March brings the hope for warmer, sunnier days!
Whether the spring weather has reached your area already or not, books that inspire kids to explore the outdoors and get in touch with nature are perfect picks for this time of year.
Reading books about nature not only fosters feelings of happiness and peace, but also helps kids have a deeper respect and love for the natural world around them. Books about nature can transport kids to many different environments, no matter where they live.
After reading one of these amazing stories together, your kids will be inspired to get outside and explore. This is the perfect opportunity to practice a critical literacy skills such as making text to real-world connections. Try these simple ideas to take your spring reading experience to the next level.
1. Book: Gardens are for Growing. In this tender poem, the love between a father and daughter blossoms alongside the seeds they plant together. As the garden grows, the daughter grows from a toddler to a teen and finally to a woman with a child of her own.
Text Connection Idea: Take a visit to your local nursery and pick up some plants or seeds that would grow well in your area. As kids get their hands into the dirt, talk about similarities to the book you just read together. Try planting a few edible items to use in a salad or soup recipe to give children the full experience for planting, watering and harvesting!
2. Book: G is for Garden. Take an alphabetized trip through the garden and discover the plants, animals and tools that make gardening fun.
Text Connection Idea: For little readers, watching a seed sprout is an exciting experience. A seed jar experiment is a great first science experiment to do with preschoolers. Simply gather seeds, paper towels and a jar and let kids observe how a seed grows. Talk to them about their observations.
3. Book: Let’s Go on a Hike. Get your little adventurer ready for a hiking trip of a lifetime! This engaging rhyming story follows a curious hippo as she sets out on a hike in the wild.
Text Connection Idea: Make a walk through your local park more exciting with a nature scavenger hunt. You can look for leaves, plants, animals, feathers, insects and so much more. The possibilities and customizations are endless. Create your own or look through the many free printable options online to find the right scavenger hunt for your area.
4. Book: Spiderwebs & Spider Silk. Discover how spiders have used their own skills in science, technology, engineering art, and math to become some of the most fearsome hunters on the planet, and one of Earth’s most successful species.
Text Connection Idea: Have kids make their own spiderweb pattern with a knitting loom and yarn. Let them experiment with all of the different patterns they can make by wrapping the yarn in different ways.
5. Book: Spring Stroll in the City. Take a stroll through the city in springtime and experience the sights, sounds, colors and smells of the multitude of different holidays we celebrate this season. From St. Patrick’s Day and Easter to Nowruz and Cinco de Mayo, everyone has a reason to celebrate.
Text Connection Idea: You don’t have to be in the middle of the wilderness to enjoy nature. Help kids to see all of the natural things around them, even in the midst of a busy city. Practice counting by adding up all of the flowers, tree or squirrels you see as you walk through your town. Practice color recognition with a color scavenger hunt and notice all of the natural beauty that enhances our city environments – a yellow daisy in a flower box, a red tomato at fruit stand, an orange cat that crosses your path!
6. Book: Baa’s Shapes. Baa, a unique sheep, grazes grass into shapes! Toddlers and preschoolers can name the shapes as Baa creates them. Search the watercolor illustrations for the delightful details of snails, frogs and other humorous touches filling the page.
Text Connection Idea: Take a cue from the natural world and look for all kinds of shapes right before your eyes. Collect or take pictures of triangle-shaped leaves and oval-shaped rocks. Just remember to leave every area of nature the same or better than you found it! For craft time, create a mural of the outdoors with foam shapes. Turn that triangle into a tree and the circle into a sun!
Whether your kids are already hooked on reading or are reluctant readers, books about animals, plants and sunshine are sure to the inspire them to explore and keep on learning this spring.