Acacia in the Desert

Target Age
Kindergarten-1st

Materials
See 9 Items for Lapbooking for more information.

• Pattern paper measuring about 2 x 6 inches – I originally made the books square, but they looked squat and stumpy, so I trimmed them to look rectangular.  I found it best to fold the paper in half, then slice the edges, or the alignment would inevitably be ever so slightly off
• White printer paper for the inside – I made the mistake (see upper left picture) of cutting the inside paper too small.  It needs to be only a millimeter smaller than the cover in order to look nice.
• David figure – I printed mine from the Homeschool in the Woods CD
• Labels – White labels that say “David” for the cover
• Double-sided tape or glue dots – for the kids to paste the figure into the book
• Colored pencils – to color David picture

Prep Work
Cut the inside paper according to the directions in How to Make a Pop-Up Book.  I had the kids do this in class, but they don’t have the fine motor skills to cut the tabs in a straight line, so their figures didn’t really “pop” up, they vaguely slouched up.

Glue the white printer paper inside the cover of the book.  This was another step I tried to do in class, and the kids had trouble with it as well.  The creases on the two sheets of paper need to be precisely aligned, or the pop-up book won’t work.

Cut out the David figures, ready for kids to color.  Cut out the biographical information about David as well, ready to be pasted into the book.  I did have labels that said “man after God’s own heart” but I’m not sure I would use them again.

Activity Description
Remind kids about the things David did that we learned about in the Bible story.  Then tell them what to do.  I gave each of these steps one at a time, e.g. I waited until the child had drawn a picture of David as king before telling him what to draw next.

• Color the picture of David.
• Place a glue dot on David’s feet.
• Stick David’s feet on the part of the paper that is sticking up.
• Glue in the information about David.

Afterwards
I put the David sticker on the cover myself.  This could potentially done by the kids, though.

Field Report
Not a success.  I definetly should have done more prep work.  The kids got overwhelmed with all the cutting and pasting I was asking them to do.

Storage
I wrote each kid’s name on an index card, and stuck it inside a ziploc sandwich bag.  Throughout the two months we worked on this project, the books went into the bags and came home with me each week.

Final Result
I spent a weekend gluing the books the kids had made into manila folders, and gave them to the kids on Sunday.  For the kids who only attended a few Sundays, I used Lifeway provided materials to fill in around the edges.  Here’s one final result that showcases the David pop-up book.

Target Age
Kindergarten-1st

Materials
See 9 Items for Lapbooking for more information.

• Paper measuring 6×6 inches – I used our library’s die cut machine to stamp circles with 6 inch diameters.
• Labels [Roles of David]
• Musical note – I used our library’s die cut machine to stamp these out
• Brads – for the middle
• Glue stick – to glue the musical note on the wheel
• Colored pencils – to draw pictures of a shepherd, a king, and a friend

Prep Work
First Circle: Fold the the circle in half gently, crease the middle.  Fold in half the other way gently, pinch your fingers at the middle to make a crease there.  (I tried using a ruler to find the middle, but found that folding it in half worked best.) You should now see two creases crossing in the exact middle.  Get an ice pick or a nail, and make a hole there for the brad. This circle needs to be a light enough color to draw on.  I used white, light yellow, and pink.  Then use a pencil and a ruler to draw four lines dividing

Second Circle: Use the same method as above to punch a hole in the middle.  Use a ruler and pencil to draw a line that delineates the pie shaped window that needs to be cut out.  Err on the side of making it too small, as you can always cut more out later.

Activity Description
Reminded kids about the things David did that we learned about in the Bible story.  Then told them what to do.  I gave each of these steps one at a time, e.g. I waited until the child had drawn a picture of David as king before telling him what to draw next.

• Pick which color of circle you want.
• Draw a picture of a king
• Put this label that says “King of Israel” right there.
• Draw a picture of a shepherd.
• Put this label that says “Shepherd” right there.
• Draw a picture of David being a friend of Jonathan.  Maybe you could draw them hugging, or Jonathan giving David his coat.
• Put this label that says “friend of Jonathan” right there.
• Get a glue stick, and glue this musical note.
• Put this label that says “wrote Psalms” right there.
• Now pick a second colored circle.
• Get your scissors, and cut on the line to make a window.
• Pick which color of brad is your favorite.  Put it in the middle of both circles, like so.  Push it down.  Then turn the circles upside down, and press the tabs down.  (A lot of the kids needed help with this step.  )
• Spin the circles!

Afterwards
I put the David sticker on the cover myself.  I thought about putting a sticker saying “man after God’s own heart” on the cover as well, but ended up not doing it.  I used my scissors and smoothed out some of the rough cutting the kids had done on the window.

Field Report
This was our most successful mini-book out of the ones we made during the second month.

1. Even kid-made, the finished projects looked nice.
2. Children got to use both glue stick and colored pencils, which provided some variety.
3. Kids thought the book was cool, which wasn’t always the case with the other books.  This is the book Joey pulled out of storage a couple of Sundays later and exclaimed, “Hey, I remember making this!”

Storage
I wrote each kid’s name on an index card, and stuck it inside a ziploc sandwich bag.  Throughout the two months we worked on this project, the books went into the bags and came home with me each week.

Final Result
I spent a weekend gluing the books the kids had made into manila folders, and gave them to the kids on Sunday.  For the kids who only attended a few Sundays, I used Lifeway provided materials to fill in around the edges.  Here’s one final result that showcases the David wheel book.