The Garden Classroom: Hands-On Activities in Math, Science, Literacy, and Art

The Garden Classroom: Hands-On Activities in Math, Science, Literacy, and Art

Creative ways to use the garden to inspire learning, for kids ages 4-8 Packed with garden-based activities that promote science, math, reading, writing, imaginative play, and arts and crafts, The Garden Classroom offers a whole year of outdoor play and learning ideas—however big or small your garden. Every garden offers children a rich, sensory playground, full of interesting things to discover and learn about. There's a whole lot of science happening right before their eyes. The garden can also be a place to develop math and literacy skills, as the outdoors offers up plenty of invitations to weave learning into everyday gardening. The garden classroom is a place where plants grow, and where children grow too. "My life with kids has been devoted to their art and creativity, and I'm so pleased to find  The Garden Classroom is absolutely sprouting with richly creative ways to use the garden. I'm particularly inspired to play and imagine (chapter 2) in the garden and construct a fairy garden or see if my dinosaur world will attract a tiny dinosaur! Cathy James has been delighting me for years with her blog, and this book puts her inspiring garden ideas right at my fingertips and green thumb."—MaryAnn F. Kohl, author of Discovering Great Artists , Preschool Art , and 20 other art books for kids CATHY JAMES is passionate about kids, play, and gardens. She's spent half of her working career coaching and training adults and switched over to working with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers after she had her two daughters. She used to run a home daycare and a School Gardening Club project. She now writes and publishes the successful kids' activities blog, NurtureStore ; she also writes for BabyCentre and KidsActivitiesBlog.com. She lives in the UK on the edge of a city and has a tiny walled garden.