Bee-themed lapbook

Alicia has been watching the Bee Movie and she’s naturally hyped up about bees so I decided perhaps we could put together a bee-themed lapbook. πŸ™‚
Since she’s only 2 years old, I decided that it should be kept pretty simple, with activities she would love to participate in but yet with some parts which could still be useful for teaching when she is a bit older and more mature.
As she’s fond of colouring, colouring pages are a must. πŸ˜› I extracted the colouring pages from the DVD, printed them and let her doodle away. She’s quite into mono-tone colouring recently so sometimes a piece of drawing could really just consist of one colour. Sometimes she looks at her own colouring and exclaims that the picture is ‘gross!’ Sigh. I wonder what she’s up to….
Anyway, here’s the cover of the lapbook:
I always like to use her work to decorate the coverpage. I know this isn’t the nicest piece of artwork you’ve seen in your life, but hey, she’s 2 and she’s my kid, so it gets on the cover πŸ˜›
She takes great pride in her work!:

A quick glance of the interior:
Items on the left of the lapbook:
I put together a small hexagonal minibook filled with simple facts about bees.Β 
A simple life cycle sheet is included instead of a life cycle activity as I think she may be too young for that.Β 
A picture of the bee anatomy is included, not because I want her to learn all the parts of the bee but I think it’s important that she gets to see the actual bee rather than the cartoon version which she’s so exposed to. πŸ™‚ This could be useful when she grows older. Of course, she can identify simple things like wings and legs and she can tell that the bee’s black and yellow. She’s 2. πŸ™‚
On the right of the lapbook:
Colouring pages at the top layer:
Beneath the colouring pages, there are two other activities.
Here’s the first:

Simple matching of picture to word with a little bit of help from the shape. I chose not to print out the pictures with the words in grayscale because I think that would be too obvious and I think she can handle the challenge of simply matching the picture to the word with that little bit of hint given.
Here she is, fiddling with this activity, and completing the puzzle was peanuts to her… Didn’t even need to pause to think: just grab the piece and stick it on! I was quite impressed πŸ˜›
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The last activity: number-word matching game (featuring numbers 1-12) (picture can’t be disclosed, unfortunately) –

She loves this little activity and we’re currently still working on her word-number recognition. πŸ™‚

And that’s it! A simple lapbook for a 2-year-old! πŸ™‚

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More unethical behaviour…

Today I received an sms from my friend, saying that someone just PM-ed her at SMH about cheap, educational learning aids.

After I shared the link with one of my friends who is very resourceful about online preschool learning materials, she told me that the person was selling free printables!

I’m not sure if that person knows that it’s unethical to sell free printables. But I’m sure there are many who will find the learning aids cute and unknowingly purchase free printables, thinking they stem from that person’s creativity juices.

This is just so saddening and it sickens me just thinking how people could actually stoop to selling free printables just to hop onto the bandwagon of selling learning aids, now that it seems that there is such a market for the products (though a very small one).

Personally I could not identify any of the learning aids the person is selling because I hardly surf around for them. Most of the time I create my own learning aids from scratch, not because I don’t like what’s easily available but because I love the challenge of making something of my own. I like to customise my learning aids for my daughter and I know her best, and what captures her attention. πŸ™‚

Well, after my BP at SMH, I really am disappointed with unscrupulous people and it has opened my eyes to the harsh reality of the business world. I’m definitely not suited for such a world, it seems.

If people can stoop to selling free printables, what’s there to stop them from plagiarising other people’s learning aids and passing them off for their own?

I really should think twice about posting my learning aids online then… πŸ™


As for that person… I shan’t stop her from doing what she thinks is right. I can only hope that she will come to realise her mistakes soon.

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