Rocks

Set up the light table with agate slices.  Allow your child to observe and admire the colors and patterns.

Photo:  www.TheEducatedPreschooler.blogspot.com

Reading Skills:
Let's Go Rock Collecting by Roma Gans
Rocks: Hard, Soft, Smooth, and Rough by Rosinsky
National Geographic Kids Everything Rocks and Minerals by Steve Tomecek

Nature:
Purchase a rock science kit and explore it with your child.  Many of these rocks are mentioned in the books above and it is wonderful for your child to be able to hold the rocks in their hands as opposed to just looking at pictures.  Discuss the rocks' properties.  Are they rough or smooth?  Porous or solid? Heavy or light?  What color(s) are they? 

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Math Skills:
Count the rocks in the kit.  Put them in order from smallest to biggest.  Encourage your child to sort them by color or by any characteristic that suits them. 

Fine Motor Skills:
Take your child outdoors to go rock collecting!  Set out various paint colors and brushes and allow your child to paint their rocks.  Once they're dry put them on a windowsill or outside in a garden.

Photo:  www.TheEducatedPreschooler.blogspot.com

Science Experiment:
Make rock candy!  Follow the instructions below courtesy of About.com.  

Photo:  http://chemistry.about.com

Supplies:
1 cup water
3 cups table sugar (sucrose)
clean glass jar
pencil or butter knife
string
pan or bowl for boiling water and making solution
spoon or stirring rod

Steps:
(1) "Tie the string to a pencil or butter knife. Set the pencil or knife across the top of the glass jar and make sure that the string will hang into the jar without touching its sides or bottom. However, you want the string to hang nearly to the bottom. Adjust the length of the string, if necessary.
(2) Boil the water. If you boil your water in the microwave, be very careful removing it to avoid getting splashed!
(3) Stir in the sugar, a teaspoonful at a time. Keep adding sugar until it starts to accumulate at the bottom of the container and won't dissolve even with more stirring. This means your sugar solution is saturated. If you don't use a saturated solution, then your crystals won't grow quickly. On the other hand, if you add too much sugar, new crystals will grow on the undissolved sugar and not on your string.
(4) If you want colored crystals, stir in a few drops of food coloring.
(5) Pour your solution into the clear glass jar. If you have undissolved sugar at the bottom of your container, avoid getting it in the jar.
(6) Place the pencil over the jar and allow the string to dangle into the liquid.
(7) Set the jar somewhere where it can remain undisturbed. If you like, you can set a coffee filter or paper towel over the jar to prevent dust from falling into the jar.
(8) Check on your crystals after a day. You should be able to see the beginnings of crystal growth on the string.
(9) Let the crystals grow until they have reached the desired size or have stopped growing. At this point, you can pull out the string and allow the crystal to dry. You can eat them or keep them. Have fun!

Tips:
* Crystals will form on a cotton or wool string or yarn, but not on a nylon line. If you use a nylon line, tie a seed crystal to it to stimulate crystal growth.
* If you are making the crystals to eat, please don't use a fishing weight to hold your string down. The lead from the weight will end up in the water -- it's toxic. Paper clips are a better choice, but still not great. "
Source:  http://chemistry.about.com/od/growingcrystals/ht/blsugarcrystal.htm