The 20th Century in America-Lap-Pak Review

Home School in the Woods has provided me with the downloadable 20th Century in America-Lap-Pak suggested for grades 3-8.  Emma (grade 4) and I have spent the last six weeks or so working on this study.  Though not part of this review, we have also used History through the Ages Timeline Figures, Time Travelers: The Early 19th Century and most recently I purchased Composers. I have been very impressed with all of the above.

The Lap-Pak consists of 22 projects to be completed and made into a lapbook.  It covers everything from wars/conflicts, food, fashion, sports, presidents, disasters and so much more.  These are the most professionally done lapbooks I have ever used.  Every project is of excellent quality.

20th Century in America-Lap-Pak is available on CD or as a download.  I decided to print out the entire study before we started.  It was a lot of printing, but I like to have everything at my fingertips ready to go at a moment's notice.  To complete this project you will need white printer paper, colored paper and cardstock.  There are some other items you will need as well such as scissors (lots of cutting), an exacto knife, colored pencils, a variety of adhesives and a few other supplies.

 Everything is detailed for you in the introduction so you will know what you need including detailed directions for how to put each project together along with diagrams and directions for assembling the lap-pack as well.  Except for one of the projects, I didn't have to reprint anything....even the two sided projects which usually seem so confusing to me.

This is the booklet. I am amazed that I was able to easily print
 this booklet on both sides of the paper without an issue.  

I decided that rather than do each project in order as they are listed in the booklet we would use the timeline and work through the century chronologically.  Though we are enjoying studying this way, I think it might have been a better idea to just work our way through the book since we started this so late in the school year (chronologically would have worked better if we were spending a year or an entire semester on this.)  However, this is actually one of the things I love about this lap-pack.  You can make it what YOU want it and have it be as in depth or as "light" as you and/or your children want it to be.

I love this timeline book. You can pull the end out from the flap and
pull out the entire timeline as one long  piece.  It then folds back up easily.
The white squares can be colored by your student (or not) and added to the timeline.
The cover of the booklet is shown above the timeline.

A suggested resource list (mostly books) is also included.  We have taken some of the suggested books out of the library and also just took books out that we found on the topics I chose from the timeline.

As I mentioned there are 22 projects to complete.  They cover World Wars and other conflicts, political events, movements that made a mark in history, missionaries, disasters, architecture, music, art, authors and literature  food, fashion and much more.

What we have done is worked on projects as we have read the printed booklet as well as LOTS of books we have taken out of the library from The Wizard of Oz to books about Admiral Peary (I'd never heard of him before), George Washington Carver, The Wright Brothers, The Titanic, The Lusitania....and lots more.

I thought I'd include some pictures of some of the projects. Some of the projects the students write and draw on and others are just put together.  I will show samples of both types.

World Wars:

This is the first project covering WWI, WWII and the Cold War.
Each flap lifts up for the student to write something about each war.

Disasters:

This project has tabs the open on either side to reveal information about each disaster.

People of Interest:

This is a fun project.  Each card is lined on one side for the student to write on and the other side
has a space for a drawing.  The cards fit into a TV holder.  

Transportation:

This project tells about transportation by land, sea and sky.
You can pull the strip out  to read about each.
Extra strips are included for students to make their own.

Slang Terminology:

Cards with slang from each decade (the decade and meaning of each phrase is on the opposite side).
You also have the option of printing them on separate cards to make a matching game.

Medical Advancements:

The plunger on this "syringe" moves up and down.
As it moves, you can read about different medical advances in the window.
Both sides of the plunger have advances printed on them.

Here are a few more of the projects.  I LOVE the record player.  You can spin the record
and little windows reveal the different types of music from the decades.  The
project standing in the back is Fashion Through the Decades.  I love this one.  It even has acetate windows!
There is a menu, space exploration, authors and literature, sports figures and missionaries

We are not even close to being finished with this study, but I can't wait to see it all put together.  You can view completed samples on the webpage.  I highly recommend this study for anyone who enjoys learning history and doing projects.  I happen to love cutting, pasting, coloring etc so this has been a lot of fun.  We're really enjoying learning and the completed lap-pack will serve as a wonderful reminder of everything that we have learned.  You would probably not like this lap-pack if you don't enjoy projects and/or like lesson plans all laid out for you.


You can purchase The 20th Century in America-Lap-Pak for $21.95 (downloadable) or $22.95(CD).

See what others are saying about Homeschool in the Woods  on The Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.




Three different titles are being reviewed; The 20th Century in America-Lap-Pak, The Composer Activity Pak and The Great Empires Activity Pak.

Download N Go

This year some of the children will be doing Download N Go unit studies. We ended last year with the Expedition Mexico unit and we all had a lot of fun.

We learned so many things about Mexico, did several projects and made nice lapbooks. The Download N Go units are designed for 1 week of study but we stretched it out over a 3 week period (which was probably too long but was OK for the first one).

One of our projects was making paper mache maracas. Katie (12 at the time) and I did most of the paper mache but all of the kids had fun painting them. It took quite a while to make them because we did several layers so that the maracas would harden. If I had it to do over again I would do the final layer in white paper so the newsprint wouldn't show through on the final product. We made them with small water balloons.

We also made Mexican sombreros out of newspaper. I'm not sure I'd try that again. They didn't come out that great and didn't last at all. I'd probably do it again with kids that were old enough to do it themselves.

The other big project we made was a paper mache volcano. That was a lot of fun. Sometime we are going to make one with Mentos and diet soda. For this one we used baking soda, food coloring and vinegar.

We also made homemade tortillas.  The kids loved eating them as much as making them.

And a few pictures of the finished lapbooks

I really wanted everything all together in the lapbook so we cut up the worksheets.

I added this butterfly life cycle booklet.

This accordian book was something I did using worksheets that I shrunk down to 1/4 of the original size.  

See my review of Roller Coasters and enter to win it free!