What is a lapbook?
Lapbooking is a great educational tool that can be used to make learning fun!
It involves the creation of mini-books (paper folds) and collecting and displaying them in a decorated file-folder (manila folder – this makes up a folder-book that can fit in your lap) as end-product of studying a specific topic or book.
The mini-books consist of the information you decided you’d like your child to know. After you’ve decided which theme (or book) you’re going to study, you will break it up into different topics. For each topic you will create a mini-book in which the child can record what he/she has learned about the topic (if your child cannot write yet, he can narrate so you can write it down for him). Mini-books come in different shapes and sizes, and can consist of written answers to questions, illustrations, narrations, clipped magazine pictures, and any other forms of retelling what the child has learned. The lapbook can then be decorated or complimented with timelines, drawings, photos, clipart, stickers, newspaper clippings, and maps that relate to the topic studied.
There are many pre-made lapbooking resources on the internet – some free, others to purchase. This also includes clean mini-book templates. I found the following websites very useful as sources for lapbook mini-books/paper folds and information:
Lapbooking is a great way to integrate different subject materials in a fun in-depth topic study the child is interested in. It also gives great opportunity to develop speaking skills because learners usually enjoy showing their lapbooks to friends and family members, and will give an oral report on the topic covered (once again, good for affirming the information).
We started using lapbooking the first year before we had to officially start school. My very active 6-year old did not like sitting still and rather wanted to play and run around for more than 15 hours a day. It worried me, because I wanted him prepared for first grade. I wanted him to learn to write numbers and letters, and I also wanted him to be a little creative and learn to finish what he started. Even though he loved me reading to him, I wanted him to actively take part in the learning process. Lapbooking addressed all these issues.
Lapbooking broke down every subject we studied into small bits, which was a great way to fit learning into small amounts of time available per session. Buck gradually started sitting still for longer periods of time to finish bigger portions of the lapbook (the whole), and after each mini-book he always had a sense of accomplishment.
As an example, I’ll tell you in a nutshell what we did when we studied the life-cycle of a butterfly:
First we gathered resources for information – books, video clips, educational movies, illustrations, photos, etc., and determined what we wanted to learn. We then compiled mini-books related to the resource material, e.g. what do butterfly eggs look like?; where will you find butterfly eggs?; what comes out of the butterfly egg?; what is a caterpillar?; how long do butterflies live?; etc. (You’ll create a mini-book for each of these questions). We then worked through the material, we completed and collected the mini-books in the file-folder to compile a lapbook. We also found a dead butterfly in the garden, which we carefully examined and added to the lapbook. He then had some fun creating a cover for the lapbook.
The mini-books were all very simple, and only about the life-cycle of the butterfly. The whole unit-study on the life-cycle of the butterfly can also form part of a more in-depth study of butterflies in general, but the complexity of the lapbook will depend on the age of your child.
I strongly recommend lapbooking because it is a GREAT alternative to the boring worksheet-after-worksheet approach. It definitely keeps the child’s attention and interest longer, and all subjects can be integrated into one theme.
You can go here to find tips on how to get started with lapbooking.
Following are examples of some lapbooks:
