Crinkleroot Inspired Leaf Books

We've been enjoying a number of books from Jim Arnosky's Crinkleroot series this week, thanks to a recommendation from Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

A few, like Crinkleroot's 25 Birds Every Child Should Know, or Crinkkeroot's 25 Animals Every Child Should Know, proved to be a bit young for us, having only one word with a picture on every page. E (age 6) made good use of them for spelling and handwriting practice.


Most of the volumes in the series though, seem to be for 1st-3rd grade reading levels, but with enough information accompanying Arnosky's beautiful illustrations, to be interesting to the entire family.

Our favorite so far has been Crinkleroot's Nature Almanac, which not only contains a smattering of old, and new illustrations with nature facts for each season, but also suggests a number of child-friendly nature activities, such as making an autumn leaf book.

After a quick walk to gather a few fall leaves, the younger girls (ages 5 and 6) were ready to give that one a try.


They laid the leaves out on the table with their other interesting finds, like a growing crab apple and blossom, and then traced them on small sheets of paper.


Then, they colored in the outlines...


...doing their best to match the fall colors.


When they had a number of pages completed, we stacked them together with their individually designed cover pages...


...and stapled them together into books.



Now, we just need to review Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing Trees, to help us identify the leaves and label the pages, to finish it off.

For more children's book reviews and recommendations be sure to check out the What My Child is Reading link-up hosted by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Or, click over to the Science Sunday link-up at Adventure's in Mommydom for more science themed children's fun.

It's great to be a homeschooler.