Publisher: Kids Can Press
Author & Illustrator: Emma Adbage
Reading Age: 5-8
Reading Level: AD640L
Pages: 26
Source: Reading Seed
In this innovative book, Emma Adbage encourages children to get outside, where they can have fun interacting with the natural world while learning math. Adbage has created twenty-two outdoor activities, organized by season. Through play, children will learn about numeracy and arithmetic, as well as math concepts such as shapes, time, greater/less than, even and odd numbers, patterns and grids. The activities have simple-to-follow instructions and are accompanied by adorable illustrations that provide clear visual demonstrations. The natural materials required --- stones, pinecones, snowballs, worms --- are easy to find in many environments. Supplementary spreads introduce the numbers 1 to 10 and further explore addition/subtraction and multiplication/division, with simplified explanations and illustrated examples. Studies have shown that learning outdoors helps kids retain information and skills, and that physically active children perform better in a variety of subjects --- including math.
This book could be used alongside other math coursework all school year, since the activities have direct curricular applications. While the thrust of the book is math, there are also science lessons here, particularly regarding the properties of nature and how things change during the four seasons. Many of the activities can be done in pairs or groups, promoting teamwork and cooperation. A list of activities in the back matter indexes the activities and categorizes them by the math skills they develop.