Our first try at Lap Books

Being fairly new to the homeschooling world, I kept hearing all this stuff about 'Lap Books' but had NO idea what all the buzz was about. Thankfully the internet is full of tons of resources and after a little research I figured out that lap books are essentially these cool folder-type books that your kids put together that focus on a certain area of study, or a certain book. Almost like a unit study. Am I right other homeschool Moms? Maybe I'm not explaining it very well so you'll just have to see for yourself!

We decided to try our first one by choosing a specific book. Actually I found these awesome resources online and decided to choose a book from the list (that we already had in our home library!)

So we chose "Corduroy" by Don Freeman, and also "A Pocket for Corduroy". Combining the two books was great, there were so many little lessons to be learned from each book. Again, I had help from the online resources, I did not come up with this all on my own!

Here's what we did --- These are the front covers of the books. The girls chose fabric to dress "Corduroy", then glued on the clothes and even the pocket.

Inside of H's book -- after we added each of the elements the girls were able to make it as creative as they wanted. They glued on buttons (like the one Corduroy got in the book), glued on fabric pieces (like the pocket he got in the book), and added stickers and coloring wherever they wanted.
Inside of J's book -- we talked about friendship. Just like how Lisa became Corduroy's best friend in the book, and we added a friend pocket with the names of their friends inside.

We did button patterns - an important math skill ...
Here is the friend pocket. I asked H what 'amekam' spelled and she said those were the initials of each of the friends names. How clever!

This was our theme verse -- In the books they talk about an artist, a security guard, a saleslady, and a laundromat owner. So we came up with a list of jobs that people do. The girls did great. They mentioned jobs of people they knew like Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, etc...
Then since the books are set in the city, we talked about cities and how they are different from where we live. How many people in cities live in apartments and don't drive a car. Then we came up with a list of ways that people could get around if they lived in a city and did not have a car. We also talked about (and practiced!!) a life skill --- doing laundry!! It was nice to have helpers with that today!
It was really fun to take a break from the mundane school work and do something different and special for a change. And the girls loved it! We have decided to make lots more lap books about all different subjects! If you are interested, the website where I found the great ideas is called Homeschool Share. Go check it out!

Oh and by the way, you don't have to be homeschooling to try this! I'm sure any kids would love to try this as a fun and busy activity on a rainy day. Just pick a great book out of your library and let your ideas run wild!