Nature Art Books for Children

Shopping Guides

Books

Published on Thursday, 26 May 2016 11:05

Last Updated on 25 May 2016

Monica Costa

0 Comments

This Spring there are three new nature art books which support schools’ biology topics and encourage children to discover nature and learn all about plants and animals living in the green spaces around them. I have used them with the London Mums Kids Club to explore Richmond Park and find out lots of facts about trees, leaves, deers, squirrels and foxes. Some of these books include boxes to be used as containers for keepsakes.

 
 

Nature art

By Jenny Bowers
Published by Frances Lincoln Chuldren’s books (Quarto publishing group)
Age 3+
This is an interactive one-stop box filled with posters, activity packs, booklet and collector’s pocket to help kids find, observe, collect and exhibit their discoveries, from flowers, leaves to pebbles and plants.

 

Nature’s Day – out and about
Spotting, making and collecting activities

By Kay Maguire – illustrated by Danielle Kroll
Published by wide eyed editions
Age 5+
This book is for children who have already started school and are exploring nature as part of the national curriculum. It’s an activity book for all four seasons. It shows traditional activities including making a daisy chain, pond dip, spotting and collecting leaves, building a log pile, spotting animal tracks. These are activities my generation (mums in their 30s and 40s) used to do without the aid of books. We did not have video games or other electronic devices so for us nature’s walks were entertaining. I would have loved to read all the facts back then while going around in nature to find things. It’s not to late now and my son and I are making the most of this ‘manual’.
One of the activities found in the book which I never really dared doing as a child is making a bee hotel. It is well explained and shows how to do it in a safe way.

 

Make it grow

By Debbie Powell
Published by Frances Lincoln
Age 3-5
Preschoolers and early readers will enjoy this interactive book with fie-cut flaps to learn about colours in nature.
Fun rhyming text introduces children to the habitats around them including Meadow, forest, mountain, ocean, desert. When they lift the flaps the plants and flowers grow. Each plant is a different colour, and at the back is a big lift-the-flap rainbow to reinforce the colours learnt.
I have actually used this book to test whether my son is colour-blind or not in a fun way. Thankfully he is not colour blind but I am grateful to this book for making this assessment a positive experience.