Learning English: Lapbooking

Pei Pei and Hao Hao looked after by their grandparents when they were babies, grandparents spoke to them in Mandarin, so now both of them speak Mandarin more often then English.

Now Pei Pei prefers Chinese to English. When MaMi buys new books or borrows from the library, she prefers Chinese books to English books.

To help Pei Pei to develop interest in English, MaMi had done some "homework" to learn about the concept of "Lapbooking" - an educational method that involves learners making "mini-books" about what they are learning. It provides space for drawings, writings, timelines, pictures, graphs, or stories on any topic of current study, and is designed to fit on a child's lap.

Atually Pei Pei has been learning the alphabets and phonics in school, so what we did at home is more on revision and to learn some new vocabularies. 

We started with letters "A" and "B". 

MaMi: How to write capital "A"?

Pei Pei writes.

MaMi: Good! How to write small letter "A"?

Pei Pei writes.

MaMi: "A" for?

Pei Pei: Apple!!

MaMi: Good! (draws apple on a white piece of paper) Colour the apple.

Pei Pei colours the apple.

MaMi: What other word starts with "A"?

After Pei Pei colours a few pictures drawn by MaMi, MaMi cuts the pictures, and Pei Pei pastes them on a coloured paper. Then MaMi writes the words for Pei Pei to match them to the pictures.

To make the activity more interesting, other than drawing and colouring, we also did some origami (e.g. boat) and flip & peek (e.g. door)!

We complie all her work in a folder. She looks so proud with the book she "published"!