TOT SCHOOL: THE ANATOMY OF A LAPBOOK

In a previous post I stated that I was using the Lapbook system to homeschool my son Bammy, who’s two years old, at home. Lapbooking has proven to be such a lifesaver to me because I had no idea where to start to even begin to teach him his basic concepts. In the second post to my lapbooking series I am going to show you the anatomy of a lapbook.

We’re going to begin with the cover of the lapbook:

Not everyone will construct the cover of their lapbook the same, but this is what’s most convenient to me. This is the lapbook that I created as part of our alphabet series. I labeled the top of the lapbook very clearly with A is for Astronaut. Of course Bam, being only two, doesn’t know how to read but this is a good time to start helping him associate letters to words and words to pictures. I also included a picture of an astronaut on the front of the cover.

This is what you see when you open the cover of my lapbook. These are not all of the teaching materials that I use when teaching Bam on a day-to-day basis, but it does compromise most of the materials that I use with him on a daily basis. (I haven’t laminated the individual pieces in this lapbook yet.)

1. Line tracing cards. I use these to help with Bam’s fine motor schools and to enforce the proper way to hold a writing utensil. Each card has a line in a different shape. So for this series, the astronaut in the rocket needs help getting back home to earth. Bam would trace the lines to help get the astronaut home. I do hand-over-hand with him for awhile until he learns the concept of tracing the lines.
2. Size sequence cards. I use these to help enforce small to large and bigger than/smaller than.
3. Letter Bible verse. I incorporate a bible verse with each lapbook that I repeat to Bam on a daily basis. I know that he doesn’t have the concept down of memorizing the verse, but I feel that it is very important to include our beliefs in his teachings.

This is what you see when you open up the smaller flap on the right hand side. I try to make use of every inch of my file folder when creating a lapbook, so  I create small pockets to hold different teaching concept cards.

1. Song/poem/finger puppet sheets. I try to include at least two songs, poems, or finger puppet plays into each lapbook. We sing these on a daily basis and it allows him to cover skills as well.
2. Additional teaching concept cards. In this particular lapbook the additional cards I have decided to include is Space Words, Blast Off (a numbers game), and Shadow Matching.

This just displays how I include additional songs into the lapbook. I overlap them.

Here is a closer look at some of the cards inside of this lapbook.

1. Space words.
2. Blast Off number game.
3. Sequencing cards.
4. Shadow matching.
5. Line tracing cards.

And this is the anatomy of a lapbook.

I created this lapbook to be used with children from the ages of 2-3 but you can use them for any age (I have even seen lapbooks for children in highschool). In the next post, I am going to walk you through the steps of what I do to plan out my lapbooks.

If you haven’t already bought the basis lapbooking supplies I suggest you do so this week, because next week we will be creating the lapbook “D is for dog“.

Here is a basic list of what I use:

• Scotch Thermal Laminator – This is a very affordable laminator (just under $30) and it’s really sturdy.
• Smead colored file folders – I buy these in a 12 pack for just $3.99. (I chose colored folders because younger children respond more positively to bright colors.)
• Multi-color construction paper.
• Double stick tape.
• Regular scotch tape.
• Peel & Stick library pockets – I purchase these if I don’t feel like making my own.
• Stapler.
• Scissors.
• White cardstock paper.
• Printer.
• Glue stick.