Before starting on my lapbook project, I made a large order at Oriental Trading, and a visit to Staples. Four principles guided my shopping.
- Color. Since this is for kindergartners, I avoided the use of white.
- Folds. The coolest lapbooks have at least three levels. Lift one large flap, and there are even more flaps.
- Embellishments. Add glitter and flowers for no reason other than this is for the Bible, and God’s word is beautiful.
- Let the kids own the project!
Super 150 Paper SheetsThese 6×6 sheets are thicker than paper, but thinner than cardstock.
You could buy Scotch double-sided tape at the local store, which is what I usually use. I’d rather be the one in charge of painstakingly putting tape on the back of objects, than turn kids loose with a glue stick. They’re liable to accidentally glue the mini-books closed in their exuberance. I’ve also used glue dots, but they only work for gluing embellishments.
Ribbon Assortment and Self-Adhesive Jewels
Embellishments are the little extras that turn a fun project into a great project.
I tried using scissors, but couldn’t get exact squares, and you can forget about circles. Try to find a guillotine cutter, or a CriCut machine. Our library has one. When making a squash book, you really need the squares to be exactly the same size. Besides, if you’re cutting enough for a class, it’s just plain faster to do several sheets at once, and you can’t do that with scissors.
100 Sheet Rainbow Paper PackThese sheets are 12×12. Cut in four pieces lengthwise, and it’s perfect for an accordion fold. Or cut it into 6×6 pieces, which is what I normally do.
See, the thing about making lapbooks with kindergarteners is they can’t write. They can draw a picture of David and Goliath, but unless teacher writes “David and Goliath” underneath, who can tell? You want this lapbook to go home with the child, and have him pull it out a year later and review what he learned. It needs to grow with the child. So I print out labels with the text I need, and let the kid draw a picture inside a minibook, then stick the label on there.
You can use colored folders or regular ones. I prefer the plain vanilla ones, because then no matter what color I make the mini-books, they go with the background.
This is different from the other papers in that I printed my templates on this, but used patterned paper for the cover of the mini-book.
