Our First Lapbook – Spiders
For the past couple weeks I have been researching curriculum for the coming school year. We do not use one brand of curriculum for all subjects. I know it works for some people but it never has for us plus I, for one, like variety. I have several favorite resources that I like to reference, none of which I would be happy to use exclusively. SO saying all that my head has been pretty buzzing with a load of info recently. Then early this week I made it buzz even more when I discovered Lapbooking for the first time!
Apparently Lapbooking has been a part of homeschooling for quite some time but I had never heard of it until now. Boy, did it capture my attention & enthusiasm & I was eager to try one to see how Daniel & Hannah would like it. If you are anything like me you are asking the question “What in the world is Lapbooking?”
Lapbooking is a system of immersing a child in a certain subject, bringing out their creative talents & storing it in a way that doesn’t take up much space & can be kept for future reference. Don’t knwo about your house, but here much of the kids work ends up in the trash as the individual pages end up on the floor or being cut out by someone else feeling crafty with the scissors! Some does go on the refrigerator for a while but that can only hold so much. In my opinion Lapbooking solves a big problem.
Disclaimer: Although I am excited about this new form of teaching I do believe there needs to be balance & will not be using Lapbooks all the time!
To create a Lapbook you take a simple File Folder, open it up & fold each side into the middle. More complicated ones for longer studies can be created with 2,3 or even 4 folders. I did not have any File Folders on hand this morning (got them on order) so used Pocket Folders, cutting out the pocket. Hence ours in the pictures shown below are not as colorful as most file folders are not white inside but normally a lighter color of whatever color the outside is. FYI I have just ordered a pack of multi-colored file folders from Amazon at a very reasonable price. At just under 16c each I didn’t think that was a bad price plus I wanted a variety of colors so as to let the children have a choice 🙂
SO stepping back in time for just a few, my initial dilemma was what subject to choose? I wanted something that was relevant to what we were doing & also needed to ensure we had the books on the subjects on hand. At one point I got so overwhelmed & frustrated that I just had to shut down all the research windows I had up & say to myself, “Calm down! Get organized & plan for the future, not right this minute!” Patience has never been one of my strengths! If I decide to do something I want to do it NOW! LOL!
Last night as I went to bed, the inspiration hit! Spiders! We have two more insects to cover for science this year from the book History of Insects & spiders is one of them. (Silkworms are the other.) The spider books from the library have been sat here for a few weeks waiting. SO right after breakfast this morning I googled “Spider Lapbook” & up came several options. Wasn’t long before I found what I was looking for on CurrClick, a website I had seen earlier but not fully investigated. Not sure how long they have it at a special price but right now, at time of writing, it is only $1! That’s a steal! If you are interested in maybe studying spiders at a later date, just buy it, download it & save it. ( I will be returning to their website later to see what other “steals” may come in handy later.) With research some are free & I will share some of those with you as we do them. I like to test out a product before recommending it to others.
This Spider Lapbook was designed to do over 1-2 days which was perfect for us. Some are designed for a week, others 2-4 weeks & we will definitely incorporate some of those later. For today though this was absolutely perfect as it introduced us all to a new product in a very gentle way.
With our File Folders folded & our Lapbook units printed off, it was time to begin. Everything was explained well, we read 3 Spider books & then the kids started on the work. They really enjoyed it.
This Spider Lapbook had 6 major parts/sections:
- What family?
- Labeling the Parts
- Webs (what we had discovered about them.)
- Life Cycle (wheel)
- Enemies (required to draw an enemy that eats spiders)
- Nursery Rhymes Book (Two Nursery Rhymes were included & they had to write out another. We chose Incy Wincy Spider.)
Each part was a different shape creating variety. Â For younger children you may want to precut out all the templates/activities but for children with good scissor skills I would encourage you to let them do it themselves. It teaches them to do a good job & take pride in their work.
This whole Lapbook took less than 2 hours to complete. The company states it is for all ages but I think that is a little broad. I would say all Elementary aged children. Of course the older the child, the more neat the work should be & the more detailed.
The only other supplies required were some brads, glue & a stapler. The children have now created a keepsake that they can show to others & that did not cost a lot of money to put together.
The cover above is just glued on one side 🙂 All the pictures shown are from Daniel’s Lapbook.
As for which Spider books to read, there are SO many good ones out there to choose from that is why I have not shared specific ones with you. You may already have Spider books on your bookshelf but if not, your local library is guaranteed to have at least one. Ours had a myriad to choose from.
Take care,
Liz
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