Michelangelo Lapbook

We have finally finished our Michelangelo lapbook. We decided to use construction paper and make it into more of a book rather than using a file folder. Here it is...

In the beginning of the unit, I had the kids get online and find one thing about Michelangelo (below).  This was before we had done anything with the unit.  It was a great way to introduce them to our new topic.  Their job was to find one work of Michelangelo, draw it, and write a brief description about it.  

Various Information flap books that we completed throughout the unit

The page below is also showing the closed and open version of the lapbook pages.

Next is a vocabulary page using the book Michelangelo's Surprise.  The Duomo and the vocabulary are both flap books.

Michelangelo fact sheet

The bottom portion of the page is a "switch" book.  The inside of the book is made of several half sheets of typing paper.  The pages are stapled together and cut into 4 sections.  The object is to draw a portion of an animal, monster, etc. in each of the 4 sections (example...the head section one, upper body section two, middle body section three, and lower body section four).  You have to pre-cut the pages so that the correct section of the picture is in the correct section of the book.

The bottom portion of the picture is a continuous line drawing.  The student puts his/her pencil on the paper and begin drawing a person.  They can not take the pencil off the page until their picture is completely finished.

Shape Art 

We also used several art books throughout the summer. One book that the kids particularly enjoyed was Discover Great Paintings A Child's Book of Art by Lucy Micklethwait.  Throughout the book, the author takes various art pieces and uses an investigative method to study the work.  On one page (the left side), the author gives a short paragraph sparking interest in the upcoming piece, then she poses various questions about the work and uses "cut-and-paste" portions of the piece to direct the viewers thinking and turn on their imagination.  The opposite page (the right side) then shows the complete art piece and gives the viewer the answers to the previously posed questions as well as other facts about the picture.  On the bottom of this page, there is a small information section about the artist and the piece.  This book/picture exploration was one of my kids favorite activities. 

The final day of our unit was met with putting the finishing touches on our Michelangelo book and watching a movie about the Renaissance from the library entitled The Renaissance for Students: Renaissance Art, Music & Literature.  It is one of a 5 part series  about the Renaissance put out by Schlessinger Media and can be found at libraryvideo.com.  

Just an added note...the templates and lapbook instruction ideas can be found at homeschoolshare.org following this link: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/michelangelos_surprise.php.