Our Planet Lapbook

I've been loving my foldables in math so much, I decided to try a lapbook in science this week.  Now, this was my first foray into the world of lapbooks, so it was pretty tame - but my students really liked the experience so I think I'll try to do one during each science and social studies unit.

Our first science unit is Space.  I decided to do a lapbook for the 8 Planets of our Solar System.  I found these fantastic Planet Information Sheets and printed and laminated three for each planet.  Always looking to integrate Language Arts, we studied the text features of informative text and determining importance with these cards.  Students could work through the sheet in any order, but my only rule was no more than 3 students in a group at any time.  This kept my groups focused and manageable.  I made a quick template for the students to use for each planet.

When students had completed one template for each of the 8 planets, they had to cut them out and tuck them into the pockets inside their lapbook.  Before they handed their completed projects in today, I had them complete a reflection summary of learning which they glued onto the back of their lapbooks.

All in all, although this was a very simple lapbook, it was great for a first project.  I can't wait to raise the bar and try more elaborate projects!!!

Happy Thursday!!!  Tomorrow is a PD day for us - analyzing last year's test results and creating our school improvement plan ... <sigh> ...