One of the projects we worked on this summer was a study of the African continent and an intense study of Kenya and Tanzania in particular. This was spurred by our support and prayer for our beloved neighbors whose three oldest kids spent the summer with their Aunt, Uncle, and cousins in Tanzania.
The way I chose to focus on our study was to create lapbooks for each of the kids. A lapbook is a creative tool to encourage writing and artwork without the monotony of just writing a paper. Josiah's lapbook was the most intense due to his age and ability to research and write well. Art work and drawing are unfortunately not what he enjoys so his lapbook is a bit less on the creative side, but is still excellent and full of interesting facts.
Lapbooks can be multifaceted and involve using simple file folders in a variety of ways. This combined with various paper folds makes the lapbook informative, interesting, and fun to unfold.
Each child had the map of Africa to fill in with the names of the countries. Josiah added capitals as well. Isabelle just colored in each country in hers. The kids learned a variety of facts not only surrounding basic statistics of their given country but also about the way of life for children there. African animals were discussed as were pastimes, foods, explorers within, and even an itinerary of the ideal safari!
You can make a lapbook as simple or as detailed as you desire. I've noticed that girls especially enjoy completing them and letting their creative juices flow. They are an excellent alternative to the average "report" providing creative license and unique opportunities to explore and present information. For more ideas, simply google search "Lapbooks and Homeschooling".
One of the projects we worked on this summer was a study of the African continent and an intense study of Kenya and Tanzania in particular. This was spurred by our support and prayer for our beloved neighbors whose three oldest kids spent the summer with their Aunt, Uncle, and cousins in Tanzania.
The way I chose to focus on our study was to create lapbooks for each of the kids. A lapbook is a creative tool to encourage writing and artwork without the monotony of just writing a paper. Josiah's lapbook was the most intense due to his age and ability to research and write well. Art work and drawing are unfortunately not what he enjoys so his lapbook is a bit less on the creative side, but is still excellent and full of interesting facts.
Lapbooks can be multifaceted and involve using simple file folders in a variety of ways. This combined with various paper folds makes the lapbook informative, interesting, and fun to unfold.
Each child had the map of Africa to fill in with the names of the countries. Josiah added capitals as well. Isabelle just colored in each country in hers. The kids learned a variety of facts not only surrounding basic statistics of their given country but also about the way of life for children there. African animals were discussed as were pastimes, foods, explorers within, and even an itinerary of the ideal safari!
You can make a lapbook as simple or as detailed as you desire. I've noticed that girls especially enjoy completing them and letting their creative juices flow. They are an excellent alternative to the average "report" providing creative license and unique opportunities to explore and present information. For more ideas, simply google search "Lapbooks and Homeschooling".
2 comments:
Dear Friend-
You are such a talented, creative, homeschooling mother. I know many people would probably love it, (especialy me) if you would give a tutorial blog on how you make those wonderful lapbooks. I know you said to look online, but I can not figure out how you fit in that blue folder that opens up. Thanks for being a patient friend.
Shari
This is awesome. I will do some research on the internet as well, but I too, like Shari, would love to receive a tutorial on how to do this. I would love to have my daughter complete a project like this prior to the official school year begins.
Shawn
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