Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

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The Inuit & Arctic Circle FREE Lapbook

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Using a lapbook is not just for real young children. I am not sure why that thinking permeates in the homeschool world and I have often wondered why it does. I think sometimes we might feel that middle school or high school is suppose to be only about serious learning. My thinking has changed and has been molded by many homeschool experiences but one thing that has not changed is the need to add a bit of fun to our every day subjects. Easy lapbooking is a way to do this and to curb negative attitudes about middle school and high school.

High school for sure is preparation for adulthood and a livelihood.  For example, in our business we have had to prepare visually appealing brochures. Our very livelihood has depended on the visual appeal of both our business website and our trifold brochures. The layout of a lapbook models for my children the different graphic layouts for any project that they may encounter as adults. The emphasis too is not just on the content or material to be researched but on presentation of the lapbook. I guess that is why I say I use my lapbooks for enrichment. We do unit studies, write some each day and like you, do math. So I am not interested in presenting to my children or anybody else for that matter a bunch of blank uninspiring mini books.

I try to strike a balance on having some information available to guide them and model for them but leaving some of it blank so they can explore and add what interests them. I keep that in mind as I prepare each lapbook.

Not all of my children will do a lapbook and sometimes my older guys will choose only like 3 or 4 of the books to position on a notebooking page of their choice. That is fine with me too as long as they enjoy the process and make it their own. Knowledge is just acquired information, facts and experiences and it is hard to assign grade level to those experiences. My lapbooks are similar because they can be as easy or as comprehensive  as you want them to be based on your experiences and because you ultimately decide content.

I just wanted you to know my heart behind my work and how I use the lapbooks to reach my goals with my sons. I hope you enjoy them as much I enjoy creating each one. I especially enjoyed creating this lapbook for the Inuit and Arctic as I mixed up some of the clip art so it can be enjoyed by all ages.

This first minibook in the center is a map of the Arctic Circle.

I provide two pages that are the same except one has the countries and areas labeled and the other one is blank so that your child can write them in.  Click here to download the Arctic Circle Map.

These are tiny meander books. I provide instructions on the page on how to cut them and fold them. They store in mini pockets. Click here to download all four meander books.

This next book is a 4 tab flip book and small enough so that  a few facts can be written under each tab about the things the Inuit use and thought of. Click here to download the book The Inuit thought of it.


This next shape was much pretty much fun to make. It was interesting to learn about how the Inuit used snow houses to live in as temporary homes while they hunted. Click here to download the minibook Snow House.

The Peoples of the Arctic was especially fun to do because we read in the book Inuit Glimpses of An Arctic Past about the people of the Arctic.

When it comes to learning about any country, it is the diverse style of the people living there and how each adapts to their native land that makes learning come alive. This is a fandex type of book explaining each culture. Click here to download The Peoples of the Arctic.

This mini book explains some of the everyday things in the lives of the Inuit. Click here to download the layered book.


Lastly, I have a mini pocket with vocabulary words to match and store in the pockets. Click here to download Amazing Arctic Words.

I am wrapping up this month with the Free Inuit and Arctic lapbook and I hope you enjoyed this mini unit.

You will also like Winter Season Unit Study. Free Lapbook & Hands-On Ideas and Fall Unit 2 Apple Sir Isaac Newton Art.

Hugs and you know I love ya,

Arctic Unit Free Guides & Resources

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I was trying to put off this unit study on the Arctic Circle and the Inuit until we at least got our annual 2 days of winter here in Texas. We wanted to get in a winter sort of mood but like I mentioned last week it has been so spring like here, it has been hard to do that. But anyway, we are going forward because we are really excited about starting this unit study. Well at least Tiny and I are but not so sure about my older boys though. They are killing me I am telling you by staying on their topic of choice, the FBI.

Also, go here to the finished Unit Study Arctic and Inuit Lapbook.

When I start a unit study, I like to start off listing or picturing a lot of my resources. That way if you decide to trail along you can. Here are some of the books and magazines I have in my home library that I will be using. Some I have had for a while, others I collected prior to starting because I had an idea of what we wanted to study for this year.  Recently, I added in the collection of Julie of the Wolves. I didn’t have the collection but Kelley mentioned it and I bought it because unlike my older two boys Tiny has an interest in reading it. One book that is pictured above and is a keepsake is The Book of Indians by Holling C. Holling written in the 1930’s.  Beautifully written with rich language as is the style of all of his books, this book explains the different types of Native Americans: northeast woods, plains, desert and northwest coastal. Though he still uses the word Indian instead of Native American, the stories and sketches are still just worth poring over. So without even hitting the library which I don’t like to have to do all the time, I have enough resources in my home to start this unit.

Am I the only that doesn’t like having to go the library every time? True, it may get expensive but I look at my reference books like my curricula instead of always choosing laid out curricula.

Then the next step in starting my unit is to locate resources that are not just free but that are some better choices. This unit is rich with geography and animal and plant life. But there are other topics too that can be included for the older kids.

Like this lesson plan above that is for grades 5-8. It has a template for snow goggles and talks about limiting sunlight.

Click here to download the free 29 page guide.

This next download which includes the two pictures above gives the background of the Arctic region along with case studies on the caribou and the Arctic Tern.

Click here to download the 15 pdf.

This next guide or I should say guides talk about the Arctic animals listed above. There are two guides or grade levels on this teacher’s guide from Seaworld. These guides are real informative along with having picture cards of the various animals to cut out. Having these guides makes learning this unit easy because a lot of the work is already done.

Click here to download Arctic Animals 4th-8th and here to download Arctic Animals K – 3.

I also see some vocabulary words emerging here. Look at both of these teacher’s guides on the Arctic Animals because they include vocabulary for each level. Each person’s list will look different depending on what you think your children need to focus on. Here are some of mine I am brainstorming for my youngest.

Arctic Region. (You know a lot of kids, mine too when they were young and we were going over continents, got this mixed up thinking it was a continent instead of a region encompassing several countries). Also, we will focus on: tundra, Inuit, kayak, permafrost, lichen, diapause, scrimshaw and blubber.

I think too this unit just screams a lapbook, don’t you think? Yep, lapbook coming this month too on this newest unit. I have lots more links and hands-on ideas to share with you as we plod along on this unit.

Next post, I will share our first hands-on project for this new unit.

I love this winter quote today:

“I like these cold, gray winter days.  Days like these let you savor a bad mood.”

  ~Bill Watterson~

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Hugs and love ya,

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