File Folder Games Contest

We're using a lot of resources from the new Filder Folders Fun website to add learning games to our lapbooks.

almost done!

Bubby's B Book is finished. He already took it home, I didn't get a chance to take any pictures. Jae will probably finish her Halloween book tonight and take it home. So I'll probably only be able to post pictures of the Cinderella book and Wizard of Oz book. This next week we may do some work on the minibooks that will go with their new lapbook themes, but we will spend most of the week making costumes and getting ready for Makayla's birthday bash. The girls are really anxious to get started on their new books though, so we'll see what happens.

Ashleigh is going to start her "My Many Colored Days" lapbook and Makayla will be starting her elections book. Jae will start a Dora book and Bubby will be doing Apples and Acorns.

I need to restock supplies this weekend!

New books are coming!

This weekend I sat and went through the current lapbooks to try and figure out what needs to be done to get them finished up this week and I started coming up with ideas for the next set of books.

For Bubby I decided to do an Apple book. He likes apples, and with it being fall I thought this would make a good little book for a 3 year old. So far he loves the B book I’ve been putting together for him, this is turning out to be a really good tool to add to his learning. Normally his mom has trouble getting him to sit and focus, but he loves to go through his B lapbook and find all the b words. He especially loves it since I put his picture on it, after all his name begins with B too.

My oldest daughter, “Pumpkin” as she likes to be called, has plans for 2 books coming up. We will finish her Wizard of Oz book this week and then we will take a week or so off to get ready for her huge birthday party and I have to get their Halloween costumes made. The last week of October we’ll do her Elections lapbook. I’ve been very disappointed at what I’ve found for lapbooks for her age, so I’ll be putting together my own templates and ideas. I’ve found some really cute books that I’ve requested from the library. Really, my goal is just to introduce her to what the elections are about and teach her some key vocabulary terms. I’ll incorporate some simple math, reading, writing, history, and civics. I also talked to her kindergarten teacher on Friday and on election day I’m going to send her to school with some ballots, a ballot box, and “I voted today” stickers. On the ballots will be pictures of 3 types of snacks (to be determined later). The kids will be asked to circle their favorite and then put their ballot in the ballot box. They will get an “I voted today” sticker. Makayla will bring the ballots home, sort, count, and graph the results. The next day she will take the results with the winning snack to school. Her teacher really liked the idea, and I’m glad she’s willing to let us do this, I think it’s the most important part of her lapbook. On a side note, I made the “I voted today” stickers last night. They turned out so cute. I used the cover picture of Clifford from the book “Clifford for President” to make the stickers. The kids will love them.

The next book Pumpkin will be working on will be a Thanksgiving book. She and her sister (“Princess Booboo…don’t ask), will be working on the same book for Thanksgiving. It will just be easier on me that way, and since they are only a year apart they can use most of the same materials.

For Jae, we are going to do a Dora the Explorer book. Once again, I’m having problems finding good templates and examples so it looks like I’ll be doing a lot of the innovative work myself for this one. I’m really surprised though, I would have thought a lot of people would be using her for books, there are so many things Dora explores, it seems like the perfect lapbook to me.

So, check back later, it looks like I’ll have some new templates for sharing. I’ll also be posting the finished products of the books they are currently working on.

Links and References

I've updated the links. Rather than try to reference everywhere that I get every little idea or image from I'm just going to post the links under my "Links" section. I've found some really good ones, so if you're new to lapbooking too I strongly encourage you to browse through them for great ideas and templates!

I've also joined Hands of a Child and Lapbooking Lessons. I can't wait to use some of their resources as well!

Covers are done!

Well, this turned out interesting! I decided to give the girls some materials and direction, I pulled out the craft bag, and then let them go to town. I think for the next books we do I will put together a nice cover for them, so they can get some better ideas. But for 4 and 5 year olds I think these turned out really cute. The kids are so excited to fill their books. They didn't want to stop working tonight.

Here are the covers:

This is the start of Bubby's 'B is for...' book. He was napping when we started, so his is not finished.



I think Ashleigh literally pulled out everything from the craft bag to decorate her 'Cinderella' book.



Jaelynn is seriously into glitter glue these days, I expect it will take days for this one to dry. LOL Under the blue ink is a My Little Pony halloween picture for her 'Halloween' book.



Makayla is normaly very artistic and a true perfectionist, but she ran out of time and she barely had the cover done. She didn't want to get it up with it incomplete, so she scribbled on some colors. She is most excited to keep working on her 'Wizard of Oz' book. (Tomorrow we're planning on working on her "Catch a Rainbow" science project.)

Just Beginning

First, a little background on the kids that these lapbooks will be geared for. I have 2 little girls, Makayla, who will be 6 this month, is in kindergarten, and Ashleigh is 4, and is in preschool. We also have my best friend's kids during the week who I will be working on lapbooks with, Jaelynn will be 5 next week and goes to preschool with Ashleigh, and her little brother Bubby is 3 and goes to a different preschool. Makayla's books will be between a kindergarten to a second grade level, depending on the topic. There are some topics that she is very advanced on and others she is just learning. Ashleigh and Jaelynn will be geared to pre-school and Kindergarten ages and Bubby's books will all be preschool level.

Tonight we will be starting our first lapbooks. I expect it will take us about a week to complete them. Since I work full time and I only see Jaelynn and Bubby for about 1 1/2 hours 4 days a week we won't be able to sit and get them done quickly. When we complete our books I'll post pictures and links to all the great resources I found.

The themes for our first books are:

Makayla - Wizard of Oz
Ashleigh - Cinderella
Jaelynn - Halloween
Bubby - B Book

Here's some of the learning goals for the books mentioned above:

Wizard of Oz - Learn about Rainbows (Science Project "Catch a Rainbow") and Primary & Secondary Colors (Color Wheel), Read "The Raindrops Adventure...", use the Lion to discuss/write about courage, use the tin man to learn about the heart, and use the scarecrow to learn about the brain.

Cinderella - Use the glass slipper to learn to measure feet sizes, use a clock to tell time, learn to tie a bow, learn about pumpkins, reinforce colors, learn how to spell name.

Halloween - Reinforce colors & counting, learn about bones, learn about pumpkins, make a map, learn about safety.

B Book - recognize the letter B and sound it makes. Learn colors that start with B, animals that start with B, and favorite characters that start with B.