How to Fold a Lapbook

Some links in this post may be affiliate links. This means that if you click on them, I may make a tiny commission, at no extra cost to you. For more information, please visit our Privacy Policy.

How to fold a lapbookLapbooking is a great way for your students to showcase the things they are learning in a book they can share with friends and family.

Many kids also enjoy reviewing their lapbooks on their own.

(I certainly won’t tell them that is helping them learn and remember the information.)

Creating the lapbook is really very easy.

You just need to start with a file folder.  It can be a plain manilla file folder, a colored one or patterned ones.  Whatever suits your child and the project.

Here’s how to fold the lapbook:

Open up the file folder.

File Folder

Fold each side in to meet in the middle. You will glue each of the activities into this to make a lapbook.

Single File Folder Lapbook

Adding Extensions to the Lapbook:

If you need additional room, you can add an extension. Use a sheet of card stock, or cut a file folder in half. Use wide packing tape to tape it to the top of your lapbook. Fold it down to close the book.

Lapbook with Extra Flap

If you need an even bigger lapbook, you can put multiple file folders together to create a book.

After you determine how many folders you will need to hold all of your information, measure down one inch on each side of the folded edge.

On one folder, you will cut along the crease to the one inch mark as indicated by the red lines in the picture below.

Single File Folder with Outside Cuts Shown

On the rest of the folders, you will cut where the red line indicates below, starting and ending at the one inch marks, on the folded folders.

Single Folded Inside Cut Shown

Stack together all of these last folders.

With the first folder open (the one shown in purple), roll it from the bottom to the top.

Insert it into the slits in the middle of the other folders.

When the rolled folder is halfway through, unroll it and line up the pages, sliding the slits over the creases in the stack of folders.

Multiple Page Lapbooks

Be sure to pin this for later!

How to Fold Lapbook