Lapbooks: One of the GREATEST Homeschooling Tools EVER!!!

Good morning everyone!

I had my first encounter with lapbooks a few weeks ago during the Super Moon.

I was on the hunt for something fun that all of the kids would enjoy and I came across the idea of lapbooks (many thanks to several of the ladies I follow who inspired me).

Here is a video on how to make your basic lapbook.  *They are SO simple.*

Note:  mcclintick02 has several lapbook video tutorials. 

There are quite literally hundreds of resources online for lapbooks, many of which are free and lapbooks work with any subject.

Abbie and Noah worked together on a lapbook based on the book, Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown.    The templates for the lapbook came from Homeschool Share.

Everything on the top left hand side and the entire right side are everything that was in bunny's bedroom.  The items in the bottom left were not in the room.  I let Abbie and Noah go through the book, sort the pictures out accordingly and then they took turns gluing them to the lapbook.

Lots going on here: The clock to the left only has 1 hand because it is intended for number recognition rather than teaching time.  Noah wrote Ms on each flap and inside are pictures that begin with M.  Under that you have a dial with the different moon phases.  Beside that are "The Three Bears" flash cards, they are great for telling the kids the story.  Next is the "My Phone Number" matchbook, inside I had Noah write our phone number.  Lastly, there is the "Hey Diddle Diddle" flip book.  If you've read "Goodnight Moon" you know that these are all relevant to the store though it may not look like it.

Last but not least, a sweet little poem on the back.

Bryce's lapbook was a bit more complicated but he really enjoyed putting it together.  He even took it to school (remember he's not being homeschooled this year) and showed his teacher who then kept it for a few days so that she could use it in one of her lessons.  There was not a tutorial for Bryce so google was our best friend in creating this lapbook.

Cover

Phases of the moon

Vocabulary pocket

Some of his vocabulary words.  We had 10 total.

This page was Bryce's first experience with copying and pasting in Microsoft Office.  He also learned how to insert symbols and footers, as well as the importance of giving credit to those whose work you are borrowing and why plagiarism is wrong.  So much from one piece of paper.

The top picture shows the layers of the moon and labels what everything is.  I believe we got that from Enchanted Learning.

To go along with his Moon lapbook I had Bryce list to the audio book for  Midnight on the Moon by Mary Pope Osborne.  This particular book is number eight in the, "Magic Tree House" series.  After he listened to the audio tape (which the little ones also enjoyed) he answered the corresponding worksheets which I found on abcteach.com.

The best part about these lapbooks for us was the fact that not only were the kids excited to do them but they stayed engaged the entire time and they were eager to show them to everyone they came across and talk about what they were about and what was in them.  That's what learning is suppose to be like!

Happy homeschooling!