How to make a lapbook with your own hands step by step from felt, cardboard, folder

What is a lapbook

The idea of ​​creating a lapbook came from the American T. Dubey. The girl came up with the idea of ​​taking a miniature folder and filling it with interesting content in the form of pictures, paper applications, poems, labyrinths, various materials, and pockets with filling.

The resulting manual was used to consolidate the knowledge that she conveyed to her own children. It is interesting that the girl herself did not try to promote her work to the masses. She simply posted a photo of the product on the Internet. As a result, Dubey’s friends were the first to become interested in the new product.

The laptop was invented in the USA as an educational book in the form of a game.

Very quickly the lapbook became popular all over the world. Not only parents, but also teachers began to actively use it. The title of the manual is translated from English as “book on your knees.” It is small in size. Therefore, it is convenient for the child to examine it on his lap.

Each lapbook includes a huge number of game elements.

These can be unusual moving parts (including three-dimensional ones), figures of your favorite characters from cartoons and fairy tales, tear-off windows with filling for every taste, rotating circles, rustling, ringing and squeaking parts, paper and fabric (most often felt) applications. .

Craftsmen often make secret places with surprises in the product. They especially delight little lovers of secrets and riddles.

At first glance, it may seem that a lapbook is a toy. It really captivates and occupies the child for a long time. But it is also a very useful developmental product. Usually, in the first couple of lessons, the child explores all its capabilities, and only then begins to study using a laptop.

It is important at the first stage not to rush the student. Even just playing with pictures, circles, inserts, the child, unnoticed by himself, develops well and learns a lot of new information.

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Lapbook requirements

A laptop (how to make one yourself is described in detail later in the article) must meet several requirements at once.

In addition to safety and durability requirements, there are also educational requirements for the laptop

The most important among them:

• safety;
• strength, high quality;
• interest, external attractiveness.

It is important to choose exclusively safe, high-quality materials for the product. It is important that all of them are approved for use with children. For example, if the parts of a future book for classes are connected with a stapler, then its staples on top should be decorated with a soft decorative element.

Another option is to use strips of self-adhesive paper. Then the metal part will not fall out and injure small students.

Most often, lapbooks are made from cardboard.

Before creating a lapbook, you must make its layout

How durable you need to make a laptop depends on where you plan to use it. If only at home, then you can take paper. In kindergarten or school, dozens of children use the product every day.

Therefore, it is better to base it on durable cardboard and additionally laminate the main parts with a special transparent film. Another option is to make a fabric laptop. This choice is especially relevant for the youngest students.

The fabric product can be made not only strong, reliable and durable, but also as safe as possible. To make learning interesting and enjoyable, a lapbook should be designed in an original, beautiful way. For the base and all parts of the product, materials of bright colors are chosen.

All additional accessories are thought out with special care. The younger the child for whom the product is being created, the larger the details should be made in it and the more often fairy-tale themes should be used.

Creating a Layout

A layout is needed for those who create a book from scratch. If you use templates, then everything will be in its place, and the parent will not get confused. In other cases, you can draw the placement of pockets and additional details by hand. For a draft, you can take a standard A4 sheet. What to do:

• The book should not be too big. Each part should be organically placed and comfortable.
• The more tactile details there are, the more interesting it will be. Pockets, accordions, a retractable questionnaire - all this needs to be included.

Based on the layout, it will be possible to make any laptop in the future. Only the theme and content changes.

Types of lapbooks

Lapbooks (the information below will tell you how to make one yourself) today comes in different types. All existing products are divided into several groups according to different characteristics. For example, by purpose, shape, material.

Purpose

First of all, laptops are divided according to their purpose. These are: gaming, educational, congratulatory, autobiographical.

Game lapbooks can be intended both for playing with a teacher, and for an independent child. When creating such a product, the master should focus on its entertainment. All educational information in it should be easy to understand.

It’s worth making as many moving, interesting elements as possible in your gaming lapbook. For example, circles, windows, pockets, petals, and inserts made of different materials are suitable here. Separately, the product often includes labyrinths, walking games with chips and cubes, comparison and picture search cards, and walking games.

Another interesting option is to supplement the entire complex with a small bag, into which miniature objects for guessing by touch, different materials and fabrics are placed.

Lapbook “My Garden”

Lapbook “Seasons”

An educational lapbook perfectly helps students learn new (even complex topics) and consolidate past material. It is suitable for both organized group and independent work.

In such a set you can add as many educational cards and games as possible, as well as proverbs, sayings, questions for memory development, any thematic quizzes, and interesting facts. It’s great if you use the allowance, the child will initially be with a senior assistant.

A greeting lapbook will be an excellent gift option for children of different ages. This is both a pleasant and useful gift. It will be especially successful to do it yourself, taking into account the person’s tastes and hobbies.

It is precisely the congratulatory lapbook that may contain no mention of studies at all. Unusual themed products are suitable for the holiday.

For example, for a child it will be a laptop with pictures and games from their favorite cartoons, fairy tales, for a schoolgirl it will be an option in the form of a house for a paper doll with a collection of outfits, for a teenage boy it will be a large book with his favorite superheroes, comics about them and new exciting stories.

Lapbook "Math"

Lapbook "Alphabet"

You can give your friends a product with common favorite photos or even themed magnets on your favorite topic.

An autobiographical lapbook can please both children and adults equally. For example, you can make it about a baby, collecting photographs from birth, memorable tickets, crafts and funny sayings on the pages of the product.

This kind of lapbook will be interesting to look at in the future. It will become a beautiful keeper of memories and will collect the best moments of a child’s life.

Form

The classic shape for a lapbook is a square or rectangle. The product is made in the form of a small book or album. It can open or simply be a neat rectangle on which individual sheets are folded back.

Examples of different forms of lapbooks:

Curly lapbooks are less common. Such products can be made themed depending on their content. For example, if there is an autobiography or congratulations inside, then the lapbook will look great in the shape of a heart.

And little students will be interested in studying products in the form of butterflies, flowers, recognizable fairy-tale characters, and various geometric shapes. If you plan to consider a specific topic in a lapbook, then it can be reflected in the form of a craft.

The theme of food, dishes, cooking - the shape of beets, candy, cups, frying pans. The theme of toys, crafts is the shape of a matryoshka doll. The theme of nature - the shape of a cloud, a tree, a bird. Modern craftsmen are increasingly making lapbooks in the form of a small folding box.

The components of such a product are fastened with fasteners, buttons, and braid. If you remove the selected fasteners, the craft falls into pieces, revealing all the interesting contents to its owner. Inside the laptop there may be the same pockets, notepads, and envelopes.

Material

A laptop book (teachers and educators are most often interested in how to make it with your own hands) can be created from different types of material. As noted above: the main thing is to choose one that is safe for the child.

For example, building materials such as finishing plastic are not suitable. It is better to use safe and budget-friendly bases: cardboard, paper (white or colored), Whatman paper. Even candy boxes and store folders will fit here.

Examples of filling

When you open a standard cardboard folder, you get two or three A4 sheets to fill. What kind of educational material should be placed on them? A laptop allows you to collect in one manual a wide variety of educational activities for preschoolers. For inspiration, you can look at board games and workbooks that your child already has. Depending on his age, these may be tasks such as “make a pair of two cards,” puzzles, elements for coloring, counting material, “find the differences.” Don’t forget about logic problems and riddles - offer your child short stories or rhymes, after listening to which you will need to give the correct answer. A laptop for preschoolers is also a colorful outline. Organize basic information on the chosen topic using diagrams and pictures, lists and signs.

How to make it yourself from felt

The safest option for a laptop is one made from soft, pleasant fabric. Such a product will definitely not hurt even the smallest student. In addition, it turns out to be strong and reliable.

The first step is to decide on the theme of the product. It can be general or narrow. The second option is always easier to do. It is best to first take paper and pen and sketch out a rough plan for creating the craft.

Next he draws a mock-up of the product. Here it is immediately noted how it will look, what sequence of tasks is planned, the location of all the moving parts, games, and details.

First, all parts of the future lapbook are drawn on thick paper and cut out. Then they are applied to pieces of fabric and also carefully trimmed.

Next you need:

1. Place the resulting felt pieces on the fabric, secure with pins and determine if they are the right size.
2. Sew the blanks to the fabric base.
3. Fix pockets for different games and insert cardboard into them.
4. Decorate every page of the future “book”. For example, using buttons, beads, bows, flowers, stickers. You can paint directly on fabric with acrylic paints.
5. If desired, laminated the names of games and tasks on different pages.
6. Use an awl and a needle to sew together the sheets of the future laptop. You should immediately thread the ribbon into the needle so that you can eventually tie the product with a beautiful bow.

Instead of tape, you can use a loop and a button or even a zipper to secure the structure.

How to make from cardboard

You can make a laptop with your own hands even from cardboard. How to assemble the product correctly is described below in the article.

To begin with, a model of the future cardboard book with activities is also drawn. It is convenient to do this on A4 sheets folded in the form of a laptop. Next you will need to come up with and prepare all the details.

The table offers interesting options:

Curly pockets

Envelope pockets

Volume pockets

Rotating pockets

Strip pockets
When making the product under discussion, a rectangle of cardboard is laid out on the table. Approximately 1/3 of it on each side is folded. Afterwards, you can attach all the prepared games and decorations to the base. High-quality glue and double-sided tape are suitable for this.

From folder

It will be even easier to make a lapbook from a ready-made cardboard folder. This base is simply laid out on the table and complemented with details. You can pre-cover the inside of the folder with colored paper to make the product look brighter and more interesting.

For example, from such a basis it will be possible to make an interesting laptop for future first-graders. On the first page there will be a self-drawn map to school and a questionnaire for the kids, how they feel about studying, how ready they are for it, and whether they want to gain knowledge.

Children will be able to put answers to questions in a capacious, glued envelope.

How to make a lapbook from a cardboard folder

How to make a lapbook from 2 sheets of cardboard

How to make a lapbook from large cardboard

In this case, on the middle part there is a calendar of the remaining days before school, rules of behavior in educational institutions, interesting facts about them from around the world. You can supplement the base with thematic proverbs and stick on a pocket in the form of a backpack and cards with the objects with which it is filled.

The last part is worth adding some entertaining material. For example, funny pictures, jokes, adventure games, mazes.

Curly pockets

Ideal for themed compositions. For example, when it comes to studying edible mushrooms. Instead of the usual rectangular pocket, a basket is made.

The child is given cards with mushrooms, which he must independently select and place in the basket. The fastest way is to print it on a printer and cut it around the perimeter.

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From the box

Another simple option is to make a laptop from a large box. In the process, a middle part for the base and two side parts with a margin of width are cut out of it. These allowances are then applied to the central part when gluing. The resulting base is covered with colored paper of the artist’s choice.

Next is required:

1. Strengthen the base to create the main middle part and two closing flaps on the sides.
2. Use flowers to highlight 3 vertical or 6 horizontal sections for decoration.
3. Decide on the outside of the product and glue a wide ribbon on it so that the craft can eventually be tied.
4. Place games and decorations on the main parts. For example, pockets, pictures, moving parts, laces, buttons, cards with text.
5. Decorate the finished product to your liking.

The resulting lapbook should not be used immediately. It is worth giving it time to dry well.

Tips and tricks to follow

Themed lapbooks are a great way to save money on toy purchases.

Often, after watching cartoons, children ask their parents to buy various products with the image of the character they like. Requests are repeated after each new video. Instead of buying toys, you can make a themed lapbook with the story of your favorite character. It will also be an excellent educational tool.

The product can be for school subjects. A laptop is a great way to learn new information and consolidate old information. This is a way to get to know an unloved subject better and change your attitude towards it.

Instead of colored paper, the base of the product can be covered with felt. Then the parts can be attached to it with miniature Velcro.

If you wish, you can make a lapbook with your own hands quickly and easily. At the same time, you can either repeat existing ideas using other people’s layouts, or create a unique book/box personally for your child.