Roxaboxen

Who knew rocks, with a bunch of boxes, could be so fun?

E, R, and I recently spent some time with a sweet, playful and inspiring story called Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran. The author lets us in on when her mother was a child and how, in Arizona, she and her neighbors made a unique and special kids-only space called, you guessed it, Roxaboxen.

E and R had a great time building their own Roxaboxen in our backyard - with rocks and also cardboard boxes pulled out from our garage. It was also a great opportunity to learn all about Arizona, the desert and rocks!

Here's what our set-up looked like for the week:

To learn a bit about Arizona, we used an Atlas we had on hand along with this coloring book (which is a great resource to learn the very basics about each U.S. state for only $5!).

To learn about rocks, we read Let's Go Rock Collecting which, among other things, taught us about the three main categories of rocks. To learn about the rock cycle, we used this FREE infographic. I had this rock and mineral collection already on hand so that, with a magnifying glass, my kids could explore and even identify some rocks.

I love TOOB, so on top of some sandpaper to resemble the desert, I had these TOOB desert figurines. The kids loved to play with them throughout the week. As always, I had a handful of books from our local library available on our topic so that when we had a down moment, we could pull one out and read some more.

The last thing we did for Roxaboxen was to make a couple of desert art projects. They came from this great habitat project book. The kids made a pickleweed cactus painting and a big-horned sheep with toilet paper rolls and paper plates.

Have you read Roxaboxen?

Also, what have been some of your especially great resources to learn about deserts and/or rocks?

Feel free to check out my Pinterest Board for more Roxaboxen ideas! https://www.pinterest.com/shelleypimentel/