We had a great time with rocks and rockets for the letter R! I actually had another letter planned but we
went on a great hike with some cool rocks and after telling them a million
times to stop shoving rocks in their pockets and them catching me sliding rocks in
my pocket I decided we better collect away and do the Rockin’ letter R! We had fun melting
crayons on hot rocks, hammering rocks, making new rocks, and creating &
launching rockets!
For the rest of the Alphabet, go HERE!
Enjoy this
Rockin’ R for
(Seedlings ~ preschool age)...
What we did for the Rockin’ Letter R?...
Alphabet Wall:
Rocks on the R ~ After hammering bigger rocks into smaller rocks (see below) we glued the small rocks on our R.
Rocks on the R ~ After hammering bigger rocks into smaller rocks (see below) we glued the small rocks on our R.
Books:
*Read Rosie Rabbit’s Radish (Alpha Tales book) and The QR Book (Bob
Book Pre-Reader)
*Read some rock books ~ we got three other books but they were way above their level so we just looked through them. Rocks by Robin Nelson was just right and
had some cool pics as well!
*Read some rocket books ~ Rocket
Town by Bob Logan (the boys loved this one – cool illustrations!) and If You Decide to Go to the Moon by Faith
McNulty.
Art/Crafts:
*Rubber band painting ~ I saw this idea featured in Make andTakes and had to try it. The boys thought it was pretty cool. Just wrap some
rubber bands around the end of a pencil or chop stick with another rubber band
and cut the ends. Then paint away!
*Hot Rock Crayon Melt ~ we put the rocks on a cardboard piece
with tin foil and put those on a cookie sheet in the oven at 350 for 15
minutes. We used some of our peeled crayons and melted them on the rocks. All
they need to do is touch the crayons to the rocks and melt away! Don’t forget
to let them know that the rocks are very hot and only to touch the crayon to
the rocks – not fingers! See full instructions here.
*Make Rocks ~ we used our small rock pieces from Rock Hammering (see
below) to make bigger rocks but it didn’t turn out. We used the directions from
Education.com but might try glue instead of sugar water next time. Maybe they
just need to sit longer.
Activities:
*Rock collecting, washing and hammering ~ the boys were finally encouraged to
fill their pockets with rocks! Actually I love the different colors and shapes
in rocks and am constantly collecting them myself so I take the blame when
rocks go through the washing machine! Anyhow, we had fun collecting, washing and
hammering. For the washing I gave them a bowl of water, some paint brushes and
eye droppers and they got right to work checking out the changes when the rocks
were wet. For the hammering I tried to get them to put my shop goggles on but
they didn’t like them – thankfully Firefly (3 yr old) had a good idea with the
swim goggles and it gave me a good giggle. Then after some instructions they
began hammering. I think Roly Poly (4 yr old) could have done this forever! You
could wrap the rocks in a towel and let them hammer them that way if you are
nervous about small pieces flying.
*Rocket Launching ~ we made rockets and then tried all sorts of ways to launch
them. The favorite was by blowing them with a straw. Hornet (6 yr old) also
made the little boys a surprise rocket out of a cardboard box.
Letter Formation:
*R, r on a whiteboard
Music and Movement:
Snack:
*Rock rolls, raspberry jam and raisins ~ we tried making our rolls into rock
rolls by adding seeds, oats and millet to them to give them texture.
More ideas…
*Make Rice krispie treats
*Raisin floating experiment
Please BRAINSTORM your
ideas/suggestions in the COMMENTS below for the Rockin’ R!
Happy Teaching!
~Sara
Happy Teaching!
~Sara
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