Open a book, open a mind.

In my last post, I gave some expert tips about what to look for in a good children’s book. For this post, I am going to show you how you can turn a children’s book into a hands on learning experience!

Let’s start with one of my favorite books to use with ages 4-8 and a book listed on my JJ LIST page. It’s a book titled, ROXABOXEN by Alice McLerran. This book speaks to my heart as it is about neighborhood children who play outdoors using nothing but their imagination and nature. Ah, the good old days, when kids played outside! I remember as a kid jumping on my HUFFY and riding to a friend’s house and knocking on the door and asking, “Can you come out and play?” Yea, I don’t think that’s a thing anymore, huh? ROXABOXEN is a great story about kids exploring childhood. So let me show you how to incorporate this book into a curriculum and/or hands on experience.

To summarize the story, it’s called ROXABOXEN because the children create their own little town using, rocks, gems, glass, sticks, etc. They use natural material to outline homes, stores, a jail (because some kids were speeding on their “horses”) and even a cemetery because pet lizards died and, well, that’s the circle life. So here we go.

Math and Cognitive Skills: Use rocks (pebbles), gems, etc. to have children create their own little ROXABOXEN. Children can count how many of each thing they have. They can estimate how many more they will need. They can trade and sort with others. All of this involves basic math skills along with cognitive and scientific skills to build and create a town.

Fine Motor Skills: For the younger ones, using small rocks, gems and such helps develop those small finger muscles and helps with hand/eye coordination.

Social Skills: Putting children in small groups or pairs to work together is a great way to support their social development as it fosters cooperation, turn taking and critical thinking.

Emotional Development: Once the children have created their own ROXABOXEN, they can share their town story aloud with everyone, which gives them a chance to practice language and communication skills. Doing so will help build their confidence as well!

This is just one book, one way to incorporate learning, but there are so many ways to turn any book into a great learning tool for early learners!

ROCK on!