Children love a good story. They often ask us to "read it, again!" whenever they have been delighted, intrigued or charmed by a story. Knowing young children's love of good stories, we devised ways to extend that enthusiasm. And one great way is by using lapbooks – a wonderful hands-on tool.

Today, I am going to share about the activities and lapbook we have done after reading the picture book, "The Carrot Seed".

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss. A story about a boy who planted a carrot seed, but no one in his family believed it would come up. But the little boy watered it and weeded it anyway. Finally, a huge carrot grew, "just as the little boy had known it would." A simple yet powerful story about perseverance, determination and patience.

Using the literature-based approach in learning, young children can acquire great experiences and knowledge that will help them retain the "lesson" better. In addition, the joy and fun they attained through the activities will nurture their interest and love for reading.

Here's a glimpse of what we did:

We don't always have to be the one reading the book enjoying a book could come from listening to the story being read by someone else. In this instance, we listened to an audio book. You could download it for free here.

The lapbook was put together using the elements from here. As the children were at nursery level at that time, more time was devoted into experiential learning that will stimulate their five senses. Here are some other activities/learning aids that are relevant to the theme that could be added into the lapbook.

• Alphabet Art
• C is for Carrot Writing Practice
• Vegetable Magnet Page (you may use dot stickers for this activity to help train the kids' fine motor skills)
• Vegetable Memory Game Cards
• Count by Twos  (this will be a fun activity for the older preschoolers).

 Beyond what we did on the lapbook the children had great fun with the various activities that were planned out for them, let the videos tell you the story

Science Play – Planting seeds, learning the different parts of a plant, the process of how a plant grows, gardening tools.

Chinese & Dramatic Play – Learning a chinese rhyme through song and dramatic play.

Messy Fun – Preparing, making and baking a carrot cake from scratch.

What great fun it was to have learning made meaningful through all the experiences the children have garnered in the entire process.

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