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Hands-On Activities

Free Mammals Lapbook for Kids Who Love Hands-on Science

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I have a free mammals lapbook and resources today for a fun study about mammals. Too, on my Homeschool Lapbooks – Powerful Tools For Mastery Learning page you can find more free homeschool lapbooks.

From tiny bats and mice to enormous elephants and whales, mammals live in almost every type of environment on Earth. And a study of mammals can go far beyond simply learning the names of different animals. It can introduce important concepts in zoology, biology, ecology, classification, anatomy and habitats.

Free Mammals Lapbook for Kids Who Love Hands-on Science

Adding a mammal lapbook to your homeschool study gives your kids a hands-on way to organize all the information they learn. Too, a mammal study provides a natural way to connect several areas of life science.

First, begin by asking a question like what is a mammal.

Then look at these traits.

  • Mammals are vertebrates.
  • Mammals are warm-blooded, or endothermic.
  • Mammals have hair or fur at some point during their lives.
  • Female mammals have mammary glands that produce milk for their young.
  • Mammals breathe air using lungs.
  • Most mammals give birth to live young.

Also, mammals live in an amazing variety of environments. For example, kids can investigate mammals from underground habitats, deserts, grasslands, forests, mountains, Arctic regions, oceans, and wetlands.

Also, add books about mammals to your day.

BOOKS ABOUT MAMMALS FOR KIDS

We prefer living books when we can find them.

Then add reference books to our home library and to our day while doing our lapbooks.

8 Resources for Multiple Ages Who Love Learning About Zoology

I have listed curriculum help to fun hands-on manipulatives for little kids to games and books which even older learners will enjoy.

Next, look at some hands-on activities about mammals.

FUN HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES ABOUT MAMMALS FOR KIDS

Free Mammals Lapbook for Kids Who Love Hands-on Science

Last, look at the minibooks included in this free download.

FREE MAMMALS LAPBOOK MINIBOOKS INCLUDED:

  • Mammal groups
  • Did You Know . . .
  • Discovering Mammals
  • Mammal Research Flipbook
  • Where Do Mammals Live
  • Meet the Mammals
  • Types of Mammals

Now, how to grab the freebie.

It’s a subscriber freebie.

HOW TO GET THE FREE MAMMALS LAPBOOK

That means when you sign up to follow me, you get my emails in your inbox and you get this freebie.

1) CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK TO SIGN UP ON MY EMAIL LIST & TO GET THIS FREEBIE

2) Grab the freebie instantly.

3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me!

7 Picture Books About Science For Kids Who Love Visual Learning

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Take a look at these 7 picture books about science for kids: oversized, fantastic illustrations, and wonderful kid-friendly information.

If you have a kid who learns best with their eyes, who studies every corner of an illustration before they even listen to the words, then big, beautifully illustrated science picture books are pure magic to them.

7 Picture Books About Science For Kids Who Love Visual Learning

One series that does this better than almost anyone else is the Big Book of… series by Yuval Zommer. Each title in this oversized, large-format series pairs whimsical watercolor illustrations with genuinely meaty nonfiction.

They are fun enough for a 4-year-old to flip through on their own, detailed enough that an 8- to 10-year-old will still pull it off the shelf for reference. This range is what makes the series so good for a mixed-age family or co-op situation.

BOOK BY BOOK-HANDS-ON PROJECTS FOR PICTURE BOOKS ABOUT SCIENCE

Then here are some hands-on activities to add to these science picture books for kids.

BUGS BOOK HANDS-ON IDEAS

BEASTS BOOK HANDS-ON IDEAS

  • Make plaster salt-dough animal track casts and match them to the “paw print” spotting game in the book.
  • Sort animal photos or toy figures into the book’s categories: mythical beasts, Ice Age beasts, beasts on your street, endangered beasts.
  • Design a “backyard beast” habitat diorama for an animal that actually lives near your house (raccoon, possum, squirrel).

THE BLUE BOOK HANDS-ON IDEAS

  •  Build an ocean-layer diorama in a shoebox or flat like this How To Make A Fun Intertidal Zone Diorama. 
  • Make a salt-crystal “sea star” or explore density with a homemade ocean-layers jar (oil, water, food coloring).
  • Sort toy sea creatures by how they breathe underwater (gills, lungs, skin) using the book’s opening spread as a guide.

BIRD BOOK HANDS-ON IDEAS

  • Build a simple pinecone-and-peanut-butter bird feeder or other type of simple feeder, then keep a backyard bird-watching log using the species pictured in the book. 
  • Make a bird-beak matching game: cut different “beak” shapes (tweezers, clothespin, spoon) and test which “beak” picks up which pretend food (seeds, worms, nectar).
  • Start a nest-building challenge: give kids twigs, grass, and mud and see if they can engineer a nest that holds an egg (a small ball) without collapsing.

BLOOMS BOOK HANDS-ON IDEAS

  • Press flowers from a walk and build a labeled botany journal page; here are directions for How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press.
  • Grow a bean or sunflower seed in a clear cup so kids can watch the life cycle described in the book unfold in real time.
  • Build a paper Venus flytrap that “snaps shut”  to explore how carnivorous plants work.
  • Do a flower dissection scavenger hunt: find and label petals, stem, stamen, and pistil on a real flower.

NATURE ART BOOK HANDS-ON IDEAS

  • Just open it; the 22 projects inside are already designed to be five-minute, low-mess, natural-materials crafts, so this book is the hands-on activity list.
  • Pick one project a week and pair it with a nature walk to gather that week’s materials (twigs, seed pods, leaves) beforehand.

BELONGING BOOK HANDS-ON IDEAS

  • Have your child sort plastic animals by various traits: those that live in the water, those with spots, those that use camouflage, nocturnal vs. diurnal animals.
  • Do a fingerprint/pattern lab: take everyone’s fingerprints and compare them to zebra stripes or cowrie shell patterns from the book, and talk about how no two are identical.
  • Try a “communicate without words” game (like the fava beans’ chemical signals or reef squid’s color changes) using only gestures or colored cards.
7 Picture Books About Science For Kids Who Love Visual Learning

The Big Book series is a fantastic anchor, but round out the shelf with a few other visual-learning standouts. These are mostly series books with the same vibe as the Big Book of Series.

5 MORE SCIENCE PICTURE BOOKS WORTH ADDING

  1. Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty (1 of 7 in a series) – A cute rhyming story about a young scientist’s curiosity, great for framing “what does a scientist actually do?”
  2. What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page– Cut-paper collage illustrations turn animal-adaptation facts into a guessing game.
  3. National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book series (Space, Animals, Ocean, and more) — shorter and simpler than Zommer’s books, a good bridge for younger visual learners.
  4. Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman  (1 of 6 in the series)- technically this is an art-meets-science reference guide rather than a picture book, but it belongs on the same shelf; older elementary kids will pull it out again and again. 
  5. Over and Under the Pond / Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner (1 of a series of 9)- A quieter, more narrative nonfiction with soft illustrations, good for a slower-paced read-aloud on habitat and season.

And look at these other picture books.

Below is the full rundown of the series. 

Finally, add the hands-on project ideas that use the physical books themselves (yes, even use as spines) as teaching tools.

7 Picture Books About Science

There are also sticker and activity companions for several titles (Beasts, Bugs, Birds, the Blue, Blooms) if your visual learner wants to interact with the content rather than just read it, and board-book versions (Little Snail's Book of Bugs, Little Bee's Book of Blooms, Little Robin's Book of Birds) for their younger siblings.

Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford’s Theatre

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A great Abraham Lincoln project for kids to bring history to life is a Ford’s Theatre shoebox diorama. You’ll also love my free War Between the States or American Civil War Unit Study and Lapbook page.

Instead of just reading about the events of April 14, 1865, kids can recreate the theater where one of the most important and tragic events in American history took place.

Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford's Theatre

This project is simple enough to make with a shoebox and basic craft supplies, but it also provides plenty of opportunities to learn about Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, theater life in the 1860s, and what happened on that fateful night.

The building we know today as Ford’s Theatre did not actually begin as a theater. The building was originally constructed as the First Baptist Church of Washington, D.C. in the 1830s. The church eventually moved to another location, leaving the building vacant.

First, look at these books about Abraham Lincoln.

FUN BOOKS AND RESOURCES ABOUT ABRAHAM LINCOLN

I have some Abraham Lincoln facts, some great books, and resources to turn your topic into a unit study.

16th President Abraham Lincoln Books and Resources

Add some of these books and resources to make a learning day about Lincoln and his accomplishments to American history

In the early 1860s, a theater owner named John T. Ford leased the building and transformed it into a theater. The first theater on the site opened in 1862, but a fire caused extensive damage that same year.

It quickly became an important entertainment venue in Washington, D.C. and President Abraham Lincoln was a regular visitor. I imagine it was a relief from the tension right after the Civil War. By April 1865, the Civil War was finally coming to an end. On April 9, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House.

ABOUT FORD THEATRE

Five days after that on the evening of April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, went to Ford’s Theatre to watch a comedy called Our American Cousin. They were joined by Major Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris.

The Lincolns were seated in a special box above the stage. This was known as the Presidential Box, or State Box. The box was decorated with American flags and a portrait of George Washington. (You may want to include these details in your diorama because they are some of the most recognizable features of the theater).

During the performance, actor John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box and shot Lincoln. Booth was a Confederate sympathizer who opposed Lincoln.

A doctor named Charles Leale, who was attending the performance, rushed to help him. Because Lincoln’s injury was so serious, several men carefully carried him out of the theater and across the street to the Petersen Boarding House.

He died the following morning, April 15, 1865, at 7:22 a.m. at just 56 years old.

Ford’s Theatre did not continue operating after Lincoln’s assassination, it became a crime scene, and the government closed the building. Although John T. Ford tried to reopen the theater, public opposition prevented it from returning to normal operation.

Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford's Theatre

Eventually, the federal government purchased the building. The inside was removed and the building was converted into government offices. Over the years, the building had several different uses and even suffered another terrible disaster when part of the building collapsed in 1893, killing 22 people.

Finally, Ford’s Theatre was restored. It reopened as a working theater in 1968, more than 100 years after Lincoln’s assassination.

Today, Ford’s Theatre is a National Historic Site where visitors can learn about Lincoln, the Civil War, the assassination, and the history of the theater.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN PROJECTS FOR KIDS

HOW TO MAKE A FORD’S THEATER DIORAMA

For our project, we used a shoebox to create a miniature Ford’s Theatre. You can have your child make their theater as simple or detailed as you would have them do it.

We used this site for inspiration and referencing how the theater looked back then.

You will need:

  • A shoebox with a lid
  • Colorful construction paper
  • scissors/straight edge cutter
  • Glue
Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford's Theatre

We used the top of the shoe box to create the stage. First we drew the shape of a rounded stage.

Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford's Theatre

Then cut it out leaving the edges of the box long so that we could wrap them around the top, tape down and have sides.

Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford's Theatre

Finish it off by covering it in brown construction paper and add wood grain details if you like.

Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford's Theatre

Cover the bottom of your box with red construction paper for the carpet and secure with glue.

Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford's Theatre

Glue the stage in place at one end of the box.

Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford's Theatre

Next, create the presidential box seats layering white for the framework, yellow for curtains, brown seats, and a red wall background.

You can make tiny figures of Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, Major Rathbone, and Clara Harris sitting inside the box.

Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford's Theatre

Draw or make a flag swag out of scrap paper to hang over the edge.

Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford's Theatre

Ford’s Theatre had rows of seats facing the stage. Make miniature seats by cutting small ovals of brown paper and folding them in half.

Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford's Theatre

Glue your rows of seats down to the base.

Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford's Theatre

Add white strips vertically and horizontally to create the balcony and supports around the back of the theater.

Abraham Lincoln Project For Kids: How to Make Ford's Theatre

Finish off your stage with stage curtains in red.

Kid’s Pioneer Toys To Make: How To Make A Jumping Jack

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To use with a pioneer unit study, we’re learning kid’s pioneer toys to make. Long before screens, batteries, and plastic packaging, pioneer children on the American frontier made their own fun.

Toys were rarely purchased at a store, but instead they were whittled from scraps of wood, sewn from worn-out fabric, or fashioned from whatever the family had on hand.

Kid's Pioneer Toys To Make: How To Make A Jumping Jack

For families studying westward expansion, pioneer life, or the 1800s in general, recreating these simple toys is one of the best ways to make history feel real. Kids won’t just be reading about the past; they get the opportunity to hold it in their hands.

Today we’re making one of the most beloved pioneer toys: the jumping jack.

And we’ll use cardboard instead of wood, which makes this a perfect, low-mess project for a homeschool afternoon. And we will upcycle a cardboard box out of the pantry to keep it free.

Pioneer families who traveled west in covered wagons had almost no room for extra because every pound of cargo mattered when you were crossing prairies, rivers, and mountains, so toys had to be small, lightweight, and often multi-purpose.

Next, look at some living books to use with a pioneer or westward expansion unit study.

LIVING BOOKS FOR KIDS FOR A WESTWARD EXPANSION UNIT STUDY

These books would work with a pioneer unit study too.

Also we love using these books as a read aloud while doing a hands-on history craft.

10 Westward Expansion Resources

Add in a few books and resources to bring the study of the Oregon Trail to life during the United States expansion of the west.

And many toys made at home using leftover wood, corn husks, fabric scraps, or even bones and buttons.

Children were also expected to help with chores from a young age, so toys were usually played with in short bursts… during a break from churning butter, feeding chickens, or minding their younger siblings.

Kid's Pioneer Toys To Make: How To Make A Jumping Jack

What pioneer toys lacked in polish, they made up for in imagination. A toy didn’t need to look realistic to be a hit; it just needed to move, spin, or make a sound to be exciting.

MORE PIONEER LIFE ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS

In addition, let’s take a look at some of the toys that would have been common among pioneers, and I will take you through making your own jumping jack step by step.

OTHER PIONEER TOYS WORTH EXPLORING

Before jumping into the jumping jack project, consider exploring a few other pioneer toys as a themed pioneer toy week in your homeschool.

  • Whirligigs (buttons on string) A button threaded onto a loop of string, twisted, and pulled to make it spin rapidly. Simple, cheap, and endlessly entertaining.
  • Corn husk dolls–made from dried corn husks tied and folded into a human shape, these dolls were especially common because corn was grown almost everywhere. Girls often decorated them with scraps of cloth for dresses.
  • Game of Graces-This game involved throwing and catching a hoop on a stick.
  • Cup and ball–   A small ball attached by string to a wooden cup, tossed and caught. This toy tested hand-eye coordination and patience.
  • Rag dolls-Sewn from fabric scraps and stuffed with cotton, rags, or sawdust, these were often a young girl’s most treasured possession.
  • Cats cradle (string games)–  A pattern game played with a loop of string stretched between the fingers, passed back and forth between two players.

Each of these toys can make a fun companion project, and most require materials you already have at home: string, fabric scraps, buttons, or a stick.

HOW TO MAKE A CARDBOARD JUMPING JACK

A jumping jack is a jointed puppet, usually shaped like a person or animal, whose arms and legs “jump” up when you pull a string. Pioneer children often made these from wood and twine, but cardboard works wonderfully and is much easier for young hands to cut.

You will need:

  • Cardboard (a cereal box works well)
  • Scissors
  • A hole punch (or a pencil to poke holes)
  • Brass fasteners (paper brads), about 5
  • String or yarn
  • Markers, crayons, or paint for decorating
  • A large bead or button (optional, for the pull handle)
Kid's Pioneer Toys To Make: How To Make A Jumping Jack

First, on the cardboard, draw and cut out a body/head shape (as one piece), two arm pieces, and two leg pieces. Keep the limbs roughly the same length so the toy moves evenly.

Kid's Pioneer Toys To Make: How To Make A Jumping Jack

Decorate your jumping jack. Let your child give it a face, clothing, or even turn it into an animal.

Kid's Pioneer Toys To Make: How To Make A Jumping Jack

Punch a hole at the top of each arm and leg

Kid's Pioneer Toys To Make: How To Make A Jumping Jack

And punch matching holes at each shoulder and hip on the body.

Use brass fasteners to attach each arm and leg to the body, pushing the fastener through both holes and folding back the prongs loosely enough that the limbs can swing freely.

Kid's Pioneer Toys To Make: How To Make A Jumping Jack

Connect the limbs with string. Tie one end of a piece of string to the top hole of one arm, run it behind the body, and tie it to the top hole of the opposite arm. Repeat with the two legs.

Kid's Pioneer Toys To Make: How To Make A Jumping Jack

Add the pull string. Tie a separate string to the center point where the arm-string and leg-string cross behind the body.

Let this string hang down below the toy, and tie a bead or button to the end as a handle.

Kid's Pioneer Toys To Make: How To Make A Jumping Jack

Test it out. Hold the toy by the head or hang it from a nail, and gently pull the string.

Kid's Pioneer Toys To Make: How To Make A Jumping Jack

The arms and legs should swing up together.

19 Fun Hands-on Rainforest Activities for Kindergarten

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I have 19 hands-on rainforest activities for kindergarten. Too, grab more kindergarten activities on my Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum page. Also, look at my pages Rain Forest – Animals of the Amazon, Rain Forest – Amazon, and Rainforest Activities for Kids for more ideas.

And learning about the rainforest is a fun subject to cover for any grade including kindergarten.

Too, teaching children at the kindergarten age should include hands-on activities and should be play-based.

19 Fun Hands-on Rainforest Activities for Kindergarten

Kindergarten learners can discover the rainforest through their senses. And the word “rain forest” denotes the fact that these are the some of the world’s wettest ecosystems.

While exploring nature, they learn through the sense of smell, hearing, taste, and touch.

So, you’ll want to include learning through the senses and a full immersion into the world of nature.

If you have room in your learning space, create a play-based Amazon theme area. Make the jungle come alive through music and props.

AMAZON RAINFOREST ANIMALS

First, begin with what kids this age love and that is animals.

There are many Amazon rainforest animals which your child can focus on.

A few animals which can ignite your child’s love for the wealth of the life that lives in the rainforest are:

  • Jaguars
  • Toucans
  • Iguanas
  • Giant Ant Eaters
  • Kinkajou also called honey bears
  • Harpy Eagles
  • Piranhas
  • Sloth and
  • Butterflies
  • Red and Green Macaw

And look at this ANIMALS OF THE WILD AMAZON Coloring Book for Kids & Adults: Learn about nature of the Rainforest.

Besides the animals are really what excites your kids when learning about the rainforest.

19 Fun Hands-on Rainforest Activities for Kindergarten

You’ll love the page I have here Rain Forest – Animals of the Amazon where your children can see more pictures.

RAINFOREST ACTIVITIES

Next, I have many rainforest activities for kids of all ages, but your kindergarten aged children will love putting together this fun lapbook.

Actually, my lapbooks are for multiple ages and are mix and match. Not all kids, especially kindergarten are on at the same level. That is perfectly normal.

Kids this age can be reading beginning chapter books, and some are still learning letter sounds. All of this is well within the range of normal for this age.

The point is kids love learning and this is the time for projects. And look how fun this is: Melissa & Doug Stamp-a-Scene Stamp Set: Rain Forest – 20 Wooden Stamps.

For example, look at these free Amazon rainforest lapbooks.

19 Fun Hands-on Rainforest Activities for Kindergarten

Look here to read about my free Amazon Rainforest Lapbooks.

19 Fun Hands-on Rainforest Activities for Kindergarten

OTHER KINDERGARTEN RESOURCES

Look at some of these other kindergarten resources.

19 Fun Hands-on Rainforest Activities for Kindergarten

Look at the 19 crafts below. I know you’ll find one or two that will add some fun to your child’s learning day.

Rainforest Activities

Kindergarten learning should be about hands-on crafts, moving, singing and learning that is play- based or crafts.

These rainforest crafts can be done by all your kids but especially your kindergarten aged children.