Teaching Resource Center - the teacher store, offering affordable teacher supplies and free teachers' resources.
By Carol Brooke | 7 Comments
You may have heard different names for the student lapboard, including lap desk or student dry erase board. The most popular student lap board is the 9″ x 12″ individual student dry erase board.
You can choose the best option for your classroom from the many styles and sizes. The Primary-grade Lapboard has primary lines on one side and is unlined on the other! Turn it on its side for place value columns.
Lapboards and mark boards are ideal for spelling practice, studying the alphabet, handwriting, math and so much more! These lapboards are a great way to get the students fully involved in the lesson.
Student lapboards and mark boards have endless uses in the classroom!
Top 10 Reasons to Use Student Lapboards and Mark Boards:
One benefit is that is that they are eco-friendly. Using a mark board, rather than paper products, cuts down on paper waste. Using these boards can help save trees and decrease paper products to be recycled or in landfills.
Our magnetic lapboards can also be used as a dry erase board. The old school-style white boards are made of porcelain, but now you can also choose our magnetic boards, which are actually are made with thin sheets of steel, laminated with paper. This means that not all dry erase pens will work with them and some leave smudged behind. That’s why we recommend our dry erase pens, which we’ve tested with our magnetic mark boards.
Using the dry erase boards, the students can write each spelling word using the dry erase marker. Each student says the word, spells the word, and repeats the word. After confirming the correct spelling, students erase the words using the felt dry erasers.
Students can also spell words, using the magnetic letters, on the magnetic white boards.
The magnetic white board is perfect to use for alphabet study and handwriting practice. Students can place the magnetic letters on the white board and practice handwriting of each letter using the dry erase markers and felt dry erasers. The Primary-grade Lapboard has primary lines on one side and is unlined on the other.
Using the portable pocket chart with magic board or dry erase board, markers, and erasers, students can work with the teacher in small groups while learning phonics activities. Magnetic letters can be used to teach long vowel, short vowel or blends.
Make an overhead transparency of a word sort from the book, All Sorts of Sorts. Students can sort the words on their lapboards to cut down on the use of paper.
Using the dry erase lap board to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication or division problems can cut down on the use of scratch paper. Students can either write the problems using the dry erase markers or use the magnetic numbers. The Primary-grade Lapboard has primary lines on one side and is unlined on the other! Turn it on its side for place value columns.
The dry erase board can easily be used to teach fractions. Students can draw pie charts as you read aloud word problems. The students can use the dry erase markers and dry marker erasers to show the answers to the problems.
Teacher says: “Christine has 1 apple. Draw one apple.”
(Students draw one apple).
Teacher says: “Christine ate ¼ of the apple. Cut the apple into fourths and erase ¼. How much of the apple is left?”
(Students show a drawing of 3/4 of the apple.)
Students draw the fraction problem and hold it up for the teacher to see. They can also work in small groups to give each other support while solving the fraction word problems.
Create a seating chart for your class. It’s easy to move each student’s location, depending upon the student’s needs and instructional purposes.
These boards can be used on the front door as a message center (inside or outside of the classroom door). The teacher can write special notes on the front door such as, “Do Not Disturb, Testing in Progress.” Because they are magnetic, it’s convenient to place the classroom newsletter or other important notes on the board.
Winning Idea – Win a Set of Lapboards for Your Classroom
How do you like to use the lapboards? We’re looking for really creative ideas. If we select your idea, we’ll send you a complimentary set of our 6″ x 9″ lapboards.
To enter the contest:
Rosemarie Reinhard
- Feb 25th, 09
I use the whiteboards in all my classes. I saved a bundle by making my own. I purchased a sheet of white board used for showers from a local hardware chain. I asked a wonderful lumber manager to cut it down into sheets. I was able to get 20 sheets for only $13. All you need to do is ask and you can find some kind people in the world. Good luck!
kathy muller
- Apr 30th, 09
Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – taking your feeds also, Thanks.
Nawell
- May 8th, 09
I use dry erase boards for spelling drills! great way to get all kids participating as well as a quick to assess who may need more help!!
Hogan
- Jul 23rd, 09
I use the larger 12″ x 18″ lapboards to play the “story game” with my second grade students. I have one of the kids write a sentence and then pass it to the next student, who then writes the next sentence and so on, until they have created a short story. The kids have fun and we can do the activity quickly this way with the lapboards. And the stories are always a good laugh!
Kari
- Jul 26th, 09
I use “smartboards” in my first grade class when teaching vocabulary. I give the students a vocabulary word and have them draw a picture of what they think the word means. Then we hold up our “smartboards” to share our pictures. They love it and it gives me an idea of who understands or does not understand the vocabulary word. It’s fun for the kids and easy for me!
jay-ar
- Jul 22nd, 10
We use 1/4 illustration board as our lapboards in Math. The group raise their answer to the question I gave….we also use it to monitor individual students progress with the subject matter.
DCP
- Aug 26th, 10
I use lap boards with my high school students. Even the older kids enjoy writing on them. I use them to play review games, We do group work with them. I’ll ask them a question and they look up the answer and write it down. For my marketing class, I assign groups of students a website to visit or a company and then ask them to answer questions about that company’s marketing. Then we discuss it as a class. This is a very quick and easy way to break up routine and keep them engaged. Mostly, I use them for informal assessments. For example,I teach Web Design. For that class I will ask the students to write the HTML code for whatever it is that we are doing. When they are finished, they hold their board up. I scan the room to see if I need to re-teach or review. I do similar things in all of my classes.