Explore and Discover Nature: Tips for Reading With Children

To help children, parents and educators get the most out of my books, I've written down ideas for reading each book, activities and further places to get good information. These have been on the publisher's website, but a recent revamp means these pages are temporarily inaccessible. So for now I'm putting these ideas on the blog.

Tips for Reading Non-Fiction With Children

It's okay to read a book just the way it's written cover to cover!
On the second (third or fourth!) read, or the first if the child needs a bit of encouragement to stick with a book, get them to look a bit closer at the pictures and talk about what you're reading.
It's great to get them showing you things, "where is the octopus?" Also ask open questions, ones that don't have right or wrong answers "What would it be like to be swimming through this reef?".
Think aloud as you read, "I wonder what will be hiding in the rocky reefs?"
Show them how to use features like the glossary or index. "I wonder what 'echolocation' means? Let's look it up in the glossary." "Shall we see what other pages have information about penguins? Let's look in the index."
Follow up reading the book to find out more about something that interested them, see ideas below for how you might do this.

Reading Under the Ocean at the Festival of the Elements

Learning More About the Ocean

Ocean life can seem quite hidden and hard to observe, perhaps its the very secretive nature of the ocean that adds to the fascination children have with marine life.

There are some easy ways to get to know more about New Zealand’s ocean.

borrow books or DVDs from your local library
find YouTube channels that are dedicated to ocean life, you’ll be amazed what you can see online
take binoculars with you when you go to the beach or go out on a boat or ferry
visit aquariums and museums
find and read Maori legends associated with the sea, such as about, Paikea the whale rider
if you have an iPad or iPhone download the free “Moana - My Ocean” marine life App from Auckland Museum to help with identification
join a local project such as, Marine Metre Squared, a beach clean up or making penguin nesting boxes
in Under the Ocean, we decided not to use the term ‘continental shelf’. The Open Ocean pages 12-15 describes animals that live over the continental shelf, ie the open ocean but still close to New Zealand. The deep ocean picture on pages 16-17 is beyond the continental shelf. For more about the depth of the sea around New Zealand and some interesting pictures and diagrams see http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/sea-floor/media.

Moana - My Ocean App

Do some hands on activities

Create an ocean in a bottle or on a chart, finding out what lives at different zones. For a couple of different approaches see: http://www.kcedventures.com/blog/science-for-kids-under-the-sea-ocean-bottle or http://www.icanteachmychild.com/make-ocean-zones-jar/
Using chalk, measure out the length of the different whales (or squid. sharks etc) on a playground. Or you could do this on a long beach using driftwood.
For other craft ideas and links to information pages, see our Pinterest board http://www.pinterest.com/inkwise/explore-nz-sea-life/