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.
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.



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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
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 =-.
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 =-.
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.
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 =-.
Looks great. We’ll be doing some lapbooking with our work this year too.
.-= Martha´s last blog ..Sick Days! =-.
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 =-.
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 =-.
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!
Love the cover – Sprite did a great job!!!
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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.