Oct. 2, 2009 Kindergarten/1st Grade Math Lapbook
We have been having way too much fun with math around here. That's a good sign, because math is supposed to be the most boring subject of all. My kids have had so much fun learning math without a textbook. I wish I would have done this sooner.
Let me tell you why I didn't. I was afraid. Even though I've had plenty of exposure to homeschooling in my life--my husband was homeschooled, I have siblings that were homeschooled--still doing it on my own was scarier than I thought. So if you're thinking that your too scared to try this approach to math, I don't blame you, but keep it in the back of your mind if you have a child that hates math.
Every day I like Math on the Level more and more. The whole idea of not having a textbook for the kids is actually liberating. I have come to realize that Math on the Level will always require lots of parent time, but it's fun time. I enjoy putting together the lesson plans and playing math with my kids. Best of all my kids are loving math, the same two kids who last year would whine and whine when I told them to get their math done. And my three-year-old loves it when the older two are doing things for math, because he can get his hands in on the action often too.
Okay, now to the lapbook since that's my heading! Lapbooks are not part of the Math on the Level program, but as you might already know, they've become a fun part of our homeschooling experience and since Math on the Level is about teaching concepts, not about doing pages of math, I am free to teach the concepts multiple ways. So this week, I had my son review several of the things he had covered last year by making a lapbook. This lapbook evolved a little bit, because my original idea was to make what some call a mini-office so we started out making a few of the mini books on the computer. Then I thought better of the situation. I thought, "What is the sense of my making this lapbook for him to look at? This should be his project and then making it will be reinforcing it in his mind." So a few of the components were from the original concept and then the rest are his creation. (Some with my assistance.)
Here are the pictures.
The cover.
The lapbook opened up.
Left panel is a slider to practice counting backwards from twenty. The top middle is his handwritten hundreds chart. The bottom is a seven-inch ruler. The hands on the clock rotate and so he (or I) can set the time on the clock and then read it. I uploaded the template for the clock and you can download for free at hslaunch by clicking here. I've also uploaded the template for the Counting Backwards slider.
Here are close-ups of the other two mini-books in the above picture.
A close-up of the inside of the Place Value Layered Book.
A close up of the Bills Book. I downloaded the artwork for most of the bills from a US Treasury website. I got the $1 bill from Wikipedia.
The lapbook opened up further.
The top flap.
The hands are quite obviously about learning left and right. Yes, they were traced from his hands. The "Numbers about Me" are interesting numbers that he had to figure out such as weight, height, clothing size, birthday, his age, etc. Inside the house is his address and phone number. I'm not going to show the insides of these two for what I think is an obvious reason.
The inside of the inside of the lapbook. Close-ups following.
Learning to spell the number names.
Inside of the Coins tabbed book. (I got the artwork for the coins from the US Mint. It's really nice artwork. Some of the coins on the front were stickers though.)
Some 2-D shapes.
You can probably tell which mini books he made and which ones I made. I just happen to think that his are way neater than mine. (You're on your own now for making your own lapbooks, my boy!)
|
•
Comments (13)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Apr. 28, 2009 Train Tot Lapbook
The littlest member of my family is always wanting to "do school". He enjoys it more than anybody in the house, I think. He's so anxious to grow up! (But I'm not anxious for him to grow up.)
This morning I asked G'tums what was his plan for today and he told me that he was going to make a train lapbook. So thanks to Carissa at 1+1+1=1 blog we made an adorable little lapbook together. The only thing we added was a package of stickers, because he loves stickers. Well, what three-year-old doesn't love stickers?
Proud boy with his very own lapbook!
The cover, made from stickers that I had picked up at Michaels.
A better look at the inside: The left-hand pocket has cards with different shapes on them. The middle book has a different colored train on each page, that he colored. The right-hand book is an accordion style fold that counts from 1-10, showing the correct number of trains to correspond with each number.
Here is the direct link to the lapbook: Thomas the Train Tot-Book. Or check out all of her Tot-Books, they're really great. At least they made one little boy very happy today!
Thanks to Zippy too for the pictures. She loves her new camera.
|
•
Comments (3)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Apr. 12, 2009 Penguin Lapbook
We were so busy during the Children's Bible Class that I posted about before, that we had a hard time keeping up with everything. So one morning I said to the kids, let's do something on a preschool level that we would all enjoy. John Deere Boy came up with this idea and it was a hit--learn about Penguins. We had already seen the Easy Make & Learn: Penguin book, so I knew that there was some great printouts that we could use for a lapbook and other fun projects. So we picked up a couple of really great DVD's and wala we had a short unit study that was stress free for mama!! Sometimes that really comes in helpful. So if you're ever looking for a fun, short, easy unit that all ages will enjoy, this was a great one.
A very happy boy showing off his first lapbook! Each of the kids colored one of the penguins on the front and they plastered the lapbook with stickers. I thought that was the part my three-year-old would get into. Well, of course, he did, but so did the other two. This lapbook was actually a team effort by the three of them. He needed help so we helped him out.
Here are all of my kiddoes with their penguin masks and lapbook and, of course, the stuffed penguin. Now if you could just see them waddle too!
The really interesting videos that we all enjoyed about Penguins were: March of the Penguins, Nature: Waddlers & Paddlers and Life in the Freezer. All of these were very good and interesting. They appealed to all the ages in our home 3 - 32. None of them are from a Creationist perspective though, so you have to weed out some stuff. We've got our kids well trained at this point on that subject. Whenever they hear the words "millions" or "billions" they shout "Wrong!"
We didn't read any books on the subject. Did I say I was busy? We watched videos and they worked on their lapbook while I made lunch. We were squeezing school in here and there! |
•
Comments (6)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Mar. 24, 2009 Free Lapbook Giveaway Mar. 17, 2009 My Thoughts on Lapbooks
I have had several different questions about the different lapbooks that we've made. I decided that I would just write a post on my developing philosophy of lapbooking as well as share my favorite resources.
 A little history: I do not consider us to be "pro-lapbookers". It's something that we have learned to enjoy a lot though. We learned how to lapbook last summer at the Washington Homeschool Organization Convention. Tina from Jetihoja Academy was the instructor of that class. So I give a big "Thank-you" to her for introducing us to this idea. As soon as we learned about it, I knew that this was a great project for my daughter who is a very kinesthetic learner and also very artisitic. Immediately after the convention we tried out our first lapbook. We were in the process of learning about birds, so figured that would be a great place to start. We purchased our first lapbook from In the Hands of A Child and we had a lot of fun, but I immediately discovered something challenging for us. The challenge is that my daughter does not like to write a lot and the lapbook involved quite a bit of writing, so this is how I started developing my philosophy about lapbooking. I will say that the In the Hands of a Child lapbooks are very well done, even though they didn't work for my daughter.
 My goals: My number one goal with lapbooks is to help my children love learning. I think that lapbooks appeal especially to the more kinesthetic learners as it is a hands-on project. My secondary goal is to teach my children to start developing the skills to produce reports even before they can write well. I also do oral narration with my children on what we study, so that they are practicing putting things into words.
So based on the personalities of my children and based on my goals, I have found that the best approach for us on our lapbooks is to make custom lapbooks. This also gives my children a chance to be involved in planning out what is going in the lapbook, although I'm the one that plans what we are going to study, so I really am the one doing most of the planning.
 My children love to design their own mini books. These are always the ones that they are the most proud of in their lapbooks too. One of the nice things when they design their own, is that they really are trying to figure out how to convey what they learned even though it may or may not contain words. I do use printables that I find here and there and I will list my favorite sources at the bottom. I mix printables with ones they design on their own. For instance, in our last lapbook, they pretty much designed all the ones that had to do with health habits and we used printables for most of the anatomy mini books.
 The best part of lapbooks is finishing them! My children are always so proud to show their grandparents and friends their lapbooks and tell them all about what they have learned. I consider this to be an important part of the project too. Their repeating over and over with pride what they have learned helps to plant the lessons in their memory.
Now when it comes to how to make lapbooks, others have already written excellent blog posts and lenses and all kinds of things on how to lapbook, so here is my list.
First, let me say that the second person that helped me so much with lapbooking was somebody I've never met. Her name is Jimmie and she homeschools in China, and tons of these resources are by her. So kudos to Jimmie too! (And check out her blog. It's my favorite!)
My favorite lapbook links:
Philosphy:
Is lapbooking controling your curriculum? by Jimmie
Lapbooks--a form of narration by Jimmie
How (and Why) To Begin Lapbooking by Jamin
How to:
Lapbooking--basics, how-to's by Jimmie (If you don't look at any other links, please look at this one.)
Lapbook Lessons by lots of people (This site requires free membership, has lots of free lapbooks too)
Free printables:
Homeschool Share (tons of free lapbooks, requires free membership)
Love-to-Lapbook Group (this is a yahoo group that you must join, but it has the best collection of links for lapbooks that I've seen.)
Lapbooks by Carissa (Check out the tot books for fun lapbooks for toddlers.)
Pictures:
Simply Lapbooks (lots of great ones for K-1st)
Lapbooking Group on Flickr!
Pictures of OUR lapbooks
To Purchase:
Dover (We like to turn pictures from their coloring books into mini books for our lapbooks. They have really great history based coloring books.)
Homeschool in the Woods (The Time Traveler Series and the Activity Paks are the best pre-made lapbooks that I have seen, without a question. The Timeline figures from this site are really great for lapbooks too.)
Books by Donald Silver at Amazon (These are sadly going out of print, but I think that they are really great.)
Books by Donald Silver on Currclick
Pockets by Evan-Moor on Currclick (These were not designed for lapbooks, but for the most part, they work great. Or you can make the pockets as described. It's a similar idea to lapbooks.)
Pockets by Evan-Moor on Amazon
This is not an exhaustive list of links. Most of these links contain more links for you to follow and will give you many ideas. These are just my favorites.
Happy Lapbooking!
|
•
Comments (2)
• Post A Comment!
• Permanent Link
|
Page 1
of 3
Last Page | Next Page
|
|
|
|
