Jun. 19, 2008 - Ten Commandments Lapbook
Well, this week we finally finished our lapbook/ mini unit study on the Ten Commandments, which took us about two months! LOL. At least I think we all learned them all well! And we had a lot of fun in the journey. :) Above is the front, which I used a brown paper grocery bag to cover. I also printed the commandments onto the grocery bag. For the front, we just put the simplified version of each commandment.
Below is what you see when you open it up. On the left flap, we listed the Ten Commandments in Portuguese, in the middle we have a watercolor painting that Joshua and I did of Mount Sinai. Moses is climbing up the mountain, while the people waited at the foot of the mountain. There are the bottom is the text that was our inspiration: Exodus 19: 16-19.
Then on the right flap are the instructions and pieces to play a game with the Ten Commandments. More on that later.
Both of the side flaps also open, as well as the middle Mt. Sinai flap.
This (above) is how you open the middle flap, and below is what you find when you open it: On the top half is the Ten Commandments Game Board, and on the bottom half we have the Ten Commandments from the actual text in Exodus 20, with references included. We snuck a little math in here, both with the Roman numerals, as well as measuring. I had Joshua measure the area and then we figured out how big we could make each flap for them all to fit. Then we measure out the flaps and cut them out. 
Now here we are back at that right flap with the game pieces. I got the gameboard from here: http://www.ebibleteacher.com/children/classmat/Mosesgameboard.htm
At the bottom of the page are the instructions and some sample questions. I just took it one step further and typed out the questions, cut them out with Joshua's help, glued them to cardstock, and put contact paper over them. It was a LOT of work, but we have all enjoyed playing the game, and it has been a painless way to review and learn more about the Commandments. I especially appreciated the fact that this game and questions requires thinking about *applying* the Commandments in our lives. Some questions were things like "Can you bear false witness by keeping silent?" and "What kinds of things might people put before God?"
Then if you open up that right flap, there are more goodies underneath!
On the bottom of the left side, we have the Greatest Commandment, according to Jesus, as well as the Second Greatest. The two pockets above that show us that if we can do those two things, we will be fulfilling the other Ten: If we love God, we will do the first four, and if we love others, we will be doing the last six.
Then on the top of the right side is the Ten Commandments in Prose (close up further down, if you want to copy it), and on the bottom of the right side is another pocket with six verses related to the Commandments. Some we memorized and some we just read randomly on different days to learn the principles. 
Here is a closer-up of the cards in the two pockets, with "memory peg" pictures that really help the children learn which commandment is which, since they can picture it! I got the pictures from here: http://gardenofpraise.com/mempeg2.htm , but instead of making posters, I shrunk them down into cards. I put the explaination on the back of each card.
The next two pictures are a close-up of the verses in the bottom right pocket, and the Commandments in Prose, which we got from one of Joshua's primers (a reprint from an OLD primer that we got "somewhere", lol.)
Now if you close that right flap back up and then lift up the left flap (where the Commandments in Portuguese is), we have a Moses craft that Dominique colored and cut out (sorry, I cant remember where I got this one, but it was somewhere online!), and then we have Sequence Strips that I made up. 
And finally, the back, where I printed "The Ten Commandments Song", which I got here: http://www.gardenofpraise.com/tencom.htm . Here you can listen to the music, and they also provide sheet music if you want to play it. They don't, however, have the lyrics printed out; I had to do that myself. It is basically to the tune of "Ten Little Indians". We usually sang this song while I held up the "memory peg" cards for each commandment so the information would be going in as many channels as possible! It certainly seemed to work - the kids have a pretty good handle on the Commandments, and I have learned them better too! I love homeschooling! We did some other activities too, as well as reading books related to our topic. Some of the ideas were from here: http://www.mssscrafts.com/oldtestament/commandments.htm . There are TONS of ideas to peruse and choose from. 
Comments
Jun. 22, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by familymgrkendra
WOOHOO!! That is awesome! Very well done. I think I will put that on my list for the fall to work on with my boys. I love it!!
Can I just come over and shadow you for a day to get ideas and all!! LOL!!
Jun. 23, 2008 - That's awesome
Posted by Faith
"It certainly seemed to work - the kids have a pretty good handle on the Commandments, and I have learned them better too! I love homeschooling!"
That is so awesome! I have always wondered how I would fair as a HS mom. I love that you can learn right along with your children. You don't have to go in to it knowing everything already. I love that!
Faith - http://faith-lessonsinlife.blogspot.com
Jun. 23, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by MoreLittleWilsons
Could you get me on the forums for training Godly Tomatoes? I'm in a bit of a bind with Janney and Asher and toilet training... 4 weeks to go with my pregnancy and they're both soiling their pants several times a day!
Let me know thanks sombra.wilson@yourlink.ca
Jun. 23, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by MoreLittleWilsons
I have a comment to make about your commandment tablets.
When Moses went up the mountain and came down with two tablets - those two tablets had the same thing written on each tablet. The tablets are contracts - and just like today, each person in the contract gets a copy of the contract. One tablet was God's copy, the other tablet was the Israelites copy.
In Hebrew this contract is called the Ketubah. It's the contract between a bride and groom - a list of expectations that each expect from the other. They are exchanged at the Betrothal ceremony (remember Mary and Joseph were betrothed) and the Betrothal period is an opportunity for each member of the contract to decide if they can live up to the expectations of the contract.. if not, they can be released from the contract - divorced.. but it's not as much of a stigma as being divorced after the consummation of the marriage.
Moses came down the mountain - and already the Israelites had broken the contract, they'd already proven that they couldn't live up to the ketubah. But God gave them another chance, after the Levites killed all those who had instigated the making of and worship of the golden calf.
So my comment is in regards to the fact that all your photographs show commandment 1-5 on the left and then commandment 6-10 on the right.
It's good to know what the commandments are.. but equally important to know WHY they were given.
