The truth on how to build a lapbook from scratch applies to building a lapbook template that you have purchased. So, do not fear, you do not have to come up with it all. Most of our lapbooks were purchased templates.

Lapbook components

Let’s deep dive into the technical aspect of the lapbook and how to make it. This is meant to be simple, but I will definitely show you ways to overcomplicate it, you’re welcome! No matter, this is something that will reflect your family’s personality and you should not (no, not ever!) compare your work to mine nor anyone else’s. This is personal to your family.

Step 1: The base

Grab a manila folder, sometimes I change the color just for fun, or you could color code by subject, that’s up to you. Open it flat then fold each cover towards the middle crease. This will create a wider folder with two covers that open like a double door. This is the base of your lapbook.

Step 2: The front cover

On that front cover you will find the title of your book and an image. You can do two things for the cover:
– Using a regular size sheet of cardstock you can make a full size cover that you will glue only on the left flap of your base. This allows for the right flap to receive more components and gives you a little more real estate.
– Use both sides of the cover to create the title and the image, making it bold and flashy.
I like the first option better, because we seem to always run out of room.

Step 3: The different components

There are so many ways to fill out a lapbook! Maps, timelines, and graphs are the obvious go to. But this is where you can let your creativity take over. We often have mini-books, pockets, mini-folders, spinners and anything else we can think of. These will be the recipients of our narrations, illustrations and notes. You can use any scrapbooking and junk journaling technique that you like and enjoy.

Step 4: The back cover

I often reserve the space on the back cover for larger, sometimes full page components or adding more pages. It is easy to staple additional pages to the top, if necessary. But I try to keep things simple and streamlined so that the lapbooks do not become overwhelming. This is meant to summarize our learning, not to keep track of every little detail…

So now what?

Now that you know all about the base and the components, where do you start?
First choose a topic. I recommend a somewhat narrow topic, that you will be studying over a short period of time, a week or two at most. I find that biographies, folktales, animals and unit studies work best for lapbooking. We have covered anything from Vikings to owls and scientists or artists through lapbooking. The only limitation would be your imagination.

Materials

Second, gather your materials. You will need the obvious adhesive, paper, card stock and pens and pencils. But you might also want to gather images, maps, decorative elements and other resources. Some things we have used and enjoyed have been brads, staples, and frames. You just need a little walk in the scrapbooking aisle at Hobby Lobby to spark your imagination!

Organization

Third, get organized. This is where the lapbook process shines: team work. As a family, decide what you want to include in your lapbook, then divide the work between everyone. Each person will choose the topics that they want to present and some topics will be assigned. This all depends on your family’s dynamic. This is where your child will learn to coordinate her work with that of others to create a worthy end product. Talk about a great life experience! Each family member will independently create the components assigned to them, making the burden light and allowing each personality to be included and shine. Roughly map out the layout of your lapbook so each person knows how big their component can be. Do not forget to give everyone a deadline of when things need to be ready to be assembled.

Independent work

Then comes the fun part! Creating the components. I usually give each child free rein on how they want to present the topic assigned to them. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to work independently while contributing to a group project. They get to show how well they understood the topic while demonstrating their ability to follow guidelines and work as a team, within a certain time frame. This is really the important learning part of the whole thing, they might forget all about the Vikings but they will remember how to work with a team to complete a project that they will be proud of.

And the grand finale!

Putting it all together! Go back to your rough draft on where to place each component and work together to assemble this lapbook. And then present it to Dad at dinner. Let each child tell him about what she has learned and how she came up with her component. This will anchor the learning process even more.

Lapbooks: a creative learning tool

Once again this is just one tool in your toolbelt, but what a wonderful one it is! Creative learning helps us and our children absorb the material so much better! It is also a sneaky way, so to speak, to prepare them for the rest of their life. Academics are wonderful and necessary but one thing that we are able to do at home is to multitask, so to speak and teach our children life skills as well as academics in just one fell swoop. I truly love that about home education. Everything is an opportunity to learn, it does not have to center around academics of course, but everything can become academics. The key is to understand that all that we do with our children is a learning opportunity for them, and for us.

Do you have to come up with everything yourself??? No! There are so many resources out there, but here are our favorites.

  • Homeschool Share: Lapbook Hub and Lapbook Templates
  • This is my favorite go to resource for lapbooks, so many topics are available and the templates allow me to create lapbooks on any subject that I choose as well. Bookmark this one!
  • Homeschool Giveaways: Lots and lots of free lapbook templates here!
  • Confessions of a Homeschooler: Tons of lapbook resources, click on her “curriculum” tab on the left menu and pick a topic, she offers so many lapbooks on so many different subjects! She’s amazing!
  • Shower of Roses: Lots of Catholic liturgical and sacramental lapbooks as well as historical ones. Unfortunately some of the stores Jessica links too must have shut their doors as the links are broken.  But you can always use her pictures for inspiration and create your own. 
  • Sarah J. Creations: Another good resource for Catholic lapbooks.

    We love using picture books as the basis of our lapbooks, here are couple of great examples:
  • Honey, Honey, Lion by Jan Brett makes for a great lapbook exploring the African Savana and its animals.
  • Little Red Riding Hood, by Trina Schart Hyman also makes a great lapbook, all fairy tales and folktales do.

These are just a couple of examples. You could create a lapbook based on any picture book, really. I’ll make sure to include a few in the Membership Booklists from now on.
Love,
Mattie

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