"R r" is for Rocket ( lift-up book ) craft project...

Fold a piece of cardstock in half to make a tall, slim book approx. 11 and a half inches tall and 4 and half inches wide.  Copy a free coloring picture of a rocket from the internet, color, and glue to the front of the book.  Give your book a title.

On the inside of the book / card stock sheet, color the right half black (outer space).  Add star stickers or dabs of glitter glue, and a partial picture of the moon (to the top of the page). My moon picture was cut from a magazine.  If you prefer, you could copy a picture of the moon (to color) from the internet.  

Next, color half of another piece of cardstock black.  Cut the black section away from the whole page. Cut about 1/5 of the length off of the top of the black section.  Put glue on the back of the lower 1/4 of this piece and attach it to the bottom of the black, colored side of your book.  Add a partial picture of the earth to the bottom.  My earth picture was cut from a magazine.  If you prefer, you could copy a picture of the earth (to color) from the internet.  

Fold this black section in half toward you.  Then fold the upper half (also in half) away from you.  Attach a small picture of a rocket to the top fold with the tip of the rocket and the exhaust from the rocket extending slightly past the upper and lower edges.  

Unfold the loose, black section and color in some exhaust fumes ascending upwards from the earth to the rocket.  Add more star stickers or dabs of glitter glue.  On the left-hand side of the page/book, add some facts about rockets, the moon, the first man to walk on the moon, etc.  Add a "countdown to blast-off" if you'd like.  This would be a good way to bring numbers/math/counting backwards into your lesson.  After everything has dried well, fold down the rocket section, then unfold it back up to demonstrate how it travels to the moon.

Curriculum covered by this project:  Science,  Math,  Art,  History / Social Studies.  You could even add a Geography lesson by finding on a map and/or globe the location of the blast-off.

A fun way to do school!

I got this idea from the Teacher Resource Book entitled How to Make Books with Children, Volume 2  by: Joy Evans & Jo Ellen Moore.

Numbers / File Folder Book

We use stickers (placed in the box) to show "how many" the number indicates.

Alphabet Book / Three-Ring Binder

Pictures to color can be found on the internet.  For example, enter into your search engine: anteater coloring picture.  Preschool writing paper can also be copied from internet sources.  Place each completed page in clear, three-ring binder pockets.  

"A a" is for "antlers" (craft project)...

 

 

Theme of the lesson:  "A a" is for "antlers" (Phonics - short "a" sound)

 

Animals having antlers:  deer, caribou (and their habitats - forests, the Arctic tundra); differences between deer and caribou; the difference between antlers and horns - and some animals with horns such as the musk ox and bulls (Science)

 

The Appalachian Mountains, Alaska, Northern Canada - find on a globe and discuss the climate (Geography)

 

My almost 4 year old grandson observed that antlers "look like a tree" without leaves, so we went out to our back yard and found some branches to use for our deer craft project.  For the background, we used the cardboard tray from a 24 pk. case of bottled water (recycling).

 

This project is now hanging on our classroom wall.

 



A great website for Lapbook / Unit Studies Ideas...

"Lapbooks" or "Unit Studies" are themed lessons that may extend over several days or weeks.  Each lapbook or unit is based upon a particular idea, story, poem, holiday, person, event, etc. The lessons within the theme can include all curriculum subject areas such as language arts, math, science , social studies, art, music, etc.

Lapbooks or Unit Studies are especially great with the younger children (pre-school through elementary school, as they grasp concepts better through the repetition of a theme over several days. 

For example, with my pre-school grandson over the past week and a half, we have been learning about our national holiday - St. Patrick's Day.  Our lessons encompassed Social Studies (holidays, celebrations, history of St. Patrick, geography/Ireland and its flag, myths/leprechauns and the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, superstitions/kissing the Blarney Stone, and religion/Christianity), Science (the plant clover/shamrocks), Math (the number 3 - a shamrock normally has 3 parts to its leaf), Colors ( green, and the colors of the rainbow), Art (the various projects we have done in relation to St. Patrick's Day), etc.

Check out the various ideas for lapbooks / unit studies here:
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/Lapbooks-at-HSS.php

The two links below especially caught my eye for possible use with my grandson during his next pre-school year, when he is 4 years old:
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/alphabet_notebook.php
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/my_body.php

Enjoy!