Lens on Outdoor Learning is a 'must' for early childhood education collections. It provides a fine resource for parents and teachers and packs in details on supporting outside learning experiences, showing how to connect kids to the world of nature. Stories and cse histories pack each page and connect risk-taking, responsibility and other issues with the outdoors experience all seasons of the year. Color photos and descriptions make this a lively survey!
The Midwest Book Review- California Bookwatch April 2011

The outdoors comes with its own curriculum content in place, embedded in the children’s interactions with natural systems, plant and animal life, and an endless variety of materi- als, challenges, and seasonal changes. This exciting portrait of the education of 3- to 5-year-old children in urban and rural settings provides practical guidance and inspiration to help programs capitalize on the unique potential of learning out- doors. The authors show teachers and administrators how to connect with early learning standards when using the natural world to promote children’s competency in taking initiative, persisting at tasks, solving problems, developing resilience and flexibility, and for other areas. Enchanting color photographs enhance the compelling narratives of children’s learning as they reflect on their interac- tions with the environment, construct theories about meaning based on their past experiences, and test out their theories in their next interaction. These vignettes capture the children’s role in their own learning process. The stories provide a model to help teachers reflect on the learning process and analyze what children are actually doing, so they can help the children refine and extend the approaches they are using. The text includes suggestions for designing the play yard and enriching the curriculum. While focused on learning outdoors, this book is also a child development primer. The authors’ insightful commentary on how young children develop and learn will strengthen teaching inside the classroom as well.
New Books column of the March 2011 issue of Young Children

Banning (Irvin Learning Farm) and Sullivan (Learning by the Yard) have extensive experience as teachers and in designing indoor and outdoor learning environments, training teachers, developing curriculum, and documenting children's growth and elarning. They offer early childhood teachers a practical guide to consciously and effectively incorporating outdoor activities into their teaching practices. The text contains an introductory overview of outdoor learning folled by chapters organized by early learning standards, focusing on outdoor activities to facilitate curiosity and engagement and persistence; imagination, invention, and creativity; reasoning and problem-solving, risk-taking, responsibility, and confidence; reflection, interpretation, and application; and flexibilty resilience. Each chapter includes an overview of the standard, its importance to child development, how state and national organizations classify the standard, obervable behaviors or indicators, demonstrating the standard, and illustrated narratives for each indicator. No subject index is included. (Annotation 2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
February 2011 Book News Inc.

The great outdoors has plenty to teach the young and curious. "Lens on Outdoor Learning" is a guide for those who want to teach very young children the wonders of the natural world through the great outdoors. Filled with tips and activities to encourage children's natural curiosity about the world around them, Wendy Banning and Ginny Sullivan draw on their own particular experience with outdoor education and provide a packed book with full color photos throughout. A powerful resource for educating pre-Kindergarted to early elementary grade children, "Lens on Outdoor Learning" is not a resource to be missed.
The Midwest Book Review- The Bookwatch November 2010

This book will inspire you to throw open your doors and head outside with your children to jump in puddles, crunch leaves, find worms, and sniff flowers—all with the knowledge that you are helping to spark a deep sense of wonder at the mysteries and beauty of life.

Lens on Outdoor Learning is a terrific resource for teachers and parents who want to enrich young and curious minds, and their own minds too.

If you have money and time to invest in only one book this year, choose Lens on Outdoor Learning. With vivid photos and stories, each page builds a strong case for recentering our early learning in the natural world. The authors remind us that nature is the key player in meeting early learning standards. This book will invigorate teachers to plan as carefully for the outdoors as they do their classrooms. It's a gem!