L is for Lapbooks

This is a good week to answer some of the lapbook questions I have gotten in recent weeks. First off, what IS a lapbook?  Its a file folder that is opened flat and refolded to look like a closed set of window shutters. Inside, a series of small folded booklets are pasted to the folder. They are usually built around a theme. They provide a 3D presentation format which is appealing to reluctant writers and hands on kids. Especially nice for science fairs and other table top presentations.

You can find how to’s here, here, here and most especially here at the Lapbook Ladies site. Dinah Zike was an original designer of the lapbook concept. Tobins Lab ran with it and eventually copyrighted the term. There are lapbooking egroups at Yahoo with photo share files to peruse.

We have made several in our day. We do more notebooking than lapbooking at the moment but it served us well with some of the kids who took longer to warm up to writing. We have adapted the Lapbook techniques to work on notebook pages.  Specifically – we enlarge a miniature book fold to 8×11 size and use it alone on a notebook page. You can find some of our lapbooks here.

Lapbooks can be made independently by older kids or by mom for youngers. They can be a representation of info learned OR they can be used as a teaching tool to relay information.  Dinah’s subject specific books are ideal for the latter purpose. The best purchases to get started would be the Ultimate Lapbook Handbook and Dinah Zikes Big Book of Books and Activities. 

Ok, off to shop for wheelchairs! I will post the rest of Funschool L on Friday. : )