Desert Lapbook

I had never heard this term "lapbooks" until a few months ago when searching the Internet for different homeschool ideas.  Apparently they are all the rage among the homeschool set, but I was skeptical.  They seemed like a lot of work and I wasn't sure how they were worth the effort as far as the learning experience.  But this morning I was presented with a link to a shorter/smaller one on my curriculum's Facebook page and I thought it was worth a shot.

 

We are studying deserts for the next couple weeks to coincide with our unit study on Mexico.  This lapbook was on desert animals so it tied in quite nicely.  Each one was 28 pages and I printed two, just for the older boys.  Next time I will most certainly have to find one for William, since he felt very left out while Owen and Sammy were doing all their cutting and pasting.

 

 

 

For those of you not familiar with lapbooks, the idea is that you take a regular file folder and make a presentation-type book out of it.  I followed the link to download the PDF, then printed out the sheets.  Each sheet had directions on it, i.e. cut around the outside, fold on the black lines, cut on the dotted lines, etc.  Once they were done creating each element, they had to glue them onto the file folder/book I had created for them.

 

We did what are called "single" lapbooks, with a page in the middle (the blue sheet you see in the picture.)  That's just construction paper cut to fit and taped inside.

After they did all that cutting, folding and pasting, that's when the real work began.  Each element has prompts on it that they need to complete.  For example, the Kangaroo Rat:

 

Below is what Sammy wrote about the Kangaroo Rat:

 

This one had them answering questions about Diamondback Rattlesnakes.  Why is it called a Diamondback? and Why is it called a Rattlesnake?

 

Sammy's answers, below...

 

I should mention that the first 5 or 6 pages of each PDF are just typed pages

with all the information needed to complete the lapbook. 

 There are a couple that will require additional research, but most of it was included. 

 

 Both boys did really well with this project and I will definitely have them do a few more as the year progresses.