Lapbooks (or Lap BooksT)

Lap Book is a trademark owned by Mike and Tammy Duby of Tobin's Lab www.tobinslab.com

The first time I ever heard of a lap book was on a Five in a Row Yahoo group, so I had not actually seen one in person. When I had the opportunity to attend a seminar by Tami Duby of Tobin's Lab on how to create lap books, I was first in line. Lap books™ are a paper manipulative using file folders in which the student stores creative summaries of their work. The concept is similar to notebooking and some notebooking resources can be used in lap books, but the concepts do differ. Lap books™ are more than just notebooks with collections of worksheets, they are diagrams, minute books, and other paper manipulatives customized to emphasize the subject of the lap book™.

Originally designed using paper manipulatives taught by Dinah Zike (see the Big Book of Books and the Big Book of Projects), lap books have been fine tuned and explained in depth by Tami Duby in her book The Ultimate Lap Book™ Handbook. I've had the pleasure of seeing the lap books™ that Tami's children have created from preschool to high school and they are impressive and varied. Lap books™ give a child something tangible to show friends and family and every time they show them off, they are reviewing the material that they learned in that unit or topic.

Dinah Zike's science unit studies and Eagle's Wings curriculum (Considering God's Creation, God's Amazing Acts, and others) are excellent worksheets to use in lap books™, as are the many notebooking forms found on the Highland Heritage website.

The following websites have some great information for those interested in creating lapbooks, including many photos:

Homeschool Helper Lapbooks - From Money to Chemistry, you will find a variety of lapbooks with downloadable pages at Homeschool Helper.

Large Lap Book™ Yahoo Group (over 1500 members with several hundred messages each month)

In The Hands of a Child - sells project packs for creating lap books and has lots of links to photos of lap books (click on Links at the top)

Old Testament Lap Book™ - from History Through the Ages (publishers of timelines and timeline figures); an example of an Old Testament lap book with lots of pictures

Lots of photos of lap books™

Mini-books, Flaps, and Student Folder Websites - links to sites with instructions to make all kinds of mini-books and manipulatives for your lap books™

To Notebook, Lapbook, or Scrapbook is an excellent explanitory article from Knowledge Quest Maps.

More lapbook examples:

Love_to_Lapbook: Lapbooking Links & Talk - This group is for discussion of lapbooks from any publisher. Compare products from various publishers so that we can all make informed decisions before purchasing. This group is also for providing alphabetized links to lapbooks on a variety of topics. (T)

Minibooks - A collection of minibook tutorials (Y, M)

WorksheetWorks.com - This very cool worksheet website is still in Beta development but I had no problems with it and am impressed with not only the range of worksheets but the ability to select difficulty level for creation and instant download. In addition to the instantly generated downloads, there is a collection of graphic organizers under Miscellanea that are not only useful for thought organization, but would work very well for notebooking and lapbooking. (Y, M, O, T)

Harold and the Purple Crayon Lapbook - (Y)

Harold Lapbook - 2006 - (Y)

Little Red Lighthouse Lapbook - August 2005 - (Y)

Make Way for Ducklings - lapbook - Example (Y)

Make Way for Ducklings Lapbook - Example (Y)

Mirette on the High Wire - lapbook - (Y)

Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car Lapbook - (Y)

Mrs. Katz and Tush Lapbook - (Y)

Owl Moon Lapbook - (Y)

The Story of Ferdinand - lapbook - (Y)

The Tale of Peter Rabbit Lapbook - (Y)

They Were Strong and Good Lapbook - (Y)