Dolphins, Porpoises and Whales HOAC Lapbook { Review }

In the Hands of a Child is one of the first lapbooking companies I ever heard of back in 2009 when we set out on our "lapbooking" journey so when The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew had an opportunity to review some of their titles I jumped at the chance. 

See my beautiful, lovely and passionate daughter that is 10, loves anything lapbook or notebooking related. She enjoys anything to do with this type of learning.

After speaking with her about the review we came down to loving several titles and where happy when we got Dolphin's Porpoises and Whales.

If you're not familiar with lapbooking there are always a few supplies you benefit from having and need:

Cardstock  

Glue(stick mainly) 

Double sided tape  

Folders Paper

Things I use with Lapbooks often:  

Stapler 

Hole Punch 

 Scrapbook Supplies(cheap dollar ones)  

Scissors  

Laminator (love)

Best deals I have found on supplies:

  Cardstock/Copy Paper - Walmart, if Staples is running a sale sometimes they beat them.  

Folders (we like color) - Staples, they have the colored ones and my children love the choice. 

  Glue - Depends on who is running a sale, normally dollar store beats anyone, but when its back to school time you can normally buy at Walmart for a quarter and once Staples had glue for .10cent!

   

Normally if you can find items at the Dollar Store you will come out pretty good, just remember to watch for sales because normal sales will beat the Dollar Store and you get better quality.

 

In the Hands of a Child's lapbook came as a download and so obviously that was pretty simple. Just download and print out. I then stapled all the Guided Reading together and separated the activities for Lexi to have. In this unit there are over 20 activities and learn about the anatomy of each animal, the habitat that they thrive in, their life cycle, diet and what hunts them.

This unit is geared for K-4th grade and with Lexi finishing up her 4th grade year I say that it was a wonderful guide for her and fit well. She had no issues with anything within the unit.

The unit was broken down into 7 days. All the planning was broken down for you so that you knew what to do and complete each day however we used the unit for 5 days and completed it within a week. Each day took us about 45 minutes. I read the reading out loud to her daily and we worked on the vocabulary and talked about what the words meant. Then we moved on to each activity for the day.

The one problem I had with this unit was that the activities didn't have any directions with them. Only because I have had experience with lapbooking and the company before did I know what to tell Lexi to do with each activity. It would be very helpful to have directions on what to do with each activity.

The Dolphins, Porpoises & Whales Unit was awesome. It was packed full of wonderful facts and details of each animal. I personally learned a few facts about these that I didn't know too! One of our favorite activities was actually the vocabulary daily. She really enjoyed learning what the words meant, some she already knew but the majority she didn't.

 

She has always loved animals. She has a huge heart for them. She loved the little note about Whale Watching, because she really wants to be able to go on a boat and do this one day. 

While on vacation last year we saw 4 Dolphins up close and personal at the beach we stay at and it was wonderful to get out the video of that and be able to add that back into our learning with this unit.

Is lapbooking worth the effort?

YES!!!!! 

My children have learned this way for several years now. I love that over the years they are proud to show off their work. I love that lapbooks and notebooking break the normal and still teach. Learning doesn't have to be by a textbook or worksheets. I am glad I can teach my children my way and that they enjoy different techniques.

You can enjoy this lapbook for only $5

You can also download a sample here.

Read More Crew Reviews Here. 

The Crew had the privilege to review several different titles so there are lots of information to find out about!