Lapbooks

Lapbooks

Lapbooks offer hands-on, creative approaches for researching and recording information, creating study tools, and summarizing or illustrating what a student has learned. In short lapbooks are a tool for organizing and presenting learning on a particular topic. These are especially useful with unit studies, but they will also work with other educational approaches.

Lapbooks are constructed from three, colored file folders that are cut, folded, and glued to create a single, complex folder. Smaller "booklets" are created and attached within it. (See the illustration to the right.) Knowledge Box Central provides the instructions, templates for the booklets, questions or directions for the student for each booklet. The small booklets are where the creativity shines. It's hard to find two alike from lapbook to lapbook. They fold like accordions, have inserts, twirl around brads like spinners, or have multiple layers--the permutations are endless.

As you can tell from the photo above, these are relatively complex projects that take a bit of time to put together, before students even begin to enter information. There's lots of cutting and pasting, as well as some writing required to construct them.

Many lapbook kits also include background information, although some will require research.

There are lapbooks for History and Geography (such as the Ancient Egypt Lapbook), Science, Bible and Character Building, Holidays, Book Reports, and Interviews with Grandmother or Grandfather. Some of Knowledge Box Central's lapbooks were created especially to correlate with Jeannie Fulbright's Exploring Creation science textbooks (published by Apologia.) Some correlate with Tapestry of Grace studies. All of them can be used independent of any particular curriculum.

Knowledge Box Central sells their lapbooks from their website only as PDFs. You can purchase printed products or CD-ROMs from Christian Book Distributors, Rainbow Resource Center, and Amazon.

Lapbooks might be a great way to motivate students who prefer arts and crafts to do research and writing. Other students might enjoy them simply because this is a different, more creative way to learn and present information.

Pricing Information

When comparison prices appear, please keep in mind that they are subject to change. Click on links where available to verify price accuracy.

Apologia Exploring Creation with Physical Science 2nd Edition Lapbook Journal CD-ROM

Apologia Exploring Creation with Physical Science 2nd Edition Lapbook Journal CD-ROM

Ancient Egypt Lapbook Printed

Ancient Egypt Lapbook Printed

Little House on the Prairie Lapbook Printed

Little House on the Prairie Lapbook Printed

United States Government Lapbook Printed (Grades 3-6)

United States Government Lapbook Printed (Grades 3-6)

United States Government Lapbook CD-ROM (Grades 7-12)

United States Government Lapbook CD-ROM (Grades 7-12)
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Instant Key

  • Need For Parent or Teacher Instruction: moderate to high
  • Learning Environment: group or one-on-one
  • Grade Level: grades K-12
  • Educational Methods: lots of variety, highly structured, hands-on, creative activities, traditional activity pages or exercises
  • Technology: PDF, CD-ROM
  • Educational Approaches: unit study, eclectic
  • Religious Perspective: Christian

Publisher's Info

Note: Publishers, authors, and service providers never pay to be reviewed. They do provide free review copies or online access to programs for review purposes.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services that I believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 "Guidelines Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."