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    Stories Ages 3–4 Ollie’s Cardboard Rocket

    Picture story · read aloud

    Ollie’s Cardboard Rocket

    Ages 3–4 2-min read Space and rockets

    Ollie and his puppy blast off in a cardboard-box rocket, bounce on the moon and are home in time for dinner.

    Ollie’s Cardboard Rocket: ollie painting a big cardboard box blue in a living room to make a rocket, Biscuit the puppy watching with his head tilted

    Ollie had a big cardboard box. He painted it blue and added three fins and a round window. “It’s a rocket!” he said.

    He put on his foil helmet. Biscuit the puppy jumped in too. “Three… two… one… BLAST OFF!”

    Ollie’s Cardboard Rocket: the blue cardboard-box rocket flying through a starry purple night sky with Ollie and Biscuit peeking out, a ringed planet nearby

    WHOOSH! Up past the clouds. Up past the birds. Up, up into the starry sky!

    They zoomed around a planet with rings. They waved at a shooting star. “Wheee!” said Ollie. “Woof!” said Biscuit.

    Ollie’s Cardboard Rocket: ollie and Biscuit bouncing happily on the grey surface of the moon, the blue Earth in the black sky

    Bump! They landed on the moon. Boing, boing! They bounced, light as balloons.

    Biscuit dug in the moon dust. “Not now, Biscuit! There are no bones on the moon!”

    Ollie’s Cardboard Rocket: ollie on the moon cupping a hand to his ear, listening, looking towards the Earth, Biscuit beside him

    Then they heard a faraway voice: “Ollie! Dinner time!” It was Mum, all the way down on Earth.

    “Back to base!” said Ollie. Three… two… one… WHOOSH, all the way home.

    Ollie’s Cardboard Rocket: ollie climbing out of the cardboard box on the living room rug, his mum with red hair in a bun smiling and holding a plate of dinner

    Bump! The box landed on the living room rug. “How was space?” asked Mum. “Bouncy,” said Ollie. “Same time tomorrow?”

    The End

    Cover of the Ollie’s Cardboard Rocket printable foldable mini-book

    Free printable mini-book

    Turn Ollie’s Cardboard Rocket into a little 8-page book to keep. Print one sheet, make one small cut and fold it up in about 3 minutes.

    Download A4 (PDF)
    Download US Letter (PDF)

    Saving ink? Printer-friendly version: A4 · US Letter

    How to fold: fold guide (A4) · fold guide (US Letter) · watch the 50-second video

    Print at 100% (“Actual size”), landscape, on one side. Full colour PDF · A4 1.1 MB · Letter 1.1 MB

    For grown-ups

    Talk about it

    After reading, try one or two of these. There are no wrong answers.

    1. What did Ollie use to make his rocket?
    2. What did Ollie and Biscuit do on the moon?
    3. If you had a box rocket, where would you fly?

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    Space coloring pages

    Rockets, planets and stars to colour in.

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