Josefina: The Lapbook

To start out my series on the "Josefina: A Catholic American Girl" unit study, I am going to present a small list of resources that can be used for creating a lapbook, as well as supplemental printables.  I am linking to orginial sources, if any of the links do not work, please let me know and I will try to update.

The lapbook that I plan to base mine on, is one created by my talented friend, Jessica at Shower of Roses. She used mini-books from the Homeschool Share site.  I intend to make the same lapbook, however I am going to include a fold down flap to fill in information about Our Lady of Guadalupe and other Catholic people and traditions that tie into the story--stay tuned for that information in my "faith" section of the series.  Homeschool Share has a whole collection of mini-books for all the American Girls and they are free to print. Cowgirl and I completed their Felicity lapbook a few years ago.

Gather Your Resources

Jessica has a list of resources that she used in her unit study.  Below I also have shared some websites I have found helpful.  Most of these books are available through public libraries, although some have been thinning out their American Girl collection. Another good source is ebay for used versions, Amazon also sells most of the books new and used.  We have purchased several as used ex-library copies and have been very happy with what we received.

• American Girl Publishing offers fun printables that are geared for bookstores to use during release parties for new books.  They are free to print by anyone and contain a great mix of activities.  **It appears that in the past couple of weeks this website has been redesigned and no longer includes the historical dolls.  I will keep trying to hunt down the original activities in the meantime.  Sorry.
• American Girl Curriculum is an online curriculum guide designed for teachers.  Much of this is geared to use in a classroom setting with groups of children but can be adpated for a homeschool setting.  It includes printable worksheets, lesson plans, and answer keys.  Free for all to print.
• Rancho de las Golondrinas is the "official" home of Josefina.  It is a great place to visit if you are ever in that area of the country.  If that is not possible, the article that is linked still has some useful information as well as additional links to check out.
• American Girl Playthings offers free PDF doll clothes patterns for all of the historical characters.  We do not have a full sized Josefina doll but are going to make some of the clothes on this site to dress up another doll for this unit. 
• The National Park Service has information about the Santa Fe trail as well as a game that can be printed.
• AmericanGirl.com has a page dedicated to Josefina with games, activities, e-cards, and more.  If you click on the parent/teacher resources you can find a unit study on Spanish culture and the settlement of the southwest.
• American Girl Wiki gives a summary of the stories as well as background information and links to discover more about the story characters.
• Lastly check out this website for history, culture, and travel information about New Mexico.