Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Space Lapbook


We finished our lapbooks today that we have working on for several weeks. Lapbooking was totally new to me until I met my friend Tiffany. She inspired me to try something new and I am glad we did. The idea is to take some kind of board (on this one we used file folders glued to each others ~ you can also use poster boards). Then you make little mini books and attach them to the boards. I use Dinah Zike's Big Book of Books for mini book ideas.

Our science curriculum tells us to take notes, record definitions and draw pictures that goes along with what we learn each day. Instead of doing that, we made little books each day.
As for all the pictures, sorry they are fuzzy and not clear.
Here you can see the constellations book, Galileo time line, and other misc. mini books. Notice the phases of the moon pull down book.

We also made a glossary with all the vocabulary words and a star pocket with a little star game we made up.



We decided to make a little book (all the orange and green ones) for each of the planets. After I read to them from the books that we are studying, they came up with bullet points that they remembered about the planets. The long yellow book is the planets in order with a picture of it on the inside.





This red mini book was a chart of the planets and the speed of rotation and orbits. Tristen coined the phrase E years/days/hours (for Earth years/days/hours). The orange one was just for fun - a prediction of the future of space.


Today we finished with space travel and different galaxy shapes. Notice how these books open up to neat shapes.





One of the things that I like about lapbooking is the kids want to keep looking back through what they have made. And it is another opportunity to "review" what they have learned.

14 comments:

Tiffany said...

It's absolutely wonderful!!! It makes me want to quit everything we're doing, pick a subject and make a lapbook! Thanksgiving would be a fun topic....hmmmm. I am dying to see those lapbooks in person. Next time we see you bring them with you.

Salzwedel Family said...

Those turned out really great. What a cool idea!

Cheryl said...

I absolutely love the lapbooks... love. them. I wish I knew about them when my kids were younger, I think we could have done all our school this way almost!

Cindy said...

those are really cool! It looks like they learned so much!

Lee and Bev said...

How cool is this! I love the different shapes and colors of the books and it is wonderful that the girls want to keep looking at them. My bet is that they know much more about space, planets, stars, etc than I ever learned! Thanks to Tiffany for sharing such a great idea with you.

Denise Punger MD IBCLC said...

Your school is cool.

mommy g said...

How fun! Amanda and I want to try this! What kind of paper works best? Cardstock, construction, colored copy paper? I don't know anyone here who is doing this...

crispy said...

Details on making the lapbook -

We used 2 file folders and folded the two pieces in so they open kind of like double doors. Then you attach 2 small flaps to each other to make it like the first picture.

I have tried a few different types of glue. I found that I liked Elmers rubber cement. I did let the books dry a while before we tried to use them. I have also used glue dots and double sided tape.

Once the lapbook is formed, then we start being creative on the different mini books. Like I said, I get ideas from Dinah Zike's book, but you could just make little mini flap books.

We used colored printer paper to make the mini books. I tried construction and it tore too easily. But we did use that for the blue mini book with the Earth picture on it and inside is their glossary.

Depending on what we learned for the day, depends on the kind of mini book. I like the flap books and the pocket for the star game.

Sometimes we will photo copy something to put in the mini books. Other times we will draw and make our own things.

We are starting a lapbook today for Laura Ingalls Wilder. Should be fun.

Julie said...

Wow great job all of you!!

Anonymous said...

We LOVE lapbooks. My friend turned us onto them and the kids think it is the greatest thing ever!

K-Sue said...

Great lapbook! Good job, girls!

I also have found that we revisit our lapbooks and other minibooks in various folders and notebooks. We love them!

Re: Thanksgiving lapbook - Squidoo.com/thanksgivinglapbook has more resources than you could put in 10 lapbooks! We pull out our Thanksgiving Notebook every November, reread it, and add to it. It's not a lapbook but has lapbook-y thngs in it.

In addtion to the papers Crispy mentioned, I also use pretty printed scrapbooking paper bought in one of those huge packs at JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby. They make cute covers for little books.

Tim and Susan said...

Very fun, creative and hands-on!! Super great idea!!

Tim and Susan said...

Does your mini book idea book have ideas for a Thanksgiving book? That would be fun to do with my boys over Thanksgiving break.

Sarah said...

My kids would absolutely LOVE this. I just know it.