Walking by the Way

Meerkat Lapbook

Elijah has been asking to learn more about Meerkats for a long time!   We read Meerkat Mail (very cute!), another book about Meerkats, and now we are reading Rikki Tikki Tavi to learn more about mongooses.  To see an up close and personal look at the window book, check out this post.   

These lapbook templates will be posted at Homeschool Share sometime in July. 

Dinosaur Lapbook

This really was a great unit for us.   We were able to discuss creation, the fall of man, the effects of sin, and the flood while learning about dinosaurs at the same time!

Cover Page (thanks Marie for the photo!)

Here is the second folder:

Some pictures of various minit books open:

This is a free lapbook offered at Homeschool Share. 

Homophones Lapbook

After reading and rowing Truman’s Aunt Farm, Elijah wanted to learn all about homonyms/homophones…so, we did! 

We put the lyrics to the silly song with Larry on the cover. 

Inside of the lapbook – I left a workspace open (bottom center) for the which word cards and the puzzle matching.

Matchbooks with definitions – find on the Misc. Minit Book Page at HSS

Puzzle matching- also found on the Misc. Minit Book Page at HSS 

Which Word Cards- you can use a dry erase marker on these

Charlie Caterpillar Homophones Game found at Homeschool Share

We made a back pocket to store more handy-dandy stuff!  Here is a video to help you figure that out

More Resources
Matching Cards
Which Word Cards
Be sure to check out the book-  How Much Can a Bare Bear Bear?  It’s great!

If You Give a Boy a Lapbook…

…he can do amazing things!

Last week Elijah decided he would like to make a Bear Lapbook.  I told him he was on his own because
1.  It wasn’t what I had planned
and
2.  I know nothing about all these different bears (that he knows so much about).

I told him he was the teacher, boss, and appointed expert.   I gave him my reference lapbook to look at to decide the types of minit books he wanted me to print.  He told me he needed some time to think. LOL! When he was done thinking, he asked me to make a list as he told me some of the things he was going to do. Honestly, he said, "Mom, I need a layer book for eight kinds of bears." I almost fell on the floor when he said, "I need a three flap with cover for brown bears, and I will put three different kinds inside like Kodiak, European Brown Bear, and Himilayan Brown Bear."

He did much by himself, but he did have my help for a few things including the following…

~I printed the templates for him as he told me what to print.   He did make the trifold on his own, though.
~I cut out the petal book, but he did the others.
~I helped a LOT with the bear map.
~I googled the names of the bears as he told me (Google images) so he could choose pictures.
~I gave him a page of information to use as he pleased.
~He explained what he wanted for the "What are Bears" minit book.  He told me, "I want people to guess — birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, or mammals." So I showed him a five flap, and he said, "yes, that’s what I want." He wrote yes/no behind each flap.
~I asked questions once in awhile to get him thinking about different things, but I really tried hard to let him be. He kept reminding me, "You said I’m the boss this week, mom." LOL
~I cut out the panda bear.
~I helped with the final lay-out.  He doesn’t enjoy that part at all.

That’s all, folks.  He did the rest.   He brainstormed, made a list, organized information, created minit books, told me if he needed anything…he DID it!   HOORAY!

I went to a conference last week where Andrew Pudewa told us that, "children want to do what they think they can do." I also heard Jeannie Fullbright speak, and she gently reminded us that we need to be moving toward independence. So, with both of those ideas in mind, I decided to let him try his own thing. He told me his next lapbook will be Big Cats (one file folder) and Little Cats (another file folder). Oh, and after that… Birds of Prey. So, I’m trying hard to put some of my plans to the side (so, you know, he can *really* learn).

Who Owns the Sun? Lap N Note

Who Owns the Sun? is a FIAR Volume I selection.  It is a story of a boy who asks his dad a series of questions…"Who owns the sun?  Who owns the wind?  Who owns the rain?"…and on he goes.   The wise father always replies that no man can own these things, and the wise son trusts his father without hesitation.   However, close to the end of the book, when the boy is running a lunch to his dad at work in the field, he overhears the plantation master claim that he OWNS the boy’s father.  The boy is devestated.   In confusion and hurt, the boy races to his father and blurts out the question, "Does Mr. Finnley own you?"   The father responds once more with a wise answer, but the boy has one last question (which is very hard for this tender-hearted mama to read), "Does he own me, too?"

Obviously, this rich book produces ample opportunities for learning.   In co-op this week we learned about the Northern Night Sky and the Southern Night Sky.   Jodi  taught us about constellations, and we made these really cool transparencies with stars to show to the constellation.  We added a picture below in order to visualize the picture the constellation is suppose to make.   Here are Elijah’s constellation/transparencies for Ursa Major (can you find the Big Dipper?) and Orion. 

Orion with stars 

Orion without stars

Ursa Major with stars

Ursa Major without stars

We also learned a little about medium and the medium used for the illustrations of the book (watercolor).

Here is Elijah’s copy of the front cover of the book

Here is a page with his watercolor gradation scale (the results of working with one color but producting multiple shades by adding water drops)

We also made a sorting book.  Elijah had to sort sentences that needed periods and sentences that needed question marks.  He was able to do this all by himself!    You also see a Simple Machines Hotdog Book (graphics are from Evan Moor’s Giant Science Resource Book), and a matchbook that has a list of things too wonderful to own inside).   The first thing on his list is people.  Smart kid.

We learned about levers, wedges, and combinations of the two.  We put what we learned in the hotdog book. 

We learned where to find Mississippi.   The boy in the book takes his father a lunch of beans, biscuits, and buttermilk.   We learned about food groups and Elijah was able to tell me that the father needed to have fruits and vegetables in order to balance out his meal.

When Elijah was showing the notebook to his dad, Elijah commented that in order to get to Mississippi, we’d have to first drive through Kentucky and then on through Tennessee.  I almost fell on the floor!   All these geography lessons really are sinking in!  

A minit book on the sun (from Carissa’s blog) and some more Mississippi stuff.

 
Big Jim book – learning about character
I Wonder… Book  (includes a list of the things Elijah wonders about including how a ball bounces, how a balloon stays in the air, how long it takes to get to a planet, and a zillion other things!)
Vocabulary Pocket

Vocabulary Cards

We had a big week of learning!  Hope you did, too,

Bubbleology!

Elijah and I spent this week as bubbleologists learning the science behind bubbles. Simon tagged along so much that I think he could be a certified junior bubbleologist!

You may think that February is an odd time to be blowing bubbles, but the weather here is frightful, and this was just right! One day I even brought out the fan to do the bubble blowing for me. I just held the wand out in front and we had bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!

The activities and lapbook we did this week came from a Hands of a Child Project Pack. We learned about temperature and bubbles, how to catch a bubble, bubble vocabulary, what happens when bubbles meet; we did lots of bubble experiments (much to Elijah’s delight!), and we even made our own bubble mixes (three to be exact).

Here are a few pictures of our lapbook

On the Cover
Can you see the bubble prints? This was too much fun! Elijah loved making the prints so much that we decided to put them all over our lapbook.

The book when opened

A favorite!  The Bubble EXPLOSION Experiment. 

The vocabulary looks like…BUBBLES!

We compared our three bubble mixtures.  We have a LOT left over!  We’ll be blowing bubbles all winter! 
 

What a fun project pack the ladies at HOAC have created!   The only changes I would make are
1.  I wish the experiments had places for Elijah’s predictions
2.  I wish the circle book came blank (it is in D’Nealian handwriting style, and we use HWT). 

But those things are minor compared to what we learned and the fun we had (and the memories we made!).   It’s nice to have a premade lapbook once in awhile! 

Valentine Bears Lapbook

We weren’t sure what to do with the cover.  We weren’t sure what to do with all his valentines…so we pasted the valentines to the cover of the lapbook!  We added more to the backside.

Inside of the book ~
Elijah did a handwriting book of Valentine words.  We learned about the Lifecycle of the Ant & Legends of St. Valentine.  We recorded the number of hearts in the illustrations (using tally marks).  We discussed I John 4:7-9.  We listed Mrs. Bear’s Preparations (for Mr. Bear), and Elijah wrote a Valentine Poem. 

Hearts are red
Cards are blue
Flowers are yellow
Sunshine is too! 

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day with your sweeties!

The Three Bears, The Three Snow Bears, & The Three Panda Bears

We spent last week with a new twist on an old favorite.   We read Jan Brett’s Three Snow Bears and coupled it with some regular old Three Bears activities. 

Front Cover (idea from Evan Moor Literature Pockets ~ Fairy Tales)

Back Cover (Elijah drew this as he watched Jan Brett’s video!  I was so proud of him!)

Here he is…proud as a peacock!

Inside of the first folder.  Here is a link to the free unit and lapbook for The Three Snow Bears.

First folder books open.   A few of the activities were coloring (finding Baffin Island on a map, coloring the Canadian Flag, etc.).   A few were cut/paste (Imaginary Lines, Polar Bear Diet, Do People Live in Igloos?, etc.). 

Many of the items in the second folder are from a portion of Evan-Moor’s Literature Pockets ~ Fairy Tales


The left side of the second folder.  The pocket contains Elijah’s Three Bears story.  It’s about three pandas who live in China and eat rice with chopsticks.  The girl who breaks in to their house is Guo Shuang, and the story has a very happy ending.  

Middle section of second folder.
Venn Diagram comparing the two versions we read. 
Goldilocks and the Three Bears mini book (from Evan Moor Book); Elijah read this story to me.
Peek-a-boo Book that Elijah was able to do all by himself! 

Close-up of the Peek-a-boo

 
Left side of the folder ~

A sequencing activity (also from Evan Moor) that Elijah was able to complete on his own!

A pocket for puppet storage.

A picture of the house and puppets (yes, they all really fit in that pocket).  Aren’t they cute?  He did a great job on these and had fun acting out the story.   (This was also from the Evan Moor Book.)

We’ll be learning even MORE about bears this week with a unit study on  The Valentine Bears by Eve Bunting. 

Calling all you Buccaneers!

Front Cover
This lapbook is two legal sized file folders glued back to back. 

Inside the front.
Left- Roger the Jolly Pirate Plot Wheel, Pirate Gear Labeling Activity
Middle- Game with pieces stored in mini envelope (above).  The game board pulls down to revel a hidden treasure map (which is not pictured).
Right- What is an Island? Matchbook and Pirate Speak Flap Book

Second Folder
Left- Pull Tab (Why Pirates Sing Sea Chanties; we sang a few ourselves!), Jolly Roger Flag made by dh and Elijah
Middle- Sailing the Seven Seas (open), Pirate Flag Coloring Page from a mini Dover book, Parrot Simple Fold
Right- Blackbeard Mini Book & My Pirate Story.

Note from Ami:  I was so excited for Elijah to write a pirate story!  Finally, something different from all our Birds of Prey stories…WRONG!   LOL!  See parts of his story (as told EXACTLY by Elijah to me) below:

I’ll leave the rest to your imagination, but basically Panda went on an adventure looking for a sea creature…crashed into a sea creature…needed a new boat because "all pirates need a new boat…and so do I…and so do the two eagles."  

Front of the lapbook on the back (does that even make sense? LOL).  This is a fun parrot we painted.  The idea was from an Usborne Book. 

And, now, I must embark (or would that be disembark? LOL).

I’m afraid I’m not a very good pirate! 

A Whale of a Lapbook

Well, Elijah wanted to learn about whales (inspired by a book he received from his great aunt and uncle for Christmas). I didn’t want to whip up a whale lapbook, but I did want him to be able to explore his interest. So, I purchased Evan-Moor’s September Theme Pocket (it also includes a nice unit on Africa that we will use in May). A theme pocket is like a portfolio, but Elijah didn’t want a pocket book. He wanted a lapbook. So, we converted the materials into a lapbook. It was SO easy! Probably the easiest prep I’ve ever done. In fact, we did the lapbook in three days! And, while I don’t feel that our learning was as rich as it usually is within the context of a literature based unit, we still learned (a lot!).

Homophone (tale, tail) Book

Thar She Blows!
Did you know you can recognize a type of whale by the shape of it’s blow? Very cool. We also learned the hows and whys of blowholes. This was my favorite book to make. Elijah loves it.

Toothed Whales

Toothed Whales Information
(we took the cards and folded them matchbook on the side style)

Baleen Whales Information
(we took the cards and folded them tri-fold style)

After our experience (and after I won $50 to Homeschoolestore!), I decided to go ahead and buy a few more Evan-Moor Theme Pockets to use with some units we will be doing this year and next
June (artists, Amazon Rain Forest, farmers feed us)
July (topics: space, America the Beautiful, and transportation)
August (topics: ocean habitats, insect riddles, one of a kind)