Make it Wild!: 101 Things to Make and Do Outdoors

by Fiona Danks, Jo Schofield

Overview

Make it Wild! shows how children can enjoy the endless opportunities offered by wild places. Looking at what nature has to offer, they explore the potential of diverse raw materials such as snow, leaves, and sticks and suggest how to work with them. The book demonstrates how to use nature's free, renewable resources to make anything from a clay monster to an ice lantern or flaming balloons. Making things outdoors involves creativity and imagination, as well as learning how to solve practical problems, how to work together, the need to see a process through from start to finish, and the safe use of potentially dangerous tools — all of which help children acquire the skills they need to cope with the world and develop a commonsense understanding of the way it works.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781011812
Publisher:	Lincoln, Frances Limited
Publication date:	05/25/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	70 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Fiona Danks is an environmental educator and author who works with her writing partner Jo Schofield to create beautiful books about the natural world. Fiona and Jo believe that reconnecting everyone with nature is vital if we are to understand our reliance on a healthy and biodiverse natural world, and ensure it is protected for the future. They believe that all children and families should regularly spend time outdoors in green spaces where nature can weave its magic upon them.  

Together they have been writing and photographing the Going Wild books for the last fifteen years.  Through their books and website, they inspire families everywhere to get outside and become immersed in the natural world. They have run events, lead training courses for teachers and environmental educators, presented at conferences as keynote speakers, written articles, and they are helping to build the Leaves for Life Campaign (@joinleavesforlife) to raise awareness of the ecological emergency.. 

They both live at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire, where they enjoy natural history, walking and exploring the local countryside. For more information on how to encourage children to go outdoors, visit Jo and Fiona's website - www.goingwild.net  

Jo Schofield gained a degree in psychology from Exeter University and began her career working for an educational psychologist in London. After getting involved in the production of a film, she went on to work in the creative department of a TV advertising agency where she began taking still photographs. This led on to her becoming a commercial photographer in Australia and then London. She worked mainly for national editorial magazines such as Country Living. When her children were small she worked in Watlington Primary School and the Dragon school in Oxford, applying her creative knowledge to the classroom with children aged 6-9 years. More recently she has been focusing on writing and photographing for a series of books with co-author Fiona Danks. Jo lives near Watlington in Oxfordshire.

Fiona Danks is an environmental educator and author who works with her writing partner Jo Schofield to create beautiful books about the natural world. Fiona and Jo believe that reconnecting everyone with nature is vital if we are to understand our reliance on a healthy and biodiverse natural world, and ensure it is protected for the future. They believe that all children and families should regularly spend time outdoors in green spaces where nature can weave its magic upon them.   Together they have been writing and photographing the Going Wild books for the last fifteen years.  Through their books and website, they inspire families everywhere to get outside and become immersed in the natural world. They have run events, lead training courses for teachers and environmental educators, presented at conferences as keynote speakers, written articles, and they are helping to build the Leaves for Life Campaign (@joinleavesforlife) to raise awareness of the ecological emergency..  They both live at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire, where they enjoy natural history, walking and exploring the local countryside. For more information on how to encourage children to go outdoors, visit Jo and Fiona's website - www.goingwild.net

Read an Excerpt

Anyone wanting a quiet walk on that blustery autumn afternoon would have been in for a bit of a shock.

The woods rang out with the excited shrieks and crazy laughter of five elaborately decorated young warriors. Armed with sticks, they were ready to defend their territory to the bitter end and alarm innocent passers by with their scary painted faces. This was a real adventure, an escape into a world of stories and dreams, all made possible by a bit of crushed chalk.



Only an hour earlier those same young people had been sprawled in front of the television, squabbling over the computer and refusing to budge off the sofa. How could we ever tempt them away and channel all that pent-up energy into something positive? We grabbed a pestle and mortar, a few paintbrushes and a bottle of water, and dragged everybody off to the woods. We easily gathered some chalk from upturned tree roots and before long everyone was bashing and grinding it into a fine powder, and then mixing it into a smooth white paste with a little water. Stripping off their T-shirts - no one complained about the cold - the children decorated their faces, arms and even bodies with intricate patterns and pictures inspired by Aboriginal designs. With no further prompting they had become transformed into imaginary characters and were dashing off into the woods. A rather dull half-term afternoon had become a memorable experience.



We believe in letting the wild world weave its magic on young people. Wild places have a unique capacity to release a sense of adventure, stimulate imaginations, unleash creativity and restore a sense of wonder. Our families have wiled away many hours in local woods, distant mountains and back gardens. We have invented games, made weird and wonderful sculptures, raced miniature leaf boats down streams and collected natural treasures to turn into keepsakes. Make it Wild draws on these experiences, with the aim of inspiring young people to get off their backsides, forget about their image, leave commercial toys and games behind for a while and go in search of some inexpensive entertainment in the great outdoors.



The wild world is packed to the brim with endless possibilities for play, creativity and discovery. After a two-hour walk to a remote Hebridean beach where there wasn't a plastic beach toy or electronic game in sight, everyone was forced to search around for something to do. Sitting idly trickling dry sand between her fingers, Hannah began to experiment. Placing one hand down flat on the smooth damp sand, she poured dry sand all around it and revealed, when she lifted up her hand, a perfect silhouette. Soon everyone joined in, producing a scene reminiscent of ancient cave paintings created by spitting mouthfuls of paint around hands placed on the rock walls. Suddenly that wild and empty beach had become a place full of exciting new ideas. In this fast-moving, quick-fix modern world of over-packaged, branded toys, in which many children expect to have their needs met immediately, nature helps us all slow down a little and realize that less is often more.



Make it Wild is about looking at what nature has to offer in a new light. It's about appreciating the potential of diverse raw materials such as snow, leaves, chalk and sticks and learning how to work with them. It's about discovering how to use nature's free, renewable resources to make anything from a cricket bat or a clay monster to an ice lantern or costumes for an outdoor play. (And for those parents and carers who shudder at the thought of messy craft activities in their tidy house - take heart, and just get everyone outdoors! Connie and Sophie knew they could slop this elderberry juice around as much as they liked because outdoors is the perfect place to be messy!)



Such activities may take a long time, and t

Table of Contents

Ephemeral art

Beach art

Woodland art

Ice and snow



Outdoor toys

Wooden go-carts

Cricket and rounders bats

Boats and rafts 56

Planes and gliders

Kites

Flaming balloons



Make it from clay

Working with wild clay

Decorative tiles

Pinch pots

Sculptures

Firing clay

Smoke decorating



Make it from wood

Rustic furniture

Driftwood sculptures

Twig sculpture

Wild baskets

Withy lanterns



Nature's pigments

Natural paints

Natural dyes



Natural crafts

Jewellery

Paper making

Leaf plates and bowls

Pewter casting

Felting

Making a leather purse

Natural mobiles and windchimes



Further information

Index

Editorial Reviews

Recommended reading

From the Publisher