“A wealth of ideas for adults to engage children and themselves in the wonders of the natural world with suggested activities for all seasons.”―Robert Bateman, artist and author of Life Sketches: A Memoir

The Big Book of Nature Activities is a comprehensive guide for parents and educators to help youth of all ages explore, appreciate, and connect with the natural world. This rich, fully illustrated compendium is packed with crafts, stories, information, and inspiration to make outdoor learning fun!

The Big Book of Nature Activities features:

• Nature-based skills and activities such as species identification, photography, journaling, and the judicious use of digital technology
• Ideas, games, and activities grounded in what’s happening in nature each season
• Core concepts that promote environmental literacy, such as climate change and the mechanisms and wonder of evolution, explained using a child-friendly, engaging approach
• Lists of key species and happenings to observe throughout the year across most of North America

AWARDS

• GOLD | 2016 Nautilus Book Awards: Animals & Nature
• GOLD | 2016 Nautilus Book Awards: Middle Grades - Nonfiction
• FINALIST | 2016 Foreword INDIES: Nature

Jacob Rodenburg, nature sommelier, is an award-winning educator, executive director of Camp Kawartha, a summer camp and outdoor education center, and instructor in environmental education at Trent University. He has taught more than 100,000 students and is co-author of The Big Book of Nature Activities. Jacob lives in Peterborough, Ontario.

Jacob Rodenburg's profile page

As a youngster, Drew Monkman's interest in nature began with frogs and turtles but soon grew to include birds and, eventually, all of the rest. He is a board member and past president of the Peterborough Field Naturalists and popular field trip leader. Drew also participates in a number of wildlife monitoring programs such as the Breeding Bird Survey, the Marsh Monitoring Program and the new Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. As an educator, Drew emphasizes environmental education in all his teaching and strives to develop in his students a basic literacy in the workings of the natural world. Drew has also been involved for the past twelve years in schoolyard naturalization and has written several articles on this topic. A journalism graduate from Université Laval in Quebec City, Drew is married with four children. Nature's Year in the Kawarthas is the result of twenty years of careful observation of natural phenomena in the Peterborough area where he has lived for almost his entire life.

Drew Monkman's profile page

• Winner, Nautilus Book Awards
• Winner, Nautilus Book Awards
• Short-listed, Foreword INDIES