Wednesday, February 12, 2014

LAPBOOKS: an easy way to learn

Lapbooks are easy to make and convenient to take with you.  Basically, you take a regular file folder, open it up, place a piece of cardstock inside the middle and fold in the edges to create a book.  Older children can pick their favorite topic, do the research, and place what they learned about in it.  For smaller children, you can tailor it to their learning needs and interests. The possibilities are endless.

My 4 year old just make a lapbook about Minnie Mouse cakes.  With my help, she picked out her favorite cake pictures online, cut them out and glued them into her book by herself. We then printed out an ingredient list that she could write over for practice.  She was very proud of her book.

We have a bird feeder just outside the window of our playroom.  I decided to do a lapbook on the birds we see each day. .  We have seen everything listed in the lap book except the owl and eagle.  I have already done the research, so if you would like, you can just print and assemble your own Backyard Bird lapbook.  I placed it in a sharing file for download at:

http://www.2shared.com/file/5lom3LnD/Backyard_birds_lapbook.html

 
Here is the cover.  I traced an outline of a bird on felt to give my 2 year old some texture to play with.  

 
 
Here is the lap book open.  I already had paper that had a blue sky with clouds as the background.  I printed off the various birds and my 4 year old helped glue them in place.  I laminated this page to make it more sturdy.  This also allows them to mark on it with a dry erase marker showing which birds they see at the bird feeder. 


 
Here is the information about eagles.  I had some leftover circle Velcro pieces that I cut in half to ensure the flap stays closed.  Also another texture for play. 

 
This is a mini reading book for early readers.  I made a pocket for it so I could replace the book with something more advanced later.  The book was too large initially, so under printing preferences, I printed "4 to a page" and it came out the perfect size.
 


This is what took the most time for me.  I looked up facts about each bird and tried to keep it small and relevant.  I glued each piece onto a piece of cardstock and then glued just the top 1/2 inch of each one as I stacked them on the inside flap.  You have to start with the bottom one first.  I numbered each one to coordinate with the main laminated photos of birds.
 
 
 Not sure if we are supposed to put things on the back or not, but there was just a little more information I wanted to share.  Each piece is glued onto colored cardstock and then glued onto the file folder. 


There are a few websites that offer a variety of lapbooks for free.  Just print and assemble.  They did not have the one I was looking for, so I made my own.  I hope you can benefit from this information too. 
 
 
 
 
Many blessings,
Robin

 



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