Book Review: Wild Your World

Most kids go through a phase where they want to learn more about animals, and it’s fun for them to learn about the diversity of the natural world and what humans can do to protect other creatures we share the planet with. Camilla de la Bedoyere has written a couple of books, illustrated by Philip Giordano, to help kids learn more about birds and bees.

Wild Your World: Birds looks at many different kinds of birds that live around the world and covers things like parts of a bird, different habitats that birds live in, migration, camouflage, what and how birds eat and more.

With lovely illustrations showing a diverse array of birds found around the world, the book talks about different birds that live in the woodlands, rainforest, fields and farms, coastland, grasslands and deserts, urban areas and the polar regions.

It talks about some of the biggest, smallest and fastest birds, and fun facts about different birds. For example you’ll learn about birds that next in cacti, the birds with weird shaped eggs so they won’t roll off cliffs, and meet the birds that migrate from New Zealand to Alaska.

Wild Your World: Bees follows a similar format, talking about different kinds of bees (and how the vast majority of bee species are solitary bees), parts of a bee and why bees look the way they do, how bees collect nectar and pollen, how bees sense the world around them, how their wings work and what life in a colony is like.

It covers the bee life cycle, how bees make honey, what causes a swarm and more. It covers digger bees, carpenter bees, orchid bees, cuckoo bees (who lay their eggs in the nests of teddy bear bees so they don’t have to take care of their young), mining bees, plasterer bees, leaf-cutter, wool carder and mason bees (so named because they collect materials to make their nests), bumblebees and swaet bees.

Readers will also learn about keeping bees. Both books talk about the dangers to birds and bees and what humans can do to help them.

These books are aimed at readers ages 4-9 who will enjoy looking at the pictures and learning about these animals and how people can help protect them.

About the books: Both books are 46 pages and hardcover. Published 2025 by Design Eye (see: birds|bees). Both books retail for $16.99.

Let’s Get Buzzing About World Bee Day

Bee Craft – Learning about Pollination

Learning about Bees for Kids

Johnny Appleseed Day is sometimes celebrated on Sept. 26 because that is John Chapman’s birthday, but even if you’re just doing an apple unit study for fall it’s a great time to talk about Johnny Appleseed.

And that’s the place to start, that Johnny Appleseed was a real person named John Chapman who was born in 1774 in what was then the province of Massachusetts Bay. He traveled west when he turned 18 and despite the image of him randomly tossing apple seeds everywhere, he was really a deliberate planter of apple tree nurseries, which he left in the care of others and checked on every year or two.

Learn a little more of his story with these cute coloring pages (though not entirely historically accurate, they’re still cute) from Homeschool of 1. They also have a Johnny Appleseed themed word search printable.

This pin of a Scholastic News page doesn’t link to a website, but it gives you some basic information and a true and false quiz you can use with kids.

Crystal & Co. has a cute apple themed counting mini book you can print and use with your Johnny Appleseed unit. They also have some coloring pages with a bit of handwriting practice. Or practice cutting with the Johnny Appleseed themed worksheets from 3 Boys and a Dog.

Make a Johnny Appleseed puppet to help tell the story with this craft with a free printable template from Simple Everyday Mom. You’ll also find some cute printable worksheets there to learn his story and put it in the correct order.

Color, cut out and assemble this Johnny Appleseed drawing from Homeschool Preschool. They also have an apple seed counting activity you can use for practicing one to one correspondence.

Tiaras and Tantrums has a free printable apple unit that includes Johnny Appleseed facts and coloring pages, as well as how to say apple in different languages, tracing apple vocabulary, art project ideas, science experiments and more.

And if you need more apple themed activities to go with your Johnny Appleseed celebrations, check out my posts on apple crafts and apple learning activities.

Have you read?

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