The Nature Activity Book: 99 Ideas for Activities in the Natural World of Aotearoa New Zealand

 The Nature Activity Book: 99 Ideas for Activities in the

Natural World of Aotearoa New Zealand (2020)

Rachel Haydon, ill. Pippa Keel

Te Papa Press, 175 pages, paperback, NZ$35

 

Over the last decade Te Papa Press.  has produced a number of brilliant books, for both young people and former young people. I would pint out the collection, Maui’s Taonga Tales and Simon Pollard’s Genius of Bugs and Why is that Lake so Blue? One of the best was The Art Activity Book and now we have its companion volume The Nature Activity Book.    

 It is one of those marvellous Science activity books which invites you to observe and think, to be curious about the things around you. Aimed roughly at the 9 to 13 group, it offers a variety of approaches to learning about the natural world, and whole range of doors for curiosity to open. In the Sensing Nature section, for example, the reader is asked to nominate ten things you can see, six things you can touch, two things you can smell, four things you can hear and one thing you can taste.

There are loads of activities, all of them designed to reinforce some aspect of our understanding of the world: birds to be fed, insects to be identified, forces to be measured, cloud types to be identified, wind direction to be measured, compost to be made, bug hotels to be built and habitats to be created. Readers will find themselves writing, dancing, reflecting and learning te reo terms for everything from cloud shapes to the phases of the moon. Pippa Keel’s pictures and Kate Barraclough’s design make this a comfortable book to handle and write in.

For the young scientist and natural philosopher in all of us.

 

Trevor Agnew

27 Aug 2020