Tag Kathryn Selbert

Mrs Owl’s Forest School: The Very Big Den / Getting Ready for Autumn

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Mrs Owl’s Forest School: The Very Big Den
illustrated by Seb Braun, written by Ruth Symons
Templar Books

You never know what you will find, if you go down to the woods today, perhaps a forest school in progress.
Herein we join Mouse, Squirrel, Fox and Rabbit in a woodland setting beneath the trees where Mrs Owl holds her forest school. During the process of den building the animals use all their senses to learn about wildlife, both flora and fauna of the surrounding environment, as well as learning an important lesson about friendship and inclusivity. In addition they gain some useful skills such as how to tie knots and how to build a bug hotel. 

Written in consultation with Lizzie Noble, a forest childcare provider with a wealth of experience in running creative, play-based forest school sessions for families, this is a book that may well inspire youngsters to get out into the wild, wonderful world of nature. Seb Braun’s inviting, detailed, richly hued scenes help underscore some of the instructions woven into the narrative and should encourage young children to find and explore their local woodland places and perhaps try their hand at den-building. In my experience, children need little encouragement when it comes to the building of dens.

Getting Ready for Autumn
Kathryn Selbert
Nosy Crow

This seasonal sticker storybook is published in collaboration with the National Trust. Herein readers join a family and friends as they enjoy a range of early autumnal activities. Mum, Dad and two children walk in the woods where the trees now have their rich golden, orange foliage, and they keep their eyes open for woodland creatures such as deer, squirrels and birds. They also spend a fun afternoon apple picking in preparation for some baking and take advantage of windy days to fly kites. 

With the new term about to begin there are the inevitable getting ready activities as the siblings are starting school. On their first day, Grandma comes to meet them and they visit the park to hunt for conkers. As the chillier days arrive, it’s time to put up some bird feeders and with the approach of Halloween, some ripe pumpkins are ready and waiting to be picked. The book concludes with some Halloween activities.

After the narrative come two ‘can you spot’ pages that will send children back to each spread to find the items shown; there are also several pages containing 120+ stickers to add to the relevant spreads.
A useful, book to have to hand as summer ends, especially on a rainy day.

Getting Ready for Spring / Make and Bake

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Getting Ready for Spring
Kathryn Selbert
Nosy Crow

I’ve no doubt that we’re all looking forward to the arrival of spring. I’ve already seen snowdrops and the occasional primrose but have yet to spot any baby deer like those shown in this sticker storybook created in collaboration with the National Trust; and, inevitably already as I write, the supermarket shelves are stacked with hot cross buns and other Easter fare.

Herein we see a family picnicking beside a lake, children decorating Easter eggs, birds being fed in a garden, spring cleaning on a rainy April day.

There are more preparations for Easter, a family visit to a farm, the children bake Easter treats with Grandma and when the festival day arrives there’s an egg hunt and an Easter parade.

The final pages comprise a ‘Can you spot?’ feature with over 30 items to find in the preceding spreads, and 3 pages of stickers to add to the named pages.

Seasonal fun to engage little ones and there’s plenty of interest to discuss on each of Kathryn Selbert’s main spreads.

If your opportunities to get outside with youngsters are limited in this unpredictable weather, then this book will help them anticipate the delights of what is to come in the next two or three months.

Also useful on days when the weather tends to keep youngsters inside is:

Make and Bake
illustrated by various artists
Oxford University Press

This is part of the OUP ‘Read with Oxford’ series that uses ‘step-by-step’ stages and is phonic based. Many readers of my blog will know that I’m anything but a fan of the approach to reading that underlies this way of learning to read. However, this non-fiction title offers six fun activities for those in the early stages of becoming readers.

Young children can, guided by the six sections make frog cards (and paper plate animals that could become puppets – children can think up their own animals too);

enjoy some pancake making (with an adult); create a sock goblin hand puppet; find out something about growing foods you might eat on a picnic; discover how to grow strawberries and eventually make ‘Strawberry Mess’ and enjoy eating same; the final part, ‘Snack Attack’ is about what constitutes a healthy snack. Readers follow two characters who visit a market and on their return, make the snacks using what they bought.

Also included are simple activities such as matching animal pictures with their names; sequencing instructions, sorting, unjumbling letter sequences to make food words and a word search. A mix of photographs and illustrations by various artists

help make everything clear.