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.
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