What exactly is a lapbook?

Are you asking yourself that?  A lapbook is a handy tool to put all of your chapter's foldables in one place.  Using a regular manila folder, folded in the window pane style (open up and take the outer edges to the middle and refold).  This is what the outside of a lapbook looks like.

Wait- what is a foldable?  A foldable is a method of teaching that uses the kinesthetic side of learning.  I use them in my classroom after the initial introduction (in my case I use column notes that I have devised...I put those up later).  Most of my foldables correlate to Virginia SOLS.  A colleague and friend of mine, Mrs. S., introduced me to foldables a few years ago.  She is a Dinah Zike certified instructor.  To learn more about Dinah Zike click here.

So, after my students have made their myriad of foldables (and I keep them in a file folder for each student.  Each student has a ziplock bag with their name on it and they put it in the correct period' folder.  I recommend that you do not let the students take their foldable home.) we spend part of a class putting the lapbook together.  I also give the students a rubric to glue on the back.  I like the rubric because the students know exactly what they need to do to get the desired grade and it makes grading very easy.  Additionally, I make a quiz for the students to take using their lapbook.

Happy Teaching!
Cori