Mudlark Finds *13: Rabbityness

Mudlark Find Number 13 is the partner to Find Number 12, from the Child’s Play soft-back picture book line.  It’s author/illustrator Jo Empson’s debut picture book – I hope Child’s Play carry on discovering and publishing such excellent works.

Like all good children’s picture books, this one works on many levels, and much could be made of it by parents and educators.  The reason it’s got a place as one of my Mudlark treasures is its potential contribution to creative play outdoors, especially for unfettered music making and a liberated approach to paint and colour.  The page where you turn to “he liked painting’ just lifts your spirits and says “Yes! This is what’s special about taking learning outdoors!”  You’d want to have a huge plastic sheet and plenty of paint ready…

I’m just off to California to contribute to the Childplay Institute’s Children Learning with Nature 2014 Training Institute at the University of California Santa Cruz campus, with my friends Paul Roberts, Clare Warden, Erin Kenny and Sharon Danks. Have a fabulous Mud Day on Sunday – we will!

P.S. there’s still time to make use of Muddyfaces’ Mud Pack to help you make full use of this international event.

With this section of my website, I share some of the many wonderful treasures I dig up while researching and supporting outdoor play for children from birth to seven. I hope they inspire you too, and help you to create motivational, meaningful and satisfying outdoor play experiences for all the children you work with.

Mudlark Finds *12: Harold Finds A Voice

Mudlark Find Number 12 has a partner, which I’ll post in the next Mudlark Find. Both are part of publishers Child’s Play’s recent venture into soft-back picture books and I discovered them at the NAEYC conference I presented at in Washington DC last November.  The publishers very kindly mailed (free) copies of both books to me in the UK and my thank-you to them is to let you know about them.  I think Child’s Play should carry on with this line of delightful books.  This is apparently author/illustrator Courtney Dicmas’s first picture book – I do hope she makes some more…

This book is gorgeous, both visually and in the characters of the protagonist Harold (who lives in apartment 4B in Paris) and his new-found friends.  It’s great for supporting outdoor play through the storyline of Harold discovering and mimicking all the sounds in his world – I would want to use it to stimulate or focus interest in the outdoor soundscape and in the making of outdoor sounds, or in response to an interest shown by children.

Harold does of course discover his own voice – which makes him happiest of all.

With this section of my website, I share some of the many wonderful treasures I dig up while researching and supporting outdoor play for children from birth to seven. I hope they inspire you too, and help you to create motivational, meaningful and satisfying outdoor play experiences for all the children you work with.

Mudlarking is the ancient practice of digging in the mud of the Thames to find treasures.  It still goes on today, uncovering and recovering some amazing artefacts from the life of London city through the centuries.  Click on this link for more information about mudlarking.