Knight Lapbook & Go Along Books

Towards the end of last year, when we came to the realisation that the very popular program we had been using was no longer meeting our needs, we went looking for something else.

That elusive something else! We were already deep within the Medieval time period and had covered Vikings earlier in the year and I didn't really want to go it alone.

I did however know that I wanted to move forward with all things Medieval. Things like Knights, Chivalry, Jousting and all the fun that that contains.

So I was quite elated when I stumbled onto the Knight Lap-Pak over at Homeschool In The Woods. Yes the targeted age is K - 2 but all three of my kids did this at varying levels.

The images are a little cutesy and young looking, but they were all ok with that. There really is very little writing so I just ramped it up for mine by adding in some written reporting requirements.

This Lap-Pak is available on CD or via a download. Given that HITW is an American company I chose the download option.

We decided to put our mini books together on sheets of A4 coloured card, that way they can be hole punched and placed directly into a ring binder, or protected with plastic sleeves first. We enjoy lapbooks but I always struggle with storing them.

The Knight Lap-Pak includes an MP3 Audio story to listen to as you work through the many mini books and activities that it includes. It covers pretty much all there is to know about Knights for younger kids, weaponry, chivalry, ceremonies etc Here after reading about their shields and what the symbols on them represent they each had to design their own shield.

There are several colouring pages throughout the pack and the entire MP3 Audio story can also be printed to use as a read aloud and/or to include in your lap pak if you wish.

My kids especially liked the interactive mini books, here on The Tournament one, where my son spent a massive amount of time getting the colours just right, you can move the jousting knight along the page and the castle draw bridge on the book below it really does go up and down.

After completing the Knight Lap Pak and reading our pile of books about Knights my eldest wrote a brief report covering all of the main points on Knights.

There are so many great medieval knight books out there, but I thought I would share just a few. To see inside and more details on these please see my post, Books About Knights. (coming soon)

Do you have any other great books or activities you have done when learning about knights?  I'd love to hear about them if you do.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

P.S I was NOT compensated in any way for this post. Simply sharing a product I purchased that we enjoyed using.

Book Adventures: The Glorious Flight

We recently spent some time learning about the History of Flight.

In particular the first man to fly across the English Channel, Louis Bleriot.

This is an interesting story, although it didn't have the kids on the edge of their seats. It's slow and methodical but we all learned a great deal about flight, perseverance and Louis Bleriot.

We completed several of the lapbook components found over at Homeschool Share. A huge thank you to all that contribute over there. It is a fabulous resource.

When Lego Lover saw what the younger crew were up to he was fast to jump in and ask for his own copy of the lapbooking materials. He has always had a keen interest in flight so I wasn't surprised when he asked to do this one.

Here's a closer look at some of the mini books.

We found and labeled all of the parts on an airplane.

We had some fabulous discussions about trying your hardest, 'getting back up on that horse' so to speak and perseverance with the pack of quotes that are included. We found many ways to relate these quotes back to ourselves so now when someone looks like giving up we jump in with a reminder about Louis Bleriot and his perseverance.

We found France and England on the globe, looking at the English Channel and coloured a small map to go along with that. It took Bleriot thirty six minutes to cross the channel back in the early 1900's.

The kids used google image search to find various images of "ways to travel'.

You simply cannot read this story without looking more closely at the History of Flight itself, this timeline is included in the lapbook materials.

I found this short clip on You Tube - The Animated History of Aviation. It is very well done. Albeit very short and you need to be watching very carefully to see all of the details.

This You Tube Clip is done by a boy for a school project, it's not too bad for covering this in just a few short minutes.

Our cute little popstick plane magnets were a hit and oh so simple!

One of the books we used along with The Glorious Flight was How People Learned To Fly put out by Lets Read & Find Out Science. This covers the history of flight from a scientific viewpoint but is aimed at and written for children. As always with this series it was a great addition to the theme.

Once again I displayed whatever items we have on hand to go along with the current topic/theme. The kids did a quick run around and found any planes we had, which wasn't many so they decided to put one together with bristle blocks.

Whilst not one of our most exciting Book Adventures we sure did learn a great deal.

Please visit my Pinterest Board for all of the links to the printable materials, crafts and other Glorious Flight activities.

This post is linked up over at:

FIAR: Caps For sale

We've been rowing the delightful story of Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina, if you haven't read this to your kids, you really must!

We made fingerprint monkey's in a tree, the kids loved this and were very keen to add the finishing touches of leaves and grass.

You can't possibly read this story and not spend some time trying to balance caps on your head, lots of giggling happening here!!

A rhyming sheet from Homeschool Creations printable pack to go along with this story.

 

We measured stacks of caps, in centimetres though, not inches.

I googled some images of various monkey's from the around the world and we placed them on a world map, discussing what some of their habitats are like as we did this.

We completed mini books from Homeschool share and learned lots about monkeys. Where they fit in to the Animal Kingdom, their characteristics and the things they like to eat.

We've just started doing some research on a monkey of choice. Once completed these notebooking pages will go into our Animal Kingdom Notebooks. I'll share more about those soon.

Little Surfer Dude, thoroughly enjoyed recording his first narration.

My Pinterest Board for all things related to Caps For Sale

Before Five In A Row Link Up at Delightful Learning

Printables at Homeschool Share

Printables at Homeschool Creations

The Story About Ping


Aussie Book Adventures

World Wide Wanderings: Japan Wrap Up

We wrapped up our Japan Unit by all coming together to complete the lapbooks with all of the little bits and pieces the kids had been working on.

Designing the covers for their lapbooks. The only requirement here was that the cover image at least had to relate to Japan in some way. They ended up with maps, some Mt Fuji scenes, sushi, flags and carp fish.

Most of the kids have never completed a lapbook before and it's been awhile for my kids too, so doing it all together was a good exercise for them.

The covers from my kids lapbooks

And the inside finished pieces. We may add a couple of photographs, especially of the crafts they did since they won't fit inside a lapbook.

Look how proud they all are of their finished work, grins from ear to ear!

For something special, we took the kids out to a sushi train, they loved it and it got them trying even more sushi varieties too!

My Japan Board on Pinterest
Mini Booklets from Homeschool Share

• Pangea

• If The World Were A Village

• Continents & Oceans

• Countries Visited By Continent

                 Asia
                       Japan

              South America

World Wide Wanderings: If The World Were A Village

Before diving in to our 'wandering around the world' I wanted to get everyone thinking about the world in which we live.

If The World Were A Village was a perfect introduction to the realisation that the world isn't really as big as we think it is.

From Amazon,

 There are currently more than six billion people on the planet! This enormous number can be difficult to grasp, especially for a child. But what if we imagine the whole world as a village of just 100 people? In a time when parents and educators are looking to help children gain a better understanding of the world's peoples and their ways of life, If the World Were a Village offers a unique and objective resource. By exploring the lives of the 100 villagers, children will discover that life in other nations is often very different from their own. The shrunk-down statistics -- some surprising, some shocking -- and David Smith's tips on building "world-mindedness" will encourage readers to embrace the bigger picture and help them to establish their own place in the global village.

B completed the mini booklets that can be found over at Homeschool Share, to add to his geography notebook. K sat in on the many readings we had of this book and the discussions that those brought about it. I think a great deal of this was beyond her, so definitely something we can revisit down the track.

B always prefers to complete his own covers for his lapbooks and notebooks.

The mini booklets show all of the statistical information conveyed throughout the book.

 

You can view a slideshow of the components of  the book at this link.

Visit the Miniature Earth Project here.

For any Australians this is a link to a Practical Ideas for Promoting Mathematics document, at the end they cover 'If Australia Were A Village' very briefly.

A thought provoking look at the world in which we live.