Thursday, November 20, 2008

Laura Ingalls Wilder Study and lapbook

Warning...lots of pictures and instructions on how to make this lapbook. Enjoy you homeschool and or crafty moms. Hope to be a place of resource for you. You can click on the picture to enlarge it so you can see what it looks like.
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We have just finished studying Laura Ingalls Wilder for school and it has proven to be a huge favorite topic to study. I read some biographies from the local library to the girls and we started gathering information to make a lapbook. The girls also have been reading the books on their own for fun and we have also discovered the show on TV. To finish it off, we attended a Laura Ingalls Wilder presentation from a local librarian at a womens meeting at my neighbor's church.

Here are the girls with our sweet neighbor lady. Of course they wore their prairie dresses and bonnets. Sad to say, those are getting too small. I am fighting the urge to make them some more dresses. Here are the girls with the lady who gave the nice presentation and another HS girl and her super cute prairie dress (the dress that got me thinking about making ones for my kiddos).







We have really enjoyed lapbooking and I am really amazed at how much information the kids retain from this kind of learning. Totally hands on. Totally creative. And they want to look back at the books and show them to any willing audience. =)

While I read to the girls, they were making the mini books that go in the lapbook. I do the cutting, and they do the rest. We used a color copy from one of our first (geared for young readers) Laura books as a cover. On the back cover, we made a pocket for misc. timeline info we found.


So far, we have stuck to the traditional shutter fold folders glued to each other. This lap book was 2 folders connected. The orange MAP book included maps from Laura's travels. On the left flap were info about her family (parents, siblings, children...)Inside the first flap we made a book about different jobs Laura had and included some illustrations from the Little House books. The large purple and white book is another map and all the towns she lived in.

The yellow book is opened here to show ALL the times Laura moved. As I was reading the biography, we kept a log of this and then the girls put this in the wagon book (got the wagon from enchanted learning).

On the left is a small blue mini book with a map of where the Little House books take place. We learned that not all books are exactly like Laura's life. On the bottom right is a blue and white book that tells when she was born and died.
Here is a accordion fold mini book with open flaps that show all the different kinds of houses Laura lived in. Everything from a log cabin to a sod house to the final home of Rocky Ridge farm that she and Almanzo owned.

This mini book is a flip book that lists all of Laura's books and when they were published (several published after her death). Then the girls included their own art for each book. That allows them to draw and be extra creative.
This picture shows an accordion style fold mini book that lists all the difficult things that took place during the first 4 years of Laura and Almanzo's marriage. You can also see the red mini book that we made for the family album. We included some pictures of the different members of Laura's family (remember, she really wasn't Melissa Gilbert).

15 comments:

junglemama said...

I love Laura! What a totally awesome idea for a study!

A Girl, her God, and a Gift! said...

My cousin, whom I refer to as the homeschooling queen, had the opportunity to travel to Laura's birthplace for some type of festival. She taught all about her and then my cousin's girls got to go experience it... they are blessed to travel for her husband's work, so their homeschooling has a very hands on aspect that is awesome. I like the lap books and look forward to trying one with Emma sometime... what's a good age to try one?

crispy said...

As for ages, our lap books seem to be a good fit for mid grade school. But you can alter them to make them easier or more difficult, depending on the age of the kids.

Ideas on making them easier:

- You do the cutting, writing and let them draw the pictures. THen you can put them in the lapbook.

- You also could print pictures to match and then they can choose the right picture to paste in the right spot.

For older students:

- You could have them expand on the information that they include in the mini books. Instead of just listing small points they could write a few sentences.

- You could let the older students write a biography to include in a pocket or a report where they gather the info on their own.

As for ages, a K or 1st grader should be able to make a VERY basic lapbook. You might start with only one folder.

Crystal said...

That is so cool!!!!!!!! I am not a homeschooler, but I think we will make a basic one. That is a great idea!! I have been to Laura's home in Mansfield, MO. We used to live close by in Southwest, MO. It was really neat to see after being a fan from a little girl : ) Thanks for sharing!!

fitncrafty said...

What a great job the girls did! This is fabulous! I love Laura too and so does my daughter she is reading all the books now.. She would love to see this lapbook.

Julie said...

I was lucky enough to get to see it in person. My favorite part was the flip pages with the drawings of all of the books. great job girls!

Karen said...

I have seen these but have never done one... they look like a lot of fun!

Cindy said...

Oncee again, an incredible job! I love that you did this on Laura Ingalls Wilder; I'm considering re-reading her books!

carrie said...

Looks great! My sisters and I used to love reading all those books as we were growing up - I hope Hannah Beth will enjoy them, too, when she gets a little older!

Rachel said...

I can't tell you how much my girls love this post! They are, as they call it, "big time" Laura fans!

Any news??? Still praying...

Tim and Susan said...

Hey, I wrote a comment, but don't see it posted so I think it got lost while I was writing it...not sure.
Anyway, we love the Little House books too. I like to read them aloud to the boys, their favorite of course is, "Farmer Boy". The lapbooks look great. We'll enjoy seeing them soon in person!!! YEAH.

Lee and Bev said...

What a fun day and presentation. The girls stole the show with their prairie dresses.

K-Sue said...

Looks great! Though Earthgirl has finished reading all but 1 Little House book, we'll probably revisit them as a school subject later on.

We are working on a lapbook using
"Horseless Horse" 4-H project. I find I have to curb, or better, channel the wild creativity a little so we get something that will look neat and be clear and easy to follow later. Otherwise, we end up with, for example, several hundred butterflies drawn on the minibooks because butterflies are what she is into drawing at the moment :)

Denise Punger MD IBCLC said...

I've got my Little House Books in the garage. I've tried to get the boys interested via Farmer Boy. No such luck. I'll have to try again with another angle before I give up. I'd love to be a little house mother.

Anonymous said...

We love lapbooks!

Thanks for the great ideas!