Rubber Band Rocket Launcher

 

• Rubber Band Rocket Launcher … we’ll be adding these spring-loaded rockets from Family Fun to our Rocket Day!
1. Need 2 plastic cups, 2 rubber bands and tape.
2. Make four evenly spaced, half-inch snips in the rim of one cup.
3. Cut two rubber bands, knot them, and place them in the slits so that they are taut.
4. Tape inside each slit to keep them from splitting.
5. Draw a rocket, cut it out and tape it to the cup.
6. To launch, press the rocket cup down over the other cup.
7. Quickly let go and watch the cup blast off!

Rainy Days Experiment

We live in a very rainy part of the country. But just in case there is no rain in the forecast, you can still study rain during R week!

• Rainy Day Coloring Page … sometimes my kids just like to sit and color, especially if I will sit and color with them.
  1. Click the image above to print.
  2. While you color, play some fun music or listen to rain…
• Listen to Rain … RainyMood.com plays the sound of rain, that’s it Click here to listen.

  

• Rainy Day Songs!
  1. Click the links above for music and words.
  2. Don’t forget to do the actions!

 

• Making Rain Experiment … easy to do and a great way to show why it rains!  
  1. Boil some water in a pot until steam forms above it. We talked about how there is water on the earth and it is evaporated into the sky.
  2. Fill a tin pie pan with ice cubes. The kids can help with this! Let them feel how cold it is. This was our “cloud”.
  3. Hold the “cloud” above the pot in the warm steam. My hand got a little warm but I just held it out to the side so it didn’t get very hot.
  4. Let the children observe that when the warm steam comes in contact with the cool air from the pie pan, drops of water form and fall back into the pot like rain!
  5. It was pretty neat to see the drops start small, then get bigger and bigger and finally drop down just like rain!

 

• Read “Who is Tapping at my Window?” by A. G. Deming … you might check your library to see if they have a copy. Mine did not. It looks like you can get it from Amazon.com.
  1. A girl asks all of the farm animals who is tapping at her window and then finds out that it is the rain!
  2. Use rhythm sticks to tap out the rhythm of the text.
  3. To make rhythm sticks, cut a wooden dowel into two 12” sticks or use two empty paper towel tubes or even two pencils!
  4. Hold one end and tap the other end on the floor or hit together.

Rabbits

• Read “Rabbits and Raindrops” by Jim Arnosky. Point out that Jim drew the raindrops perfectly round because that is how raindrops are shaped when they fall. The book has beautiful pictures!! Amazon has it here.

   

• Rabbits & Raindrops Art
  1. Print out a rabbit clipart. I included a few to choose from above. Just click on the image.
  2. Cut out the rabbit and glue it onto a blue paper.
  3. Have the kids stick several white hole reinforcements above the rabbit to resemble the raindrops in the story (I found these at the dollar store). Or you can order them here.
  4. Use a white crayon to draw lines leading down to each raindrop.
  5. Cut out and glue small pieces of pink felt to line the rabbit’s ears.
  6. Add a soft cotton ball to the rabbit’s tail with glue.
  7. Glue pieces of green tissue paper to the top of the paper to make the rabbit's leafy shelter.
• Rabbit rhyme:

Here is a rabbit with ears so funny! (hold up 2 fingers, slightly bent)

And this is her hole in the ground (point to floor)

When a noise she hears (Cup hand around ear)

She perks up her ears (Bend 2 fingers as before, then straighten them)

And hops in her hole with a bound! (Pretend to jump in the hole)

• Rabbit Touch and Feel Book
  1. Print out the page above, cut in quarters and stack.
  2. Make a simple cover with a half sheet of colored paper folded in half. Staple along the edge.
  3. Label your book "All About Rabbits, by __________
  4. On page 1 ... Cut 2 pieces of pink felt to resemble long ears. Glue on.
  5. On page 2 … Cut 2 rectangles from a white plastic lid. Glue on.
  6. On page 3 … Glue on crumbled green tissue paper or an artificial leaf.
  7. On page 4 … Stretch out a soft cotton ball and glue on.
  8. Have your preschooler feel and read through his new book!

NOTE: The Mailbox, 2006-2007 Yearbook, Preschool, pgs 301 and 302 has a great rabbit booklet ready to copy!

Snack Idea: a spoonful of white chocolate pudding topped with a dollop of whipped cream looks just like a fluffy rabbit tail.

Stomp Rockets

 

I just added a new activity to our R is for Rockets unit!

Stomp Rockets.

Have you heard of them?!

My kids played with them at the school’s field day last spring and had a blast. So I ordered one from Amazon for under $15. (They’re on sale for $13 right now!)

What I love:

1. Easy to set up … took us less than five minutes.
2. Comes with 4 foam rockets. They’re like nerf foam so very durable.
3. The kids could do it all by themselves. Load. Jump. Chase!
   • NOTE: My 2-year-old couldn’t jump hard enough to launch the rocket. My 3 and 6-year-olds had no problem.
4. Gets them moving and kept their interest for almost an hour! Lots and lots of running to chase those rockets
5. You can change the angle to shoot any direction you want. Just watch out for the big trees nearby. We lost one rocket in the top of a tree

See the rest of the R is for Rockets ideas here.

Rubber Band Board

I got this idea from a friend.

1. Get a large piece of pegboard from a hardware store (mine was from Home Depot. I actually got a scrap piece they were going to throw away, so it was $0.50 otherwise, maybe $6-$8).
2. Then get a box (or 2) of nuts and bolts.
3. Screw the nuts and bolts in every other hole. It takes a little while but the kids were able to help and now they know the difference between nuts and bolts
4. I got a bag of rubber bands from the dollar store (tons of rubber bands!) and we made all sorts of shapes, a maze, a racetrack, and anything else they could think of. Lots of fun.

Junk (recycle)

• Read a simple book about recycling. Check your library for great ideas!

• Make a Recycling Center at home!
  1. Find 3-4 empty boxes.
  2. Let the kids help write or trace letters to spell cans, paper & plastic.
  3. Glue a picture of each item to the front of the box (or use the pictures below, just click on them for the link).
  4. All week, save items that the kids can sort into the correct recycle boxes.
  5. Make sure the kids help you set the boxes out for the recycle man, or take them to the recycle center. Matt had a lot of fun with this & caught me trying to throw away things that he could recycle!

   

• Take a trip to the recycle center and watch what they do.
• Save pop cans & take them to the store for a refund
• Bring a garbage bag to a favorite park and pick up any litter.
• Make a Backyard Composter … Click the link for instructions! Instead of throwing away your food scraps, teach the kids how to recycle them into rich soil! I haven’t actually tried this, but it sounds like fun and would make great compost soil for our garden in the summer.

snack idea: yogurt (wash and recycle the cup!)

Rainbow

• Rainbows on the Wall
  1. Explain that rainbows are seen outside when sunlight shines through raindrops.
  2. Gather a pan of water, sunlight and a mirror.
  3. Let the kids play with these & try to make a rainbow.
  4. After they try, help them partially submerge the mirror, then turn it to face the sunlight. A rainbow will appear on the wall!

• Prism Rainbows
  1. Give the kids prisms and let them hold them up to the sunlight and make rainbows all over the wall. My kids have loved this.

• Rainbow Coloring Page
  1. Print the page above from Twisty Noodle.
  2. Color in a simple rainbow pattern to match the colors they see in the rainbow on the wall.

• Fruit Loops Rainbow
  1. Color a simple rainbow on white paper.
  2. Give the kids a bowl of Fruit Loops and let them glue the cereal by matching the colors to the rainbow lines.
  3. I usually help put dots of glue on the rainbow lines and they put the Fruit loops on the glue. I drew the rainbow for my 1-year-old but my 3-years-old liked doing it himself.

 

• Tasty Rainbow Necklace
  1. String the rest of your colorful Fruit Loops on a long piece of plastic lacing to make a tasty necklace snack.

Rainbow Jell-O Treat!

I love fun, cool treats in the summer time. This one takes a little time, but it tastes so good and looks great … especially with a big dollop of whipped cream on top! My kids love to help pour, mix and measure while we make this.

Rainbow Jell-O Treat

• 1 3oz. box of Jell-O (for each flavor) … strawberry, orange, lemon, lime, blueberry & grape
• 2 cups vanilla yogurt

1. Dissolve grape Jell-O (or any flavor first) in 1 cup boiling water (microwave for 2-3 minutes). Mix well.
2. Divide equally in 2 small bowls.
3. In one bowl, add 1/3 cup yogurt. Mix well with a wire whisk.
4. Pour into a clear, glass 9x13 dish & chill.
5. Add 3 Tbls. water to the other bowl, stir, and let sit outside of the fridge while the other layer gets firm.
6. When firm, add the clear layer & chill.
7. Repeat with all other flavors.

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I’m trying to decide how to do this for a 4th of July dessert …

I would do a few layers of red and white and a layer of blueberry on top. But how would you do the white layers. Does Jell-O come in a plain flavor?! Or maybe I’ll just do strawberry and blueberry layers with a big scoop of whipped cream on top for the white. Hmmmm. I’ll have to go check out the Jell-O aisle next time I’m at the store. Let me know if you have any ideas!

Rockets

Of course, with boys, we had to do Rockets during R week.

• Balloon Rocket Experiment
  1. We did a little rocket experiment outside. You can click on the link for instructions but basically you put vinegar (I only had apple cider vinegar that's why the funny color) in the bottom of a pop bottle.
  2. Then fill a deflated balloon with baking soda.
  3. Attach the balloon to the top of the bottle, then dump in the baking soda.
  4. The bubbles start to fill the balloon and inflate it. I wish it would have blown up the balloon a little more, but it was still fun to watch.
• Then for a fun treat, we made Rolo Rockets.
  1. I cut a circle with a slit and rolled it up for the tip (hot glue works great to attach it)
  2. Then cut out three fins and glue them to the bottom. Simple, easy, cute ... and tasty.

• Rocket Puzzles
  1. You could easily make these by hand. I copied them as reproducibles from A to Z Early Childhood Curriculum. (see the Resource tab at the top of my blog).

   

• Stomp Rockets … so much fun to get out and get moving! My kids played with these at the school’s field day. I decided to order one here ($15 on Amazon). We took it to the park, put it together in two minutes and the kids loved it. They jump on the air bubble (does it have a real name?!) and the rockets shoot waaaaay up in the air. So much fun! I got the Stomp Rocket Jr. Glow Kit and the four rockets are all foam and very durable. We did get one stuck in the top of a tree. A GREAT addition or wrap-up to your rocket day!