Let's Go Outside!: Outdoor Activities and Projects to Get You and Your Kids Closer to Nature [Paperback]

Jennifer Ward (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

Engage your child in outdoor play, nature outings, and environmental explorations. Chase and be chased in a game of capture the flag. Use the power of the sun to craft your own shadow prints. Explore the stars on a late night walk. Create a field guide to your neighborhood.  Through 52 ideas—some classic and some new—Let's Go Outside! offers a range of activities perfect for children ages 8 to 12. Whether you're in the country, the city, or anywhere in between, this book is sure to help you get outside—and run, dance, hike, or camp—with your preteen.

Sections of the book include:

   • Back to Basics: Reconnecting with twists on traditional games and activities such as Capture the Flag
   • Making the Ordinary Extraordinary: Picnics, doing homework outdoors, and socializing opportunities outdoors
   • Outdoor Adventures: Canoeing, biking, and camping
   • Environmental Experiments: Ways to explore how nature works

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jennifer Ward is the author of numerous children’s books, all of which present nature to kids. Her award-winning titles have been featured in magazines such as Ranger Rick, Your Big Backyard, Learning, and Foreword, and she has been interviewed and featured on national television and local radio. She is a regular speaker at conferences and schools across the country, where she instills the importance of literacy and the wonders waiting to be discovered in the natural world. 

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Picture This

Sometimes changes in nature are mere nuance, and it’s nice to be aware of how our environment changes around us as it cycles through seasons. We are so accustomed to our calendar that we often neglect to take notice of the changing calendar outdoors, and take it for granted. It’s spring. It’s summer. It’s fall. It’s winter. Well, INDEED! We should celebrate this cycle of events. Here’s just one fun way to record the seasons and become more aware of what’s around us year round.
Go outside with your child and select an item visible in nature. It might be your home, a hill, or a tree. It simply needs to be a type of visible landmark; something you can see year round. Create a photo journal of the landmark. This activity will require a camera, patience, and time. But the results will be well worth it.
Photograph the landmark by season. Take one photograph from the same spot, same angle, same distance, and same time of day in the springtime. Take another photo from the same spot, the same angle, the same distance, and the same time of day in the summer. Repeat the procedure in the fall, then again in the winter. Once you’ve completed your seasonal photo essay of your landmark, mount or frame the pictures in progression, side by side. Note the similarities and differences and the seasonal nuances as they affect the setting around the landmark.
For a more immediate photo essay, select an item in nature, such as a flower, tree, or shrub, or a landmark. Create a photo essay of it throughout the course of a day, noting how the sun and elements affect its appearance throughout that day. Photograph it from the same spot, same angle, and same distance: in the morning, in the afternoon, at night.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Roost Books; 1 Original edition (July 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590306988
• ISBN-13: 978-1590306987
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #245,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jennifer Ward is the author of numerous books for children and parents, each celebrating the wonders of nature, including Way Out in the Desert, Somewhere in the Ocean, Over in the Garden, The Seed and the Giant Saguaro, The Little Creek, Forest Bright/Forest Night, There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea, Because You Are My Baby, Way Up in the Arctic, I Love Dirt! 52 Activities to Help You and Your Kids Discover the Wonders of Nature, and the forthcoming titles The Busy Tree (Marshall Cavendish, 2009), Let's Go Outside! Outdoor Activities and Projects to Get You and Your Kids Closer to Nature (Shambhala 2009), There Was an Old Monkey Who Swallowed a Frog (Marshall Cavendish 2010), and There Was an Odd Princess Who Swallowed a Pea (Marshall Cavendish 2011).

Her award-winning titles have been featured in magazines such as Ranger Rick, Your Big Backyard, Learning Magazine, Martha Stewart's Real Simple and Foreword, and she has been featured on national television and radio.

Her books have also received many honors, including the Giverny Award for Best Children's Science Picture Book, the American Booksellers Association "Book Sense Pick of the Lists", a Learning Magazine "Teachers' Choice Award for Best Children's Picture Book", a "Parents' Choice Award", a Governor's First Grade Book Selection for the states of New Jersey and Arizona, and a Grand Canyon Reader's Award winner and honors recipient, among others.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LET'S GET THIS BOOK!, July 19, 2009

By 

Barbara B. Wallace (McLean, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Let's Go Outside!: Outdoor Activities and Projects to Get You and Your Kids Closer to Nature (Paperback)

This is a book that's simply been waiting to be written, and Jennifer Ward has written it. I only wish she'd done it sooner. Seems many others feel the same way. This book not only leads kids (and parents!) outdoors, but gets them moving more than just a one hand and a finger playing video games. It introduces them to outdoor games that were fun once upon a time, and (imagine that!) still are. In a word (or two), what kids end up doing is having a great good time and not really realizing that what they're doing is actually dreaded EXERCISE, because it happens to be masquerading as FUN. I was lucky enough to be given this book. If you aren't that lucky, I think it's well worth investing in it yourself.