lapbook

3 Free and Amazing Amazon Rainforest Lapbooks for Kids

August 7, 2022 | 1 Comment
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Today, I have three free Amazon rainforest lapbooks which go with our Amazon Rain Forest Unit Study And homeschool lapbooks make great tools for master learning about a unit study topic..

These lapbook about the Amazon Rainforest covers so many subtopics that each of your children can spend time on whatever topics interest them. Besides you can make many or one from the different minibooks.

Take your time putting together this huge lapbook because it has about 35 minibooks.

3 Free and Amazing Amazon Rainforest Lapbooks for Kids

Because lapbooks are interactive hands-on tools, you want to take several days to create it.

One tip is to create each minibook while you’re learning about the Amazon Rainforest.

In addition, I’ve created Amazon Rainforest covers that can be used on the outside of the lapbooks or your child can do his own art.

Each of my children were different. My then high school teen didn’t want much art on the outside cover.

However, my younger two kids at the time loved creating the outside of the lapbook.

How to Use the Rainforest Lapbook

Although some parents think the lapbook is a craftsy artsy project, it is far beyond that.

I think of a lapbook as a treasure trove of what interests the child. That can be used to teach your teach and to help him memorize important facts.

However, they’re are other ways to use lapbooks.

Use the lapbook to:

store nature things which interest your child
hold small paper games
illustrate art and drawings
showcase your child’s writing
keep math facts or rules that your want your child to know
contain maps of geographical areas

And because you don’t need a lot of supplies to create a beautiful lapbook each one can be unique.

Too, the beauty of saving your lapbooks is that you can come back another year and add one more flap.

Then, add more minibooks. So, only fill the lapbook until your child’s interest has piqued.

Come back later that year or years later and add an extension of a file folder and create more minibooks.

30+ Free Minibooks about the Amazon Rainforest

For example, look at the minibooks about the Amazon Rainforest to give you ideas of topics to cover.

I have put them in several groupings so you can see the minibooks. But they are in no particular order.

Four things needed in a rainforest.
Five Kingdoms of Life.
Five Little Monkeys story props.
ABC’s of the rainforest.
ABC Storage pockets.
Animal and Plant cells.

And also remember they are use to for varying levels.

Bird pocket.
Chocolate.
Different colored rivers of the Amazon.
Food of the rainforest.
Herbivores carnivores omnivores.
Jaguars.
Jungle art.

I have minibooks for young children to learn the ABCS of the Amazon Rainforest to learning about scientist.

Layers of the rainforest older.
Layers of the rainforest younger.
Layers of the rainforest 4 tab older.
Life cycle of kapok tree.
Lungs of the world.
Photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis wheel rain forest.
Pioneer microbiologist and father of taxonomy.

Also, you can pull out one topic like chocolate or the tropical fruits and focus only on that.

Plant label.
Products of the rainforest.
Rainforest facts.
Rain forest measuring.
Rainforest opposites.
Rain Force plants.
Rain forest in danger.
Rainforest vocabulary younger.
Reptiles insects amphibians of the amazon.
Save the rainforest.
The Amazon.
The canopy a beautiful roof.
The rainforest where is it.
Water cycle.
Why do we need plants younger.

This Amazon Rainforest is a HUGE 108 page download and enough to create more than 3 lapbooks.

Other Amazon Rainforest Resources

You’ll love these other Amazon Rainforest unit study resources.

Whether your create one or many you have plenty of minibooks to choose from.

Rainforest Lapbooks

How to Get the Free Rain Forest Amazon Lapbook 108 Pages

Now, how to grab the free download where you can make as many as 3 lapbooks. This is a subscriber freebie.

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Free Native American Plains Indians Fun Lapbook for Kids (& resources)

July 29, 2022 | Leave a Comment
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Today I have a free Native Americans Plains Indians fun lapbook to add to your list of homeschool lapbooks. Also, you can look at my page Plains Indians Unit Study & Lapbook to see our co-op.

This Plains Indians lapbook was created for upper elementary to middle school. There are approximately ten minibooks in this Native American Plains Indians lapbook.

However, if you do a letter size file you only need eight minibooks. We did one which was letter size and two which were legal size file folder so we could add more fun resources.

Free Native American Plains Indians Fun Lapbook for Kids (& resources)

Besides, learning about the Plains Indians a lapbook is a fun way to organize all the fun bits of information your child wants to know.

Look below at the different minibooks included in this free lapbook.

Tribes of the Plains
Spear and Shield Dance
Food of the Plains Indians
Make a leather tipi
Tipi with pictographs

Also, here are five more included.

Another tipi but create you own design
The Great Plains Geography
Buffalo a way of life
Chiefs of the Great Plains
Picture Words

The Plains Indians

If you’re looking for a way to bring learning about the Plains or Native Americans, you’ll love studying about the Plains Indians.

In addition, we concentrated on several areas when studying about the Plains Indians.

First, it was important to me to not perpetuate stereotypes. Nobody likes that done to them. The problem is none of us were alive then.

So, we have to use the best primary sources we can find to determine how the Plains Indians lived and what was important to them

In addition, I wanted to include reference resources which were helpful for our age range.

Plains Indians Tribes

First, I wanted the children in our co-op to appreciate a few of the tribes that roamed The Plains.

For example, they are the Mandan, Wichita, Caddo, Kansa, Sioux, Comanche, Pawnee and Crow to name some.

Also, here are a few other topics to include when studying about the Plains Indians.

Learn what is pemmican
Explore the geography of The Plains because Native Americans learn to live off the land and
Investigate how they made tools and clothing

However, not only will you want to share ideas about how Plains Indians lived but make this fun diy pop up book.

It’s not included in this free lapbook because we made with material we had on hand. One of my sons was interested in how the Native Americans road horseback while hunting.

So he was inspired to tittle this book The Stand Off and inspired by the work of George Catlin.

DIY Pop Up Book

Too, I had this older cool book Plains Indians Diorama to Cut & Assemble. So the Native American and buffalo my son cut out of the book.

Then, take a letter size page of construction paper and have your child draw or use markers to illustrate his knowledge of The Plains. Decorate or color the paper with whatever scene your child wants to illustrate.

Next, fold it half and cut two parallel, horizontal slits per image to pop up. Cut the slits on the crease where you want the pop ups at. Try to space the tabs apart where you want your images.

For instance, for the buffalo and the Native American you will cut four slits about one inch and then push the tabs in.

Finally, glue the images on the inside of the book on the tabs. So cute.

I found this video of the pop out book of what we actually did except instead of one tab we had two tabs.

Your child could print free clipart or use an activity book to add fun things to your lapbooks.

You can add other Native American tribes and use any of the pop up features in activity books.

More Free Plains Indians Resources

Also, you’ll love these other free Plains Indians Resources.

Some of them are lesson plans and others are teaching helps.

The Buffalo: A Way of Life for the Plains Indians
Plains Indians Pictographs
Native American’s Of the Great Plains
The Iron Horse vs. the Buffalo
Also,, remember to go to my Native American Plains Indian Unit Study.

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Exploring Space and Astronomy Free Unit Study for Multiple Ages

18 Colorful and Free Lapbooks for History Unit Studies

July 15, 2022 | 2 Comments
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I’ve rounded up 18 colorful and free lapbooks for your history unit studies. On my homeschool lapbooks page you can find them in chronological order if you plan that way.

If you’re wanting to cover history through a hands-on approach, then you’ll love lapbooks.

Besides, lapbooking can be used by a student on any level. And it can be crafty or not.

Lapbooks can be as much as the product of the student as he wants it to be, or he can use part put together.

18 Colorful and Free Lapbooks for History Unit Studies

Note: Some of the lapbooks were free for a limited time.

Too, it’s a great hands-on tool for reviewing history.

In addition, there are many other reasons to use lapbooks while doing your history unit study.

If you’re focusing on reading a living book about history, then create separate mini books for the 5ws and 1H of writing — who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Some history unit studies will be more reading literature focused while others may be more event focused.

And with free lapbooks you can mix and match mini books depending on the history topic you’re focusing on.

8 Easy Mini Books to Make for a History Lapbook

For example, look at these other mini books that your children could create based on any history topic.

1. Make an easy foldable timeline.

Timelines can be as easy or as complicated and extensive as your student wants. I love this one by Home School in the Woods.

2. Write a mini biography about a history maker.

In addition, a mini biography can be written in a quick glance fashion.

3. Sketch a geographical area referenced in your history topic.

Also, storing a hand drawn sketch in a pocket is a great reference tool for you student.

4. Draw mini maps.

Even a pretend map or mythical map brings a history to life.

5. Use strips to write vocabulary words.

Too, when your student uses sentence strips for vocabulary words, writing is not as overwhelming.

6. Compare natural resources of an area if your history topic is slanted toward natural resources.

Then how the natural resources of an area affects the people of the local area is another fun topic to write about.

7. Use a trifold mini book to compare 3 events or 3 people.

Moreover, if you’re wanting to compare and contrast, a trifold books can compare three people, three events, or even three dates.

8. A layered book could help your students visual the main religions or cultural difference.

As you can see this is a very short list of the mini books that you can include in your lapbook or that you can find in free lapbooks.

The advantage of course to any lapbook or history study is that you can follow your child’s interest.

And another advantage to the free lapbooks I create is that they are all colorful. Visual appeal matters.

For instance, when I graded lapbooks created by my children visual appeal counted. Because we live in a digital age, visual appeal matters more than ever.

Adding clip art to illustrate a history topic properly is equally important.

History Lapbook Materials

Additionally, the beauty of your history lapbook is that very little materials are needed. Sure, you can make it fancy like we have done at times.

For example, we used strips of leather and a beautiful colorful shell with a feather as a clasp to close our Plains Indians lapbook.

Too, look at these beautiful Suede Leather Cords and gorgeous Ocean Tone Colored File Folders Letter Size.

Also, I love colorful file folders instead of the drab plain ones.

Too, one more technique we like is to use the bright color for the inside of the file folder.

If your file folder is bright colored on both sides, then it doesn’t matter.

It’s just more visually appealing and it stays pretty through the years.

More Lapbook Ideas

If you’ve never used a lapbook with history, this is a great time to start.

Once your children do one or two they can get hooked on lapbooks and history.

Besides, look at this video, How to Homeschool EZ by Tina Robertson I have for you.

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Colorful and Free Lapbooks for History Unit Studies

You'll love this roundup of free lapbooks to bring your history topics to life.

The Trail of Tears 1820 - 1845 Unit Study & Lapbook

This unit study will focus of course on the culture and life of a few different Native American people, I wanted to expose the injustices and ugly side of American history. Those are teachable moments too of examples that we do not want to be like. The ugly side of history is something we do not shy away from, but I do think it should be approached in age appropriate ways.

American Revolution Unit Study and Lapbook 1775 - 1783

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America.

American Civil War – The War Between the ‘Tates 1861 – 1865 Unit Study and Lapbook

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free…It will become all one thing, or all the other. “A House Divided” speech, June 16, 1858 Abraham Lincoln

Free Ancient Greece Lapbook

I finally have the rest of the minibooks for the free Ancient Greece lapboook that seems like it took us half a year to cover.

Free American History Lapbook - The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp

I have the newest lapbook, which is the American history lapbook, learning about The Old West through the life of Wyatt Earp finished.

Free Marco Polo Unit Study, Lapbook, and Hands-on Ideas

Marco Polo 1254 to 1324 – A unit study and lapbook about the life of Marco Polo and Genghis Khan, as well as how the Silk Road came under the control of the Mongol rule.

French and Indian War 1754 -1763

The French and British discovered prior to the French and Indian war that they were claiming lands that were not empty. The Iroquois had been in the New York State for several hundred years before Europeans arrived. The British and French tried to get different Indian tribes on their side, including the Iroquois.

Iroquois Lapbook

In 1754 the British and the Iroquois Confederacy met and made an alliance. Britain provided the Iroquois with weapons and supplies, and the Native Americans helped the British fight against the French for control of the colonies.

Prior to 1775, the Indians had been dragged into many wars and the period prior to the American Revolution was no different. The Europeans had brought over superior weapons of destruction like guns, steel tomahawks, cannon and their diseases.

Ancient Civilizations II

Ancient Civilization Lapbook covering Sumer, Mesopotamia, The Babylonian & Hammurabi, Minoan and Mycenaean , Ancient Egypt, Greece, Phoenician, Ancient Greece & Rome Pockets, and Celts.

Plains Indians. Unit Study & Lapbook

I was born upon the prairie where the wind blew free, and there was nothing to break the light of the sun.

I was born where there were no enclosures, and where everything drew free breath.

I want to die there, and not within walls.”

~Ten Bears, Comanche Chief~

The FBI Unit Study and Lapbook

J. Edgar Hoover was named Assistant Director on August 22, 1921. We focused on the time period around his start with the FBI.

Ancient Civilizations Multiple Free Lapbooks

Ancient Rome
Ancient Babylon
Ancient Phoenicia

Famous Pharaohs and Queens of Egypt.
Ancient Assyria
Ancient China

Medieval Japan Unit Study and Lapbook 1185 – 1600 A.D.

This Medieval Japan Unit Study and Lapbook covers from 1185 – 1600 A.D.{1185 – 1600 A.D.} From the end of the Heian Period to the Beginning of Tokugawa {Edo} Period.

Vikings Lapbook Unit Study and Hands-on Activities

Your kids will love this Vikings lapbook and Vikings Unit Study. Barbarians as we use the term today had a very different meaning to the Ancient Greeks. The term Barbarian was coined by the Ancient Greeks and then used by the Romans.

BEST Westward Ho Unit Study and Lapbook!

The Oregon Trail was given National Historic Trail designation in 1978, honoring this great migration that helped assure that one day the Oregon country would one day be part of the United States.

Lewis and Clark Fun Homeschool Unit Study and Lapbook

Studying about Lewis and Clark has been one of the best ways to study American History. Begin with this mission statement by Thomas Jefferson below.

The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river & such principal stream of it, as, by it’s course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean…may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent for the purpose of commerce.

Words by President Thomas Jefferson, June, 1803.

RMS Titanic Unit Study and Free Lapbook

RMS Titanic – {April 14/15, 1912}

Daniel Boone - North American Explorer

Before Washington began to fight the battles of the Revolution in the east, Daniel Boone and other famous hunters were fighting bears and Indians in what was then called the west. By that war in the woods, these brave and hardy men helped us to get possession of that part of the country.

Ancient Civilizations Unit – Printable Minibook on Sumer

May 31, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

One of the main reasons I wanted to cover an ancient civilizations unit is because sometimes a history study can get draggy. More important, I wanted to include other ancient civilizations to add to our Ancient Civilizations II unit study.

Focusing on the details of history, can get a bit sluggish because you lose the momentum of the overview.

There are lot of kids and teachers alike that are I-have-to-see-the-big-picture-before-I-get it people.

Me? I love history, but I can get buried in all the details.

I appreciate the big picture too.

It is important to pull up and away and look at the big picture so you understand the major players of ancient history.

For us, I think after we examine the big picture and come up for air, it gives us another bunny trail to go down. You know what I mean? Often times, I end up with more units or topics than school months to learn about them.

Ancient Civilizations

Too, if you start homeschooling with older children sometimes they just get a glimpse of them in public school.

So, if you’re wanting to cover ancient civilizations, then a unit focusing on great empires or ancient civilizations is key to understanding them.

It is key to keeping history fun and relevant. Although Mesopotamia is an early civilization, it can be confusing to understand about Sumer.

So I made it a separate minibook.

Understanding that Sumer developed in Mesopotamia is the first place to start.

From there it is easier to associate the Sumerian ruler, Sargon, with the time period.

This time I made a minibook focusing more on the Sumerians invented which was a system of writing and irrigation.

Because they were farmers, irrigation was an important livelihood.

Understanding how irrigation helped them to live farther away from the rivers is an important concept in explaining how they thrived as a civilization.

Sure, it probably is not as glamorous to study about farming and irrigation as maybe studying about mummies, but it is solid; farming and irrigation is at the roots of ancient civilizations.

As usual, I try to give some accompanying facts and as always you don’t have to use them.

Ancient Sumer Printable Minibook

I provide information as I can because we do lapbooks as enrichment and my time is limited.

Also, these minibooks can be glued on pages for notebooking. You decide.

Sometimes we do a lapbook, sometimes the older boys glue the minibook on pages for a notebook.

One curriculum that we are using right now too because I am interested in getting a bird’s eye view on history is Western Civilization Study by Brimwood Press.

The reason I am excited about this one is because in a few short lessons you span several thousands of years of history. I

n fourteen lessons you span 5,000 years. A great teaching tool for getting a sweeping overview of history. We are already loving it. You have to check it out below.

I can’t wait to tell you more as we are so engaged going through it. I hope you enjoy the Sumer book. It makes it easy when you can cover civilizations, hitting the highlights and move on.

Download the next minibook on Sumer below

Sumer-Ancient-Civilizations-Unit-by-Tina-Robertson.pdf (2815 downloads )

Do you find it hard to teach the highlights of history?

Hugs and love ya,

11 Easy Hands-On Ancient Egypt Projects for Middle School

April 22, 2022 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have gathered 11 easy hands-on Ancient Egypt project ideas for middle school. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school for more fun tips.

Learning about Ancient Egypt should be both fun and interactive during the middle school ages.

11 Easy Hands-On Ancient Egypt Projects for Middle School

It’s not time to give up the fun at any age of learning.

1. Make Mud Bricks.

Look at this fun Hands-on Ancient Egypt: Israelite Mud Bricks for Kids. With minimal material, most of which you have around the house, your middle school child will love making these mud bricks.

Ancient Egypt Projects for Middle School

2. Build a LEGO Math Calculator.

Next, look at this math slant project while studying about Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian Mathematics: Build a LEGO Math Calculator is a fun middle school project.

Studying about jewelry from Ancient Egypt doesn’t have to be hard. Look at this Fun Hands-On History: Ancient Egyptian Collar Craft.

3. Create an Ancient Egyptian Collar

One of the most famous forms of jewelry worn by the ancient Egyptians was the Usekh collar.

Rich Egyptians often wore these broad necklaces on a daily basis and this collar craft is a fun way to understand about Egyptian necklaces.

Then to add a bit of art and drawing, your middle school child will love Ancient Egypt Civilization (Hands-on History): King Narmer Crown.

4. Mold a painting of the Ancient Egypt Double Crown

After all studying about the double crown and the significance to Ancient Egypt can be hard to understand. This easy hands-on project helps learning facts stick.

Projects for Middle School About Ancient Egypt

5. Play the Snake Game

In addition, I created this fun and Free Ancient Egypt Mehen Printable Board Game (Hands-on History) based on the popular snake game played by the Egyptians.

However, we really loved doing the Project Passport: Ancient Egypt from Home School in the Woods .

Not only did we enjoy many hands-on learning activities, but love learning about Upper and Lower Egypt, the maps and the printable activities. My post Ancient Egypt Homeschool Unit Study – Hands-on and FUN! has numerous activities in Project Passport.

6. Travel Egypt Without Leaving Your Home

Also, add in a few more hands-on fun ideas like this Birdcage Ancient Egypt Go Fish game.

7. Prepare cardboard Egyptian Pillars

And another Ancient Egypt project for middle school is to have your child prepare these beautiful smokin’ hot Egyptian cardboard pillars.

Hands-on Ancient Egypt Middle School Activities

At the end of our unit study co-op our group made these cardboard pillars; your crafty middle school kid will love doing them for a prop or drama your group has.

8. Tie in Ancient Egypt with Astronomy Notebooking Page

Furthermore, some middle school children will love a science tie in with Ancient Egypt like learning about ancient astronomy. Look at my post Exploring Space and Astronomy Free Unit Study for Multiple Ages.

These notebooking pages are subscriber freebies.

That means when you sign up to follow me, you get access to my Exclusive Subscriber’s Only Library which has these notebooking pages in the library.

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9. Study Ancient Egypt Alongside Other Ancient Empires.

This next Ancient Egypt project for middle school is to make an in depth study of Ancient Empires. We used Great Empires Activity Study by Home School in the Wood.

Some children need to see the key players or empires of history at one time and need a longer project to retain focus.

Moving too fast studying ancient history and a child may not understand key time periods. It’s important for key history hooks to be made so that all other learning can be tied to history makers.

Great Empires Activity Study by Home School in the Woods covers fourteen empires:

Ancient China
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome
Arab-Muslims,
English Empire
French Empire

Mongols
Russian Empire
Spanish Empire
United States and
Viking.
German Empire
Japanese Empire

Another easy activity Hands-On History: The Rosetta Stone and Breaking The Code is really a fun introduction to learning about ancient history.

10. Break the Code of the Rosetta Stone.

If you find that your child doesn’t really know anything about why we know some about ancient history, begin with learning about the Rosetta Stone. Your code breakers will love to learn about breaking the code.

As well including your young kids can be tough. So, if you want to include your younger kids or if your middle school child loves to still color, you’ll love this set of Ancient color pages to go along with your studies.

20 Ancient Civilization History Coloring Pages at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus. You'll love adding these to your unit studies or notebooking.

We have used various museum quality history coloring books through the years that have made a big difference in how my boys understood history in the early years.

I think clip art should be as real as possible and based on real events in history.

Learning Ancient History Through Coloring

Instead of me adding titles on pages or naming the coloring pages, this allows you to use the clip art/coloring pages any way you want to.

Whether it is a cover page, notebooking page, journal page or just to enrich a topic, you have the flexibility.

Here is what the 20 page download contains. I put a few key words to explain each picture on the page. This way you can use the coloring pages as title pages too on your lapbooks.

Page 3: Ancient Egypt Court,
Page 4: Ancient Egypt Spinning,
Page 5: Ancient Egypt Life of the Royals,
Page 6: Ancient Egypt Battles,
Page 7: Ancient Egypt The Nile,
Page 8: Life Along the River – The Nile,
Page 9: Metal Workers & Crafts of Ancient Egypt,
Page 10: Egyptian Hieroglyphics,
Page 11: Egyptian Queen Cleopatra,

Page 12: Aztecs Floating Gardens
Page 13: Aztecs,
Page 14: Aztec Life,
Page 15: Mayans,
Page 16: Ancient Greece Wedding,
Page 17: Ancient Greek Galley,
Page 18: Ancient Greece Crafts,
Page 19: Ancient Greece Bank,
Page 20: Athens,
Page 21: Spartan Warrior and
Page 22: The Vikings.

Grab your fun copy below!

00. Ancient Civilization History 20 Coloring Pages
$3.50 Add to cart

Finally, you know my love for hands-on tools like lapbooks. No, they’re not just for younger children.

Middle school children really benefit from them as well. And the best part is that the lapbook can be as crafty or not as your child wants it to be.

11. Craft a Pharaohs and Queens Ancient Egypt lapbook.

And I really make it easy here for you because I have this free Famous Pharaohs and Queens of Egypt lapbook.

What do you think? Are you ready to tackle these 11 Easy Hands-On Ancient Egypt Projects for Middle School?

And be sure you visit these middle school activities: