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!).
We also had some whale stickers to add as decoration (they are sold by Dover for about $1); Aunt Lisa bought them for us a long time ago (I’m glad I remembered them!).
We glued three file folders together.
The first one is about whales in general, the second is toothed whales, and the third is Baleen.
Homophone (tale, tail) Book
Whale Sizes — Elijah drew each whale. We glued the back right of the first page to the back left of the second (and so on), so that you can flip through the pages.
(we also have a chart in the lapbook folded tri-fold that compares whales to school busses)
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
Ooh! A whale with teeth!
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)
The blue strips (bottom center) is a little reminder about how baleen works as a filter (animals in and water out)
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)
That is an awesome lapbook! Lapbooks truly are so wonderful. Everytime we make a lapbook, my kids retain the information so well. They look at them so often
Have a fun Friday tomorrow and great weekend!
SchoolinRhome
This looks great…
I'm gonna have to take a look at the pockets for my kids…
Thanks for sharing!!
Have a great week!!
I want to come and do school at your house!!
Helena
Thanks for all the ideas. I am going to pick up that evan-moor book, I didn't want to spend a fortune and the kids want to do a lapbook on whales so this will be perfect. Thank you so much for sharing.
I am so thrilled I came upon your blog while searching for whale lapbook.
Thanks again.