How to Make Easy Lapbooks for Homeschool

Lapbooking is a simple process that children love and learn remarkably well from. If you aren't familiar with lapbooks this article will give you a brief description of how to make one.
Lapbooking is where you take a topic that you are learning about, often science but can be used with anything from social studies and states to an alphabet or number lapbook.
Just keep in mind that lapbooking is fun, let your kids have the creative direction on the project and you'll never go wrong.
Lapbooks are great for looking back to remember topics as well as portfolio additions and most important, a wonderful keepsake for the future.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• File Folder, colored or plain
• glue or tape
• various printable pages on the topic
• Images and clip art found from free websites on the topic
• Various crafts material that you prefer depending on the project (these might include markers or glitter pens, pipe cleaners, etc.)

1. 
   Shutter fold simple lapbook

   You need to pick a topic such as a science unit you would like to cover. For my example I am going to use the human body systems. Search the web to find printables related to the body systems as well as images that can be used later. If you google 'free unit studies' and whatever topic then you should get good results back.

2. 
   Inside Basic Shutter fold Lapbook

   You will want to select a few library books to read that go along with the topic. As you read the books and work through the exercises then your children should be developing a general understanding of the topic.

3. 
   Inside Body System Lapbook- First fold

   When you have done this then it is time to move on to the best part, constructing your lapbook. With the workbook pages that you have used as well as the printables from the unit studies and any clip art of themed coloring pages that you have found, you are now ready to begin.
   You should choose which type of lapbook you are going to make. There are several different styles ranging from easy to difficult (well, not really difficult but harder than the easy). The easiest of all is the shutter fold. You take a lapbook and fold it open, then you fold each side inward to the center. This creates a window shutter type effect and the opening side is the cover.

4. 
   Inside lapbook- second folded section

   A more difficult (but still somewhat easy) fold is to put two folder together. To do this you take two folders and only fold one side as you would the shutter style, then tape the two folded flaps together. This retains the same look of a folder but with extra flaps to work with inside. You can also cut a folder in half and tape one half to one of the inside parts of the main lapbook. This creates a flip up section.

5. 
   Inside Lapbook- last section

   Once you have folded your lapbook as you desire it is time to assemble. The kids will glue or tape (depending on their/your preference) the different clip art images, workbook pages or activities throughout the book. You will want to include definitions of key terms or descriptions of how things in the topic work. Don't forget to decorate your back cover as well.

6. 
   Inside Lapbook- Last section opened

   After you are finished, you will probably want to take a few pictures just to have (and maybe pictures while they're constructing it as well) and don't forget to put the names and date somewhere in the book (such as small print on the back cover) just for your own records.
   Enjoy making these with your kids and as they get the hang of it try out more elaborate designs.

Tips & Warnings

• Lapbooking is fun, don't worry if it's not exactly perfect. As long as the kids are having fun and learning!

[Susanh]

on 8/4/2008 Hi Autumn, I've linked your article to mine called How To Get a Free Presidential Lapbook Folder Online.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2280850_presidential-lap-book-folder****.html

[SeventhSibling]

on 7/27/2008 You sure know the in's and out's of homeschooling. Great article!

[JMButler1728]

on 7/15/2008 These are wonderful! We've never done lapbooking before, but I'm going to set this aside for my family. This would be perfect for a project. All my brothers are artistic, and they would love this sort of thing. Thanks for sharing!

[Susanh]

on 6/13/2008 Your lapbooks are fantastic! Great article too!

We just tried our hand at lapbooks this year. It is so much fun! We plan to incorporate several more this coming school year. A great resource (again, the library might have it) is a book called The Ultimate Lapbook Handbook. We purchased ours from Tobin's Lab (they're online or at your local homeschool convention), but I'm sure others might have it as well.