Japan Lapbook

Duncan and I have been studying Japan for probably six weeks now, as part of Sonlight Core 5 (F). Rather than doing the Eastern Hemisphere and World Book Encyclopedia combo that comes along with the Core, we are doing our own geography and cultural studies. For Japan, we created this awesome lapbook. I've included links to the various printables and websites we used.

Front cover. (How to Draw Pokemon website.)

First opening. (See end of post for list of resources for mini-books, etc.)

Bottom flap opened.

All the way open.

Detail of haiku mini-book on inside flap.

Left flap: animals and inventions.

Inside top flap. Pop-up bunraku theatre found at Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop. Mini-books are The Arts and time zones.

Inner extra flap. A Year in Japan in Manga available at Kids Web Japan.

Lower inner flap. Includes quick facts, recipes, and mini-books.

Top inner flap: natural disasters, currency, sports, and religion.

Bottom inner flap. Flipbook that includes samples of the three types of Japanese language. There are loads of different sites that have charts, like this Learn Japanese one.

Back of lapbook. One pouch contains various origami objects that we made following youtube videos listed on Activity Village.

The other pocket contains a brief review of the books we read about Japan: The Master Puppeteer, Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun, Call It Courage, Born in the Year of Courage, The Big Wave, and Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes.

Resources and Inspiration:
Lots of mini-books on Homeschool Share. Click on the Japan lapbook link for a PDF file with printable books.

Kids Web Japan is an absolute goldmine of information on all things Japanese.

Lots more mini-books and ideas on Lapbook Lessons, Japan.

YouTube is a great source for videos of all things Japan, including this simple Japanese tea ceremony, this footage of the tsunami, this video of a puppet theater, and this short clip on sumo wrestlers.

Introduction to Shadow Puppetry.

Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire on Netflix instant play.

The lapbooks sites above include probably a dozen or more mini-books that we didn't do, but we are ready to move into another country. Next up: South Korea, Mongolia, and China!