How cool it is when: Literacy Moves Outdoors

Learning Approaches for Any Environment

by Valerie Bang-Jensen

#LiteracyMovesOutdoors #NetGalley

Children’s literacy is something about which I am passionate. I firmly believe that all kids should be able to read and enjoy books, menus, street signs…all the things that can be read. It is essential to do everything possible to make this happen if a child is to have a bright future.

This book’s author clearly knows this and also offers many projects for many places in which to use words and hands on, exploratory learning. With chapters titled Story Walks, Word Gardens, Literacy Trails, and Make it Happen (among others), there is much from which to choose.

This title celebrates learning and reinforcing literacy skills while engaging with the world outside. What a simple but brilliant idea. It could involve something as simple as an outdoor story time or a hunt for something. It could be enrichment in the woods, a garden or a school’s playground. Children (and their teachers) will benefit from being outdoors and will even concentrate better once they are back inside.

This is a book to help teachers plan what to do with their students using this model. As the author points out it can be good to try just one thing. There is no shortage of ideas here to get teachers started.

This book is a good resource for open minded educators. I hope that schools will consider its ideas.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Heinemann Publishing for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 25 April 2023