Lapbooks!

Lapbooks are a wonderful way to store your schoolwork. My family has chosen to use them for history, but you can find other subjects to use them for! Never heard of a lapbook? Here’s what they typically look like…

They are simple file folders folded with construction paper flaps on the inside and whatever you want to glue! I have made them in the past to store my history writing, maps, and other work. They are much more enjoyable to look at and read, rather than reading old essays and writings compiled in a notebook. Depending on the time period and what we have to put in one, the content will vary. Almost always we make sure they contain the following though: map(s), famous people, a “scrapbook” of that period, key events or important dates, and writing we have done.

Here is one of the lapbooks I did a few years ago on the Revolutionary war...

Reformation's Role in the Founding of America essay and handwritten Preamble to the Constitution

Inside - Presidents Adams and Washington's fact sheets, key events...

Our list of key events

Famous people of the American Revolution

Paragraphs on miscellaneous topics of that period, Bill of Rights

Guide to Officers, paper on Christianity and the American Revolution

Also, here’s one site that gives you some ideas on the many different ways you can make folds for a lapbook!
http://www.notebookingpages.com/index.php?page=Free-Lapbooking-Templates-Mini-books-Cutouts

Now mine haven't always turned out very creative, but you could certainly add more decorative stuff on the inside, especially if a younger child is doing one and wants to add pictures. We've used coloring book pictures and pictures out of history books to add in.

On my next post I'll give some more examples from my a few of my other lapbooks...