Just as great ideas emerge that allow humanity to evolve more and more in every field, ideas also arise in education that allow improving the teaching and learning processes for future generations. We call one of these ideas lapbook. It is a tool that is currently used by many teachers in primary school. Above all, it allows students to develop their creativity and make learning a more fun and effective process. Would you like to learn how to make a lapbook?
How to make a lapbook?
A lapbook is a didactic tool built on folding cardboard where you will find educational, recreational, and 100% visual material with infinite designs according to the creativity of the designer. Lapbooks are a fundamental part of the exhibitions held by students from many schools, as they encourage the creativity of children and adolescents and allow them to create and develop their own learning method.
Lapbooks are educational instruments that can be designed from materials that are available at stationery stores, although recycling materials that are in good condition can also be used:
- First, select the card you want to use to expose the subject in question.
- Then, fold the cardboard as necessary according to the chosen design. You can simply fold the cardboard in half or do it in the form of a triptych so that it is more complex and houses more concepts.
- When closing the folded cardboard, the doors that open and close will serve to place the cover of the project. It is recommended that you use large and colorful letters and that their color stand out on top of the cardboard.
- In the internal part of the lapbook will be where you will have to place photos, tabs, circular notices, drop-down notebooks, among others. The objective is to find designs, drawings, and photos that serve to explain the different concepts to learn.
- You should know how to distribute the support material on the topic being treated within the card. In addition, you must carry a clear order, as if it were a concept map. In this way, you can create a coherent presentation, and you will not get lost at any time.
- If you find it attractive and useful, you can use different designs to encourage your presentation further and to explain the different concepts. Some ideas of lapbook are drop-down in the form of the flower, fan, folder or keychain, typical comic dialog boxes, arrows that connect some concepts with others, etc.
Finally, you just have to do a good review to make sure your lapbook includes everything you wanted. It will be ready! See, below, one of the great ideas of lapbooks that exist for subjects related to natural sciences.
Original and effective lapbook ideas
If you want to find the perfect lapbook templates, but you don’t find the right ideas, don’t worry. Here, from a COMO, we present some useful notebook ideas that you will love. These are some basic materials that you should have on hand for the realization of a good lapbook:
- White paste
- Stapler
- Cardboards of different colors
- Compass
- Rule
- Eva rubber or crepe paper
- Scissors
- Buttons, threads, or any other material that you want to use for your lapbook.
Some great ideas of lapbook that can serve you are the following:
Animal lapbook: Animal lapbook is a great idea for teachers who want to make a lapbook for the whole class or for parents who want to have a great time learning with their children. You can make a simple lapbook with animals for children to identify their names, sounds, etc. It is also very useful for elementary students since they can learn the type of feeding of each animal, as well as the different parts of its anatomy, etc. For this type of lapbook, we recommend that you cut a drawing of each animal and hook it on the cardboard with white glue, Blu-tack, or glue only on one side. When the drawing is lifted, some details of the animal will be discovered on the card.
Lopbook of the human body: it is a process very similar to the idea of the previous lapbook. In this case, the design would be for slightly larger children. Being a more extensive topic, we recommend that you get large cardboard and divide it into three columns. Ideally, the two columns of the ends bent forward, as if making a window. When you open the window, you can discover the different parts of the human anatomy.
Lapbook in English: does your little one have trouble learning a language? Then nothing better than a language book that contains drawings with objects or people with the English name below. In this case, a good idea of a lapbook will be that you cover the name or verb written in English with a beautiful design that, as we have done before, gets up to discover the word that the child should learn.
Science Lapbook: One of the best lapbook ideas you’ll find is that of the folder design. Glue envelopes on cardboard or prepare them yourself with colored papers so that they are the most creative. Within each envelope, you can include small cards or drawings (made manually) to identify all the concepts you should remember.
Among the lapbook ideas you can create, the most common and fun designs to make are the following:
- The detachable: you can fold the cardboard as many times as you want and in the way you want for the presentation to follow one structure or another.
- Those that are shaped like a flower: these lapbooks are ideal for children and for science or environment subjects.
- The fans or those that are shaped like keychains: fold the main cardboard as if it were a fan for an original presentation and a most creative design.
- Lapbook in folder style: it is like the one we have seen before because it can contain envelopes inside, but you can also add some rubbers so that the lapbook closes and serves as a folder.
- Pop-up lapbook: Pop-ups are the most original and amazing lapbooks that exist, but they are also the most complex to design. The most characteristic element of this type of lapbooks is that they contain drawings with reliefs, so if you are able to make creative designs with relief, the lapbooks will be phenomenal.
What is a lapbook for?
As we have seen, a lapbook is a tool used by teachers to stimulate self-learning in children and adolescents. Among the advantages of a lapbook are:
- It allows self-learning and motivates students to learn.
- It improves interpersonal relationships.
- Any type of topic can be dealt with: you can do animal laptops, laptops in English, science concepts laptops, math laptops, etc.
- It is comfortable since it can be designed anywhere with the materials that each artist wants.
- It is interactive because the student manipulates with his hands all the information in the lapbook.
The complexity of its design adapts to the age of children and adolescents.
