There’s really no middle ground here. You’re either a lap-book-loving teacher or you’re not. I’ve heard, “I LOVE them!” and “I HATE them!” but never, “Yeah, they’re kind of okay, I guess.”😂
Teachers on the thumbs-down-side cringe at the thought of lap books because they seem tedious and labor intensive, like scrapbooking. I totally get the scrapbooking thing… that’s way too much work. I have bins and bins of unused scrapbooking supplies if anyone’s interested, BTW.
But what if they didn’t have to be tedious? What if they weren’t labor intensive because the kids were doing all the work of researching and designing and creating? You could walk around and coach and guide and marvel at all the awesomeness going on.
Okay, that last part might be a little dramatic, but you get the point.
And actually, that could happen.
I LOVE LAP BOOKS … HEAR ME OUT
They’re…
- hands-on, open-ended, and creative
- like small themed notebooks, subject or topic specific, fiction or nonfiction
- ongoing projects where kids can collect notes and explain their thinking
- similar to scrapbooking so they appeal to kids with artistic and spatial strengths
- multi-dimensional with pop-ups, flaps, wheels, accordions, tabbed books, etc.
- interactive if they include games, flash cards, word searches, maps, sticky notes, study tools, etc.
- options for test review and as unit assessments
- able (usually) to stand on their own for display purposes … great for a gallery walk where other students can see their peers’ work and interact with the book features
LAP BOOK TEMPLATES
These open-ended lap book templates help children plan their research, clarify their thoughts, and organize the content they’re working on, whether it’s a biography about a famous person, a summary of the states of matter, or a persuasive presentation about protecting an animal’s habitat.
When the templates are paired with children’s artwork and writing, the projects really come to life in ways that are unique to each child.
One of my favorite ways to use the lap books is to have the children refer to them as they make presentations to an audience. The audience can either be the whole class, a neighboring class, or a small group of their peers, but the lap book serves as a set of notes the child can use for support during the presentation.
It’s kind of like writing a report, but (again) in more of a scrapbooky way.
👉TIP: A presentation can include more than the lap book. The volcano model below adds another tactile, creative component to this mini-study of volcanoes within a landform science unit of study.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THAT ONE KID?
Or two or three?
True. Like some teachers, not every kid will be over the moon about creating a lap book. Depending on your specific goals, you might consider structuring a set of choices for children. There are multiple ways to demonstrate growth and comprehension of a topic. Other options for children could include:
- writing a book
- creating a readers’ theater script
- developing a digital slide show
- recording an audio book
- designing a large poster
- directing a collaborative puppet show (or other performance)
TEACHING RESOURCE
You can check out pages and pages of LAP BOOK TEMPLATES here.👇 They were designed with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders in mind, but would work in other grade levels depending on the developmental needs of the children you work with.
Happy teaching!
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Might be a nice thing to be used for those kids. At least, they can get some entertainment as they read on it and also learn something which they can certainly apply when it's time for them to go to school.