Archive for January, 2009:
Are You My Mother? Little Lapbook
Simon has just fallen in love with the book, Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman. So, we worked on a chunky board book for him today. I almost have the files ready for sharing.
First two pages- Simon loves calling out the different animal sounds from the animals in the story.
Second two pages- B is for baby bird! We added some white feathers for fun. Simon loves gluing things!
Can you get the baby bird to his mother? I laminated this so Simon can do it over and over again (and he did it at least three time today!). On the right is an envelope with some puzzles- matching animal mothers to animal babies.
Some samples of the puzzle matching cards.
Things that Go! – includes the various vehicles in the story
Simon colored these (obviously!)
Simon glued twine on the nest. We are using this to learn position words- "put the bird ON the nest, put the bird IN the nest, put the bird UNDER the nest" etc.
Simon stapled the egg to the page (I am not sure if it was smart to teach him how to staple…ought-oh!).
In the pocket is a little accordion book. It has numbers on it (1-4). Each page has a bird and then there are little birds with magnets to put on the pages. Simon LOVES this. He has done it over and over again!
So proud!
Picture Challenge
I gave some friends a challenge to snap a photo of their kids doing something ordinary (and something they don’t have photos of) – going to the grocery store, getting books at the library, doing a chore, doing schoolwork, reading a book with mom, etc.
Here is Simon doing one of his favorite ordinary things- talking on the phone!
Africa Finished!
Well, I intended to post three parts…one for each week. But…week two we were both sick and didn’t get much done other than math and reading books! So, here is Elijah’s finished project. Some of the pictures have been seen before, but I like having them all in one spot!
The final picture (the Masai writing) is actually HUGE and in a different spiral bound book. I am going to collect and keep all his Tops and Bottoms writings in there. I will take a picture with him with the book at some point so you can see how large (and fun!) it is.
If anyone has any questions about this project, I am happy to answer.
Simon’s Finished Spider Book
We kept reading The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani (Simon’s request), so I decided to make him a "lapbook" but it turned into a pocketbook. So, this is Simon’s Itsy Bitsy Spider Pocketbook. I hope to post an entry with detailed how-to construct a pocketbook instructions tomorrow. I will also include links and things if you want to make your own with your preschooler.
This Little Mini Book is CUTE!
We are working on an Itsy Bitsy Spider Lapbook for Simon, and this accordion pocket is helping with some hard to learn color names (black, gray, white, and brown).
Book Closed
Book Opened
Book with spider color cards peeking out
Better view of the cards
Thanks to Jimmie who pointed me in the direction of this great article which inspired me to try something new. I hope to share directions and Simon’s finished Itsy Bitsy Spider Lapbook sometime soon.
Don’t Forget Me!
I was helping Elijah learn about zebras on Wednesday and Simon sat on the stool and started crying quietly. When I asked him what was wrong, he told me that he wanted to do animal school, too. Ask and you shall receive, kid! I won’t say no to anyone who wants to learn.
Here are some shots starring Simon.
He’s not crying! He was between a smile and CHEESE!
He LOVES glue sticks!
Finished product!
Posing with his puppet show. 
Learning with Lapbooks
One question I see posed over and over again on various groups, message boards, and forums is – "How do I teach with a lapbook?"
To be frank- you do it however you want! Really. I don’t think there is a right or wrong way. There are different strokes for different folks and there are times when one way seems easier or more practical than another. Here are three different ways I use lapbooks with my teaching…
Using the Lapbook Component AFTER the Lesson
I explain the concept to Elijah, we read a book, or do an experiment together. When we get to the lapbook component (later that day or on another day), he summarizes what he has learned and we record that. The lapbook component is like a fancy narration (for all you CM fans). It lets me know what he knows.
Using the Lapbook Component WITH the Lesson
Yesterday Elijah completed the Horses vs. Zebras Venn Diagram. I typed up information about horses and zebras and cut it all apart (one fact per piece). I told Elijah that some of the information was about horses, some was about zebras, and some pertained to BOTH. I had him read each fact and tell me which he thought was which. He sorted the answers (but we didn’t glue them in the minit book). Then, we read sections from the Zebras Zoobook. I asked him if he wanted to change any of his answers (and he did!). He moved the information to the right spots and glued it in the minit book.
Using the Lapbook Component AS the Lesson
Today we learned all about cheetahs. Elijah has read (many times) the one and only cheetah book we own, so I didn’t feel the necessity in reading it to him or teaching lessons ahead of time. I printed up lots of the cheetah information to fit inside the mini-books. I briefly talked about the ways Cheetah hunt (which he already knew), and he cut/pasted the information on to the mini book and stapled it together. He was fascinated with the blurb about the King Cheetah! He cut it out and we assembled his pop-up book. We continued on with the rest of the cheetah mini-books in this fashion.
Don’t Forget
One of the beauties of lapbooking is that no matter how you get it put together, it will serve as a review tool. So, the information will be reviewed over and over and over again. In my opinion this is the biggest benefit of lapbooking.
Next Stop: Africa
Here is what Elijah started today!
Resources we plan on using
Evan Moor Theme Pockets – September (has a pocket devoted to Africa; all the above items are from this)
Masai and I Unit Study
My Rows and Piles of Coins Unit Study
Cheetah Lapbook
Zebra Lapbook
Ostrich Lapbook
Draw Write Now
I found some fun scrapbook papers (for cheap!) to include throughout the notebook. I am going to let Elijah decide how he wants to do this.
Books to Read
Children Just Like Me (portions about African children)
Anansi the Spider
Mama Panya’s Pancakes (we may even copy, cut, and fold some of this info. for minit books)
Honey, Honey, Lion
Fatuma’s New Cloth
Faraway Home
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears
African Savanna (one small square)
Jambo Means Hello
Mr. Popper’s Penguins Notebook
This turned out to be a ten day study over the course of three weeks (I think!). It was not smart of me to do this around the holidays, but it was one of the best books we’ve ever read together!
Pages 1-2
Page 2
Page 3
Pages 3-4
Pages 5-6
Page 5 (books opened)
Page 6 (vocabulary)
Pages 7-8
Page 7
Page 8- Close up (the penguins on top have velcro so they can be moved; the penguins on the bottom move with the string when you pull it)
Page 10 (page 9 is the Popper Family Calendar)
‘
Pages 11-12
Page 11 – Extinct Animals & The Dodo Bird
Page 12 Contractions File Folder Game Opened
Pages 13-14 ~ Nests and Babies (there are some things that open, but you can’t really see them.
Pages 15-16
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17- Information about Krill
Page 18
Page 18- books opened
Pages 19-20
Pages 20-21
Page 22- Information about Antarctica
Page 23-
Page 24 (not pictured – Popper’s Performing Penguins Map)
Page 25 – Random Penguin Facts Elijah wanted to include
Pages 26-27 All About Seals!
Resources Used
~Mr. Popper’s Penguin Unit & Lapbook at Homeschool Share
~Easy Make and Learn Projects: Penguins
~Seaworld Teacher Guide – Penguins
~Enchanted Learning (Dodo Bird, Captain Cook)
~Draw Write Now (various books- seal drawing, antarctica page, krill page, adelie penguin page)
~Penguin Book on page 15 is from Evan Moor Making Books with Children: ~Literature and Writing Connections (we only used one page for our Extinct Animals information and flap book)
Animal Pancakes
Elijah has been asking me to do this for a few days, so I finally did.
Pancakes for lunch!
I’m not sure what kind of animal this is. Elijah says bear and Simon says cat. I guess we see what we want to see. LOL
