Shape Book Lapbook?

I have named these shape-book lapbooks. I guess I was thinking a little out of the box (folder in this case). I really wanted to do something different with this chapter of insects. I knew what I wanted to do in my head, but not on paper. I tried and tried to find black file folders to go along with the theme, but couldn't find any. I asked on the HOAC Lapbooking group and some suggested using black poster board and cut it like a file folder. Others suggested black card stock or black wrapping paper. I appreciate every comment because they were all helpful and left me with ideas I hadn't thought of for future projects. We begin our Space and Planets chapter next week.

For this particular lapbook, the poster board worked best because of the size. I folded the poster board in half and drew on the front part, the outline of a insect. Then, I had the kids decorate the outside the way they wanted to with whatever insect they chose before hand. Depending on the insect, these are a little longer than a legal size file folder- maybe about a 4-5" longer. I plan to store them where I store all my poster size items- between the wall and the bookcase. My 7 year old did an ant lapbook, my 11 year old did a bee lapbook and my 13 year old did a lady bug lapbook. My 4 year old did one on a butter fly to keep him quiet while we worked but, there's nothing inside it. At the moment, he is not in a picture taking mood.

I don't know if you can see in the pics, but the ant and the bee have wings made out of page protectors cut in the shape of wings with brads to attach them to the body. For the antennas, we used pipe cleaners and fuzzy balls from Walmart. The kids favorite part were the "googly" eyes. (Is that a word?) Since we studied about compound eyes, my son with the bee book, put a lot of eyes to show the concept. BTW, my seven year old really wanted to make a mouth for his ant with teeth and all...and to have the smile over to the side and not in the middle.

• The most of the mini books were from : http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks/insects.htm

                 It's free and came in handy on short notice.

• For the bee lapbook, I had downloaded a free lapbook from HOAC about a year and half ago. So, I used a few mini books from the packet: http://www.handsofachild.com/shop/Bees-P42.aspx

Everything else, got from either googling the words, "ants, ladybugs, or bee coloring pages" or from what I could get free from the Enchanted Learning Website.
This was different from doing regular lapbooks from file folders, so if you want to put a twist on lapbooking...this is it! My kids were so excited about it, that they worked overtime on their own and we finished it today. I was really counting on this to be a project for the rest of the week, but...I'm not complaining!