Your children have come home from school with a lapbook assignment. What in the world does that mean, and how are you supposed to do it?
A lapbook is a kid-made portfolio that’s all about a particular topic. Essentially, it’s a folder filled with mini books.
Each little book covers a different aspect of the main subject. Teachers may assign lapbooks as hands-on projects to engage students, encourage creativity, and reinforce classroom lessons.
Let’s take a look at what lapbooks involve so that you can help your kids with their homework assignments. You may enjoy the process so much that your family decides to make additional lapbooks as an at-home enrichment project.
Lapbook Topics
The teacher may have assigned a particular lapbook topic, but that’s not always the case. If your kids need to come up with their own ideas, see if one of these sparks their interest.
- Math: addition facts, fractions, three-dimensional shapes, everyday math applications
- Language Arts: Latin roots, parts of speech, vocabulary words, famous literary quotations
- Science: life cycles, flowers, plant and animal cells, earthquakes, parts of the body
- Social Studies: my community, state history, branches of government, the electoral college
- Art: primary and secondary colors, famous artists, artistic elements, well-known works
Finding Information
The more your children know about a topic, the easier it will be to brainstorm mini books and fill them up. LightSail’s online resources offer a wealth of knowledge for your kids to include in their lapbooks.
Not only does the library feature kid-friendly books on all sorts of popular topics, but your children also receive access to World Book Encyclopedia. In addition, watching livestreams or exploring 360° Images could inspire artistic additions to a lapbook.
Bringing the Lapbook to Life
Lapbooks begin with a folder. Many families find that manila file folders work perfectly for this project.
Other supplies you may need are:
- Colored paper
- Scissors
- Glue sticks
- Markers
- Pencils
- Tape or staples
Here’s what to do:
- Choose a subject for each mini book.
- Cut and fold a piece of paper to form a little booklet. You may need to use tape or staples to stick multiple pages together. Hint: To simplify this process, free printable templates are available online.
- Using text or pictures, fill each little book with information. You may want to give each booklet a title, too.
- Arrange the booklets inside the file folder and glue them down.
- Decorate the front cover. Don’t forget to include a title!
Of course, if you’re feeling especially crafty, you could always take this project to the next level by making a double-size lapbook or using additional art supplies. There are tons of ideas online for how to amp up your lapbook skills, so have fun exploring new options.
Above all, have fun with this creative project, and rest assured that LightSail will be there to assist with all your research needs.
Posted on 12.Dec.21 in Reading at Home Tips
