Xuzi Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 What is the purpose of it? :confused: Is it just like a fancy book-report? I don't get it. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homeschooling Again Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 How funny, I was JUST thinking this same thing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjgrubbs Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 It is really just another form of notetaking or reviewing material you have already learned in a fun 3 dimensional way. Here is a post I did about lapbooking: http://chantelleg.blogspot.com/2011/07/lapbooking.html One of my children is a very kinesthetic learner and he loves this! The older one, not so much, but he tolerates it ok! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thowell Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 :iagree:I was amazed at the retention level that came along with the lapbooks we did. We have done quite a few lapbooks, but this year for history we instead placed the books on cardstock in a notebook. At the end of the year we have them bound and they make a great scrapbook/keepsake for the kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 While doing lapbooking and book reports develop many of the same skills, there can be additional benefits with doing lapbooks. My kids will do some book reports. In general, they do not like to do them and consider them mostly drudgery. As for making lapbooks, my kids consider the majority of the process to be fun, not noticing that they are learning the typical book report skills. As an example, when my son was in first grade, he hated writing. He was one of those kinds of kids who seemed to be allergic to the writing process. If I asked him to write three sentences about something in his journal, one might have thought I just told him he would be waterboarded. However, that year I learned how to make lapbooks, and I had him do one on his favorite subject (penguins). He was so interested in this project that he enthusiastically worked on this for many hours, writing long pages of information about penguins. He also wrote labels and captions for his pictures as well as a title. I was floored by the amount of writing he did for "fun." I had never seen him enjoy writing in any way up to that point. Another big advantage of making lapbooks is the remarkably high retention that students have of the subject matter. Lapbooks are the main type of project I do to reinforce our history learning. Perhaps it is hard to believe just from reading this post, but my kids retain long-term almost all of the information that they put in their lapbooks. One reason for this is that it is a great visual way for them to learn information that they may have only listened to or read. They take a list of facts that they learned in reading, and then they make a small flap book or other foldable-type of display to go in the lapbook which gets the information into a form that is easier to remember. The physical process of cutting and pasting also helps them learn the material (as well as develops fine motor skills). I could tell my kids to sit and study a list or page of facts, but it is a lot more fun for them to learn it by making a display with pictures and fold-out pages. A good way to have my kids practice public speaking skills is to have them present their lapbooks to our family. I will say to my kids that our family needs to learn the subect about which they just did their lapbook. My kids are so proud of the lapbooks that they gladly stand up and "teach" us all the subject. They also love to show their lapbooks to most everyone who comes over to our house (grandma, grandpa, other relatives, friends...). Each time they show their lapbook to someone and explain the contents, they are reviewing the information that they learn. This goes a long way to help long-term retention of the material. Lapbooks help the student learn how to organize information in a logical way in a report, similar to what they may do in a book report, but in a greater degree. I have my kids make all of the components of the lapbooks first. I store all of the individual pieces in a ziplook bag as we go along. Once they have all of the parts made, we assemble the lapbook. The students decide how many pages they will need. Then they decide how to organize the information. This is a particular benefit of lapbooking, especially since it is such a visual process, taking the individual components of their "report" and arranging and rearranging them to make a coherent presentation. Other benefits beyond the standard book report are that they can incorporate in the report drawings with labels, pictures with captions, graphs, and other visual displays. I find lapbooks to be an easy way to do artsy projects, especially since I am not an artsy person but one of my kids is. Perhaps one my favorite things about lapbooks is that they are projects that we can keep forever. Sure it is cool to make a model of Jamestown with popsicle sticks (as one fourth grade teacher told me her class did), but what do you do with it when you are finished? Stick it in a closet which already has too much junk in it? Covertly recycle it? Almost no matter how many foldable booklets you glue into a lapbook, it will fold up neatly and compactly into a file folder-sized packet. We can store many of these in one drawer or on a shelf. It is great to be able to *keep* these projects that my kids make rather than having to get rid of them because they take up too much space. Also, my kids occasionally pull out an old lapbook they have done and read through the whole thing, again reviewing the information. So in summary, I have found lapbooks to be one of the best tools to help my kids not only have a fun art project to do, but also to develop important skills and retain what they have learned in various subjects. HTH :auto: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamdavis3 Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 My kids LOVE lapbooking!! I've noticed with my Kindergarten daughter that she would not retain anything if we just read it and did narration. If she was able to make a lapbook, add her narration to that, draw pictures, diagrams, etc... she retained about 90-95% of the information. So we started doing them for science and history. She loves them so much, that she takes them to relatives and friends and shows them what she's learned. I highly recommend them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cuckoomamma Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 I have to admit, I always thought they were kind of silly and skipped over them with my dd, about to turn 10. Our younger doesn't have the same reading/writing fluency that her sister had at 5, so we started lap booking with her. It's been a huge hit with both of them. Her older sister loves doing them as well, lol. Go figure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 We do lapbooking components in a spiral bound notebook. The pages are cardstock/scrapbooking sturdy. We do them for some of our FIAR titles. There are a few benefits in that it encourages her to write, she likes to review what we've done in the past, and she likes to show her notebook off. Mostly, though, I think it's fun. It's like looking at a pop-up book verses a chapter book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Think of it as a visual outline-- Know how an outline has this structure-- I. A. B. II. A. B. and so on? Well, depending on how big and detailed the lapbook is, each little book is the I or II, and the details in it are the A and B (or even greater detail). Does that help? It's a cool and useful, and FUN way to organize information. The thing I like about them is that they are easy for kids to present to other people--and each time they share, they are reviewing! That said, Dd doesn't like them. :glare::D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom@shiloh Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 So, any thoughts about how to get started with lapbooks since we've never done them? Do you buy a kit, or just do it on your own? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malbanese Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 So, any thoughts about how to get started with lapbooks since we've never done them? Do you buy a kit, or just do it on your own? I recommend purchasing a download for the first one or two. I really like Currclick and Knowledge Box. I see that you do Apologia. For our first lapbook we did the Botany lapbook that goes with Exploring Creation with Botany. It was a big success. I did it with our co-op group and the kids proudly displayed for the end-of-the-year gathering. This year my kids will be doing one for their PA State History class. Michelle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfamilygal Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 So, any thoughts about how to get started with lapbooks since we've never done them? Do you buy a kit, or just do it on your own? I love the TOG lapbooks. We just by the template and print them out. I do recommend buying the 11x17 cardstock from TOG. Much easier than using folders or posterboard, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cholderby Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 We've never lapbooked; I have learned so much from this thread! Are lapbooks strictly a HS thing, or is it more of a general education-wide thing? My son hates coloring and cutting and the like. I though all lapbooks were created at home by crafty scrapbooker types, I had no idea you could find kits. I'll have to check that out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSheep Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 We did a few lapbooks with ds when he was younger, but they're not really his thing. They did help remediate some cut, fold, paste skills, and at the time he would totally freeze up when confronted with having to write on a whole big sheet of blank paper, even if he only had to write a few words, but found a green 2 inch square much less intimidating. Dd just enjoys that sort of thing, but I haven't done it much with her because my hands are too full. I'm doing some simplifying and I think this might be one thing I try to do with her more just because she gets so tickled by all the little foldy flappy colorful bits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bnbacademy Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 (edited) We have done quite a few lapbooks, but this year for history we instead placed the books on cardstock in a notebook. At the end of the year we have them bound and they make a great scrapbook/keepsake for the kids. We have several notecooks of mini-books on cardstock. Where did you have them bound? At a print shop? They are bulky, so I wondered what binding worked for you? Cost? Maybe I could free up some 3 ring notebooks to use this year.... TIA, ps. You've received many responses that describe why we lapbookand I would agree with them. I apologize for this rabbit trail... Edited July 16, 2011 by bnbacademy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom in High Heels Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 So, any thoughts about how to get started with lapbooks since we've never done them? Do you buy a kit, or just do it on your own? I have never paid for materials. Homeschoolshare.com has loads and loads of free lapbooks. I just pick and choose the ones I want to use, print them off and we put them together. There are tons of resources online if you do a google search. If I can't find what I'm looking for, I just make my own up with clip art and lapbook templates. You can find them here and here. Indy really enjoys lapbooking because it's fun. He retains an amazing amount of information (which thrills me) and he loves to pull out his lapbooks and just sit and look at them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 So, any thoughts about how to get started with lapbooks since we've never done them? Do you buy a kit, or just do it on your own? Here is a website that tells how to make the basic lapbook out of a file folder. I add multiple extension pages as described using cardstock and packing tape. I usually print off free lapbooks from homeshare.com or other sites, though sometimes I buy them. If you get a kit, you can also add extra things to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moniksca Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 We love lapbooks here as well. I used a spiral bound notebook for our minibooks which were nice but this year we used a 3 ring binder and my notebook paper kept ripping out until I used printer paper. I have no space for large file folders so this way works for us plus ds likes to write little captions for his pictures. My ds hates cutting so I end up doing it for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xuzi Posted July 16, 2011 Author Share Posted July 16, 2011 Oh ya, I'm so glad I started this thread! :D Has anybody tried making lapbooks with cardstock paper 3-hole punched and put into those 3-prong folders? (the ones that are like 15cents each right now?) I'm thinking those might be good for multi-page lapbooks, but I wonder if it'd be too annoying have thick cardstock pages in one of those... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyagain Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Just wanted to share this awesome site for free lapbooks.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom in High Heels Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Oh ya, I'm so glad I started this thread! :D Has anybody tried making lapbooks with cardstock paper 3-hole punched and put into those 3-prong folders? (the ones that are like 15cents each right now?) I'm thinking those might be good for multi-page lapbooks, but I wonder if it'd be too annoying have thick cardstock pages in one of those... As heavy as the components are, I would think you couldn't do it with regular paper. Cardstock is probably the only way it would work. If you're interested, you can find our earthquake lapbook here. Because of the pregnancy and feeling sickly, we didn't do too many lapbooks this year. We did one on earthquakes, volcanoes, space and Leonardo Davinci. The Davinci one is great, but I haven't posted photos yet. I'm so lazy. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RahRah Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Oh ya, I'm so glad I started this thread! :D Has anybody tried making lapbooks with cardstock paper 3-hole punched and put into those 3-prong folders? (the ones that are like 15cents each right now?) I'm thinking those might be good for multi-page lapbooks, but I wonder if it'd be too annoying have thick cardstock pages in one of those... That's what we do - DS wasn't liking the "fold the folder into itself" approach, and I couldn't figure out what to do with them when done, so I tried going with the three-pin/prong folders, using heavy weight paper (not quite cardstock weight) and he creates these amazing "journals" about the various topics we're doing. Some are just a couple of pages, some as many as twenty pages - and his retention is very high from the material we do. He does all sorts of pages - from collages, to mini-reports, to an assortment of information on a page, to full two-page spreads of details he thought interesting! He really likes doing them I think because he can create more complex pages....and I like that I can file them away easily! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsiew Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Lapbooking only works for one child here. It's really quite amazing how when my dd gets to do a lapbook she'll read/record just about anything! She loves crafty fun. For her it's a technique that hits her learning style well. The boys have no interest in doing lapbooks. I only use lapbooking for science. I use the ones Paige has already made up for ES. It would drive me nuts to be having to design them all the time. I'm not a crafty person. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 To store the file folder lapbooks, you can just 3 hole punch them and put them in a binder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSheep Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Just wanted to share this awesome site for free lapbooks.:D Oh I like those! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 currclick.com has a lot of lapbooks you can buy, a few are free. I downloaded a template for lapbooks from the site. It just has some standard shapes and fun figures to get started with. There is a thread on SOTW that links to a blog where you can download a SOTW vol 1 Lapbook for free. It is amazing! Even if you are not using SOTW, download the lap book and look at it. She did one activity for each chapter, we are going to use it this year. It will be our first lapbook, so I am hoping to get lots of ideas for other lapbooks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSheep Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 currclick.com has a lot of lapbooks you can buy, a few are free. I downloaded a template for lapbooks from the site. It just has some standard shapes and fun figures to get started with. There is a thread on SOTW that links to a blog where you can download a SOTW vol 1 Lapbook for free. It is amazing! Even if you are not using SOTW, download the lap book and look at it. She did one activity for each chapter, we are going to use it this year. It will be our first lapbook, so I am hoping to get lots of ideas for other lapbooks! We used it for dd this year and LOVED it. I printed out all the minibooks and did the cutting before the beginning of the school year because I knew I'd just skip it too often otherwise, and it would frustrate dd, her attention span being what it is. I put all the bits for each book, along with any brads or string or whatever the book might require, into a sandwich baggie and filed them in my weekly files. She LOVED it. And it was nice to have a way other than narration to review, because that gets old REALLY fast with that child. Gah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 this has been a wonderful thread. I've learned alot, and think this will be great for my son. he also has SPD, and the cutting and pasting is very theraputic for fine motor skills as well.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xuzi Posted July 17, 2011 Author Share Posted July 17, 2011 So for those of you who make this a regular part of your homeschool, how "regular" is it? Like one lap book a month? A week? Do you work on them a little every day, or weekly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 We can do one lapbook in a month if we work on it a little bit almost every weekday. This year I am going to try to get one lapbook done per month, alternating a history one with one of the kids' choice (usually an animal theme). That may be pushing it, though, so we may get less done than that. It also depends on how much information you want to cover and how many components you want to include in your lapbook. You could take months doing a lapbook if you read through many books on the theme and add more and more components to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5knights3maidens Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 Here are some samples of some of our lapbooks Loving Life Lapbooks link below in signature. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doodle Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 currclick.com has a lot of lapbooks you can buy, a few are free. I downloaded a template for lapbooks from the site. It just has some standard shapes and fun figures to get started with. There is a thread on SOTW that links to a blog where you can download a SOTW vol 1 Lapbook for free. It is amazing! Even if you are not using SOTW, download the lap book and look at it. She did one activity for each chapter, we are going to use it this year. It will be our first lapbook, so I am hoping to get lots of ideas for other lapbooks! Thank you for this linking back to this thread. The SOTW lapbook is just what I needed. We managed to cover only up to chapter 14 last year. I am now doing the lapbook with Doodle as a way to review what we have already covered before we officially start second grade and continue on. I have been pleasantly surprised at how much he has retained from just listening to me read and listening to the CDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qcaller Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Here is another excellent resource to get you started: http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking This article links to many sample lapbooks and included some free templates to download. Here is an important quote from the article: Remember, lapbooking is only a tool for learning. You are not studying lapbooking; you are studying weather or archaeology, for example. If the lapbook does not aid in learning important information about what you are studying, it's just busy work. So make sure that each mini-book your child makes is really something you find important for her to learn.... Even if your lapbook has just four or five mini-books, if there was learning happening, then it's a successful lapbook. (emphasis mine) Pam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 (edited) What is the purpose of it? :confused: Is it just like a fancy book-report? I don't get it. :tongue_smilie: For us, yes, that's kind of it. We'll lapbook ocassionally in history. I think the last one we did was when we did a little rabbit-trail studying knights and I wanted a little more to it than just reading books. My boys are young, so note-taking isn't that practical at this point. I think it was Homeschool Share http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php that had a good lapbook on knights that we did. We also did a lapbook on Vikings. However, our lapbooks aren't made in file-folders. I'll make them on a piece of construction paper cut to fit in our history binder. I'm not huge on lapbooks, but some subjects do kind of lend themselves to that format and it's something fun and a little different. Edited July 21, 2011 by KrissiK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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