FAQ's

Picture Book Explorers are cross-curricular literature-based unit studies containing a range of activities inspired by beautifully crafted picture books.

Full instructions on how to approach using the unit study are included in each pack. 

Every pack includes full instructions for a range of activities for applied maths, English language, science, history, geography, art and cookery as a minimum. These range from discussion ideas to creative writing projects to practical art projects to craft activities to maths problems to science experiments to recipes to games to field trip ideas and beyond.

The packs all contain printable maps, flags, fact sheets and timeline. Some will contain notebooking pages, mini-books, quizzes and/or colouring sheets. 

On the surface, a lapbook is a cardboard folder with different shaped paper booklets glued inside it, rather like a lift-the-flap book. However, a lapbook is really so much more than just a way of displaying and recording your children's learning.

On a practical level, it's a way of helping children learn by breaking big projects up into smaller, more manageable chunks and it's much more versatile than a workbook or worksheet. It encourages more creativity too children can decide where to put the minibooks to make their own unique layout and can design their own booklets and pockets.

It's a means of providing a personalised education. Lapbooks can be adapted for each individual child by selecting the minibooks that best suit them. You can fill in minibooks in a way that builds on their strengths and gently encourages development of new or less secure skills.

Lapbooks can be revisited again and again, they may contain games, recipes, photographs. Having created a valuable reference resource for themselves, children gain a real sense of achievement and learn to take a pride in their work. They can even build on their original lapbook over time, adding extra flaps and folders as they extend their knowledge of a project.

Last, but not least, lapbooks are a project that you and your children will want to treasure, not trash. Who can say that about a worksheet?  

Full instructions and a suggested layout is included in each pack. 

You will need a cardboard folder, glue stick, double sided sticky tape at bare minimum. You may also need split pin paper fasteners and wide clear sticky tape depending on the type and number of minibooks.

You may also like to start a collection of images from magazines, wrapping paper, stickers etc to embellish and personalise your lapbooks.

Yes! Very young children can make lapbooks, my youngest was 2 when he started. Younger children  will need more support than older children when it comes to recording their answers. 

All the linked lapbooks have differentiated activities and some even have two types of minibook for some of the sections. They are labelled Level A and Level B rather than being given an age rating because you know your children best and know what they are capable of and interested in. 

You can, of course, mix and match between the two. Some minibooks have pre-written answer labels that can be used as a matching activity, or reading practise with younger children.

Linked Lapbook packs don’t contain a study guide. They include internet links to enable you to do your own research and decide for yourself which information to put in your minibooks. They also include a list of links to practical activities and free printables form other suppliers to extend the learning experience.

The minibook activities are differentiated for two levels of learning ability, with some packs having two versions of the same minibook to facilitate this. 

Project Lapbook packs are more self-contained and include an illustrated study guide with all the information needed to complete the minibooks. The packs also include full instructions for a range of practical activities to really bring the project alive to engage children and encourage a love of learning.

The packs also include a suggested schedule that breaks down the project into sessions detailing which minibooks and activities accompany which section of the study guide. The activities are not differentiated so that you can select the ones that will suit your child best.

Please visit the contact page and drop me a line from there.

This is a service that I hope to offer very soon. In the meantime, please message me via the contact page or via email at helen@picturebookexplorers.co.uk and I will see what I can do for you 😊