The Elements Lapbook

by Jimmie Lanley on August 26, 2009

sprite with elements lapbook3

Sprite with Elements Lapbook

We assembled another lapbook this week. We’ve been collecting these minibooks for several months now. Sprite does a few minibooks each week, usually after a science lesson as her narration activity.

We took pics outside when we went to free our latest nature study object — a grasshopper.

For the cover, Sprite made a drawing of Mendeleev working on the Periodic Table of the Elements. We loved her drawing so much that I scanned it and printed it out rather than use the original on the lapbook.

The whole set of pics can be found at Flickr.

elements lapbook cover2

Elements Lapbook

periodic table of elements lapbook (16)

Super Long Accordion Book

Some of what we used can be found linked at Chemistry Lapbook.

But the vast majority of the minibooks came from blanks that I prepared beforehand. Sprite chose whichever one best suited the information she wanted to record. I find that lapbooking in this way is really the simplest and most creative method. I don’t have to spend a lot of time creating or printing out fancy templates with clipart and such. I just offer blank books to be filled in by Sprite.

{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

Marsha August 26, 2009 at 2:20 pm

Do you think the lapbooks/minibooks would be effective for my boys who detest writing and detest drawing even more?

Sprite did a great job on the drawing of Dmitri! I am really loving the NOEO Chem.
.-= Marsha´s last blog ..Giving thanks =-.

Reply

sarah in the woods August 26, 2009 at 7:31 pm

This is a really neat one! I gave you an award on my blog. Please don’t feel any obligations though.
.-= sarah in the woods´s last blog ..Art Camp =-.

Reply

Sherry August 26, 2009 at 10:32 pm

The cover art is awesome!

I really like following how Sprite is doing lapbooks as she gets older. I suspect (though of course his attitude could change any day) that Gerrick will not want to stop lapbooking anytime soon either. :)

Reply

June August 26, 2009 at 11:14 pm

Here from Sarah’s site and so happy to have found you. We are a homeschooling family with ten-year-old twins who were born in China. You have wonderful ideas, and I can’t wait to follow along.
.-= June´s last blog ..The canoe’s story =-.

Reply

Martha August 26, 2009 at 11:31 pm

Looks great. We’ll be doing some lapbooking with our work this year too.
.-= Martha´s last blog ..Sick Days! =-.

Reply

Julie Moses August 26, 2009 at 11:46 pm

Oh my! You just do all my work for me! Which I truly appreciate since I’ll be teaching art classes six days a week this year, in addition to homeschool. I LOVE this lapbook. Thank you so much!
.-= Julie Moses´s last blog ..The Gallery- Blog Carnival of Art Projects for Kids =-.

Reply

Julie Moses August 26, 2009 at 11:49 pm

PS I love the cover art. There is so much detail. It’s awesome. Way to go Sprite!
.-= Julie Moses´s last blog ..The Gallery- Blog Carnival of Art Projects for Kids =-.

Reply

Sydni August 27, 2009 at 12:09 pm

I’m learning that’s the way that lapbooking works best in our home too! Most of my kids are old enough now that they can choose their own way of putting a lapbook together, and it IS a more creative endeavor that way!

Reply

Jolanthe August 27, 2009 at 7:32 pm

Love the cover – Sprite did a great job!!! :)
.-= Jolanthe´s last blog ..Chunky Garden Salsa =-.

Reply

Jimmie August 28, 2009 at 5:45 pm

Thanks to all of you for your praise for Sprite’s work. I will pass it along to her.

to Sherri — Yes, I thought she’d outgrow it, but so far she still enjoys the medium.

to Marsha — Well, probably not. :-( If they hate both drawing AND writing, I can’t imagine that a minibook or lapbook would draw them in. Of course, you can paste in pics from copied sources. You don’t have to draw everything.
The good thing about a minibook for a reluctant writer is that it’s small. So even if you did just one sentence for each page, you could write a complete paragraph in a minibook. It may feel more manageable than a blank piece of paper.

Reply

Leave a Comment

CommentLuv badge

Previous post:

Next post: