Ready to make a lapbook for Miss Rumphius? This picture book by Barbara Cooney is the most recent book we rowed with our Five in a Row (FIAR) Curriculum. We are loving using FIAR Volume Two (2nd Ed.) this year for second grade, and making lapbooks is such a fun part of what we do each week.

If you want lapbooking materials to use along with Miss Rumphius, be sure to keep reading! I’m sharing the activities and resources we used with this unit study AND you can get the lapbook I made as well.

Miss Rumphius Summary

Miss Rumphius tells the story Miss Alice Rumphius who is challenged by her father with a mission to “make the world a better place.” The book begins with her as a young girl, throughout the amazing adventures of her life, until she becomes an old woman. Does she achieve her goal? Does she make the world a better place? You’ll have to read the book to find out!

The illustrations in this book are reason enough alone to share this book with your child. They are wonderful! I love that the story features a strong female character, who lives life so fully. It’s a wonderful example for our young girls.

Rowing Miss Rumphius for FIAR

When we row our FIAR books, we typically spend one day on art, the next on science, another for language arts, etc.

Language Arts

For our Miss Rumphius language arts activities, we discussed the vocabulary from the book and also took a field trip to our local library. On the way, I talked about the Dewey Decimal system. At the library, we practiced looking for books using the classification numbers on the ends of the book shelves.

We also looked for a book about camels, since that was an animal from the story and one my daughter wanted to learn more about.

Science

It worked out perfectly to read Miss Rumphius in the spring as it provided ample opportunity to discuss seeds and gardening. We found lupine seeds at the store and planted those. Unfortunately, they won’t bloom until next year, so we were lucky to find an already-blooming potted lupine at the garden center!

We also planted our spring garden. It was fun to walk through various garden centers to pick out the plants and seeds we needed.

We also used pieces included in the Miss Rumphius Lapbook to review the food groups. The lapbook has labels for grains, meat, dairy, etc. I had pictures of different types of foods and she grouped them.

Other ideas for this activity could include laying the group labels on the floor or table, and having your child hunt for foods in the kitchen/pantry until there are a few things in each group.

Your child could also sketch small pictures of foods for each group. These would be fun to include in a pocket in your lapbook.

Art

We discovered that Barbara Cooney painted the illustrations for the book with acrylics and Prismacolor pencils on fabric that was mounted to an illustration board. I just so happened to have some heavier canvas-like material on hand (from a project I never did!).

I cut a rectangle of fabric so she could try her hand at painting on this surface. This hands-on experience can be a really eye-opening activity. It’s easy to take beautiful picture book illustrations for granted, but they truly are works of art.

Even if you don’t have fabric laying around, you can find inexpensive canvas boards at the dollar store, and this would also be a great project for your art studies.

Other Lapbooks for Five in a Row Volume Two

There are several other lapbooks I’ve created to complement your FIAR studies! The list continues to grow as we make our way through the FIAR manual. Be sure to check them out:

• A New Coat for Anna
• Mirette on the High Wire
• Down Down the Mountain
• Mrs. Katz and Tush
• Mr. Gumpy’s Motor Car
• All Those Secrets of the World

Free Lapbook for Miss Rumphius

I am happy to share with you the 14-page lapbook I made for my daughter. It’s currently available in my ever-growing Resource Library exclusively for subscribers.

When you sign up, you will have immediate access to this lapbook and all the others I’m making to go along with our FIAR studies. You’ll also get access to other incredibly useful resources for your homeschool and personal self-care as a homeschool mom!

Conclusion

I hope this Miss Rumphius Lapbook will benefit you as you use the FIAR curriculum. This sweet story is such a wonderful way to introduce your child to ideas about making a difference in the world, travel, acts of kindness and more. I hope you enjoy reading the story together and creating a fun lapbook as a memory book of all you learned.

What is your favorite FIAR book that you’ve rowed so far? Leave a comment and let me know!