In the midst of a massive spring cleaning project, I rediscovered a small stash of lapbooks.
These are lovely lapbooks that Neighbor Girl and I created together when she was younger. Ahhh, back in the days when I apparently had a tremendous amount of time on my hands.
Five in a Row made a huge impact in our early homeschooling days. We enjoyed the books selected in the program and loved the activities associated with them. The Caldecott winner, The Glorious Flight by Alice and Martin Provensen became one of our favorites.
This lovely picture book shares the story of Louis Bleriot. His tremendous persistence in creating an airplane that will cross the English Channel, is told in an amusing way.
Rather than doing a formal book review, I will share a selection of pages from our lapbook from The Glorious Flight. It is difficult to believe that we made this five years ago. Time sure flies.
Note: For great book activities check out HomeschoolShare.

Title: The Glorious Flight
Across the Channel with Louise Bleriot
Written & Illustrated by: Alice and Martin Provensen
First Published in 1983 by Viking Penguin Inc.
Awards: The Caldecott Medal (1984)
Themes/Topics: Airplane History, Inventions, Geography (France, English Channel), Persistence
Opening: "It all began one morning."
The Glorious Flight Lapbook
The cover of our lapbook contains our alternative title ideas.- Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang Flight
- Good Flying, Bad Landings
- Making it Across the Channel
- All of Papa Bleriot's Planes
- The Bunny Rabbit Flight
Since this was Neighbor Girl's lapbook, I had her sign and date the inside cover.
Gotta love it.
A picture of a channel.
This book introduced Roman Numerals in the names of Papa Bleriot's planes.
We discussed different ways to travel. My favorite: "On a Dinosaur."
A fun way to introduce onomatopoeia: allow your child to come up with their own word-sounds.
She had so much fun finishing these sentences.
For descriptive writing, I cut out pictures for her to describe to me.
I highly recommend Five in a Row (FIAR) for an early year unit study curriculum. You may use as much or as little of the activities as you wish - which is right up my alley. I honestly, do not think we would have enjoyed most of the books that we studied using FIAR nearly as much as we did with all of the supporting activities listed in Five in a Row. Don't get me wrong, they are all fantastic books but when you read a book and do a week's worth of activities with that book - it becomes an experience rather than just a good book. Being five years on the other side of this, we both still remember the books well and I only wish that my stash of lapbooks was a much larger pile.
On another note, Stanley and Katrina are thrilled to be a part of JeanzBookReadNReview's Middle Grade Giveaway (over).
We NOW offer fee Skype Sessions to our readers!
This post is part of Kid Lit Blog Hop #15
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This post is also part of Susanna Leonard Hill's Perfect Picture Book Friday Hop

This post is also part of Susanna Leonard Hill's Perfect Picture Book Friday Hop

Disclosure: I purchased the Glorious Flight years ago at a used book sale and FIAR was purchased for use in our homeschool. I received no monetary or in-kind compensation for my honest review of either books.
Hi! I am a homeschooling mother to one precocious tween daughter. Most of my reading consists of preparatory reading for upcoming history, math, science, geography, literature, (you get the idea) lessons. However, sometimes I am lucky enough to fit in a book just for fun and will review these "fun" books for my dear friends, Stanley and Katrina von Cat the Master of Wisdom and Knowledge. You may call me Neighbor Girl's Mom or Cool Mom.
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What a fabulous idea, and with a classic fav of mine. Please try to include more of the elements Susanna asks for these posts - it really is helpful to know when a book was made, for instance.
ReplyDeleteHi, Julie! Thanks so much for stopping by. I've poured over the website and I don't see a specific list of questions/information needed to participate in PPBF - maybe that link is broken(?) I'll be happy to include the publishing date but I did link to information about the book, so it is all available there as well. Adding publishing date now for you. :) Best Regards and have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteThis is a superb book on a topic I love, and your activities are fabulous.
ReplyDeletei think basics for PPBF are:
author/illustrator/title/Publisher and date of publication, age range, themes, opening line(s), synopsis, why you like the book and a list of resources and/or activities. You seem to have added them now, which is cool. Lovely to have you join us on Fridays!
Thanks, Joanna. After studying a handful of posts, I think I figured it out. :) Thank you for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteWe love FIAR, too! Love your activities using magazine clippings! We may have to do this book again-- we rowed it almost 2 years ago now!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for stopping by, Kristina. Isn't FIAR great? I really wish I had done more of the books. Maybe we'll do some this summer. As an adult, I enjoyed them all. Have a happy weekend!
DeleteHey Cool Mom,
ReplyDeleteYou are going to have to educate me. I have never heard of a lapbook. What is a lapbook, because I don't think I'm really understanding.
Sorry for being so naive.
Hi, Lisa! Thanks for your comment. No need to apologize. Once upon a time, I didn't know what they were either. They can be as much or as little as you would like them to be and they are a hands-on way to teach your kids about anything. They usually have mini-book within them that you've made with your kids and then they incorporate into one larger book that is set around a theme or lesson. I found this site that has a lovely explanation and great examples.
ReplyDeletehttp://thehappyhousewife.com/homeschool/what-is-a-lapbook/
They are a LOT of fun! We looked through the rest of ours last night.
I think the comment bogie ate my comment. It was long and insightful, lol. So I will leave you with a short version. You are such a an incredible inspiration. I am constantly in awe of home schooling. Thanks so much for linking it in to the kidlitbloghop
ReplyDeleteOh no. What is with that comment bogie? Ack. I'll have to put Stanley on guard. Thanks for the sweet comment! Trust me, most days my house and my organization are less than inspiring but one day at a time. :) I think you and Gigi would LOVE doing one of these in a bit. Thanks for visiting, my friend.
ReplyDeleteI adore all the ways you used this book to teach! I am inspired :) Thank you so much for linking in once again to the KLBH!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Jaymie for your kind comments; for stopping by and for hosting the KLBH!
DeleteMy hubby is a pilot so my kids would love this. I'm glad someone else asked what a lapbook was? *bows head in shame* lol
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking into the Kid Lit Blog Hop once again! :)
Wow! Do you get to fly anywhere? :)
DeleteHee hee. Lapbooks are great fun. Thanks for hosting, Renee.
What a party last week on Friday Flash Blog! Thanks for joining us. I hope you’ve visited some of the other community members and you're having a splendid week.
ReplyDeleteJennifer
thejennyevolution.com
Thanks so much for hosting the Friday Flash Blog, Jennifer. I am really enjoying the blogs linked in there. Thanks for saying, "Hi!"
DeleteI love lapbooks! You did such a great job, I have never done one where we did alternate titles! Thanks for taking the time to share on the Homeschool Linky Party! I look forward to seeing you again next week!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Keisha. It seems so long ago that we made this. We had so much fun with the FIAR series. I believe I enjoyed them as much as Darling Daughter did!
ReplyDelete