I am obsessed with creating lapbooks with my ELL students. There is just something about them. I don’t know if it’s the cutting and glueing or the end product. But, I love seeing my ELL newcomers work through creating them and then using them to help learn our vocabulary. I have created a couple different lapbooks. My favorite is the human body lapbook.
Why I Love The Human Body Lapbook (and all my lapbooks)
Helps with Communication
The human body lapbook helps ELL students learn and understand their bodies and if something hurts or is wrong, they can communicate this to their teacher or school nurse, which is so so so important for these students.
The students can also communicate and take part in school activities a little easier.
If their teacher is saying:“We are going to clap our hands.” without demonstrating the action,
the English language learners can understand the teacher a little easier.
This type of situation often happens in PE class, where the PE teacher is explaining an exercise or game. They will feel a little more comfortable taking part in the activities.
The other lapbooks in my bundle include feelings, verbs, and English words. These all have similar benefits to the human body lapbook. They give ELL students the ability to communicate effectively and feel more confident about their English. Plus, all students enjoy cutting, gluing and creating something.
Breaking Down The Vocabulary
The all of my vocabulary lapbooks help break down the vocabulary into different categories. Five senses, labeling the body parts,and a body part flipbook all allow students to learn and look at the vocabulary in different ways. It allows them to break down the vocabulary and see how to use the words in different contexts.
I include these types of activities and categories in my other lapbooks as well.
Tips for Putting Together Your Human Body Lapbook
Needed Supplies:
- Scissors
- Glue
- Pencil
- File Folder
You’ll need a file folder for each student.
- The Human Body Lapbook pieces or any other AMAZING LAPBOOKS
I suggest putting together the lapbook and allowing it to dry before you have students write their answers and work on each part. This will allow you to direct them easier when putting together the lapbook. Instead of having students finish their writing quicker than others and waiting. You can work on the creation of the lapbook all together and then the students can work at their own speed to fill in their human body lapbook.
Helpful Hints for Completing Lapbooks
- Print the lapbook pages one to one sided. (Color makes the lapbooks more realistic and engaging.)
- Fold the file folder for each student beforehand.
- Give each student a baggie with glue, scissors and any other tools they may need.
- Complete a lapbook along with the students to help show the steps.
Lapbooks can take different level students different amounts of time to complete. If students are working on their fine motor skills (K-2), they may need over one class to cut, glue, and put together their human body lapbook. It is ok to not finish a lapbook in one class period.
If students are old (3-5) extend the use of lapbooks by having students create sentences using the vocabulary words. A game I love playing with all grade levels after completing the human body lapbook is Simon Says. It gets students engaged and they need to use the knowledge they have about the human body while playing.
All of my lapbooks also come with a game which goes on the back of the lapbook.
It is a great extension activity and my students always ask to play it again at some point during the year. My students also like playing the game Find My Match using the vocabulary we learned in the lapbooks. I always keep my example handy each year to pull it back out. Sometimes I use it as a review or resource to help a stuck student on a specific writing piece or activity.
Lapbooks are so helpful in when teaching vocabulary and I hope you find ways to enjoy them too!
Grab any of my vocabulary lapbooks in my TPT store.
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