10 Books to Encourage Outdoor Play

*This post contains affiliate links.

There are so many wonderful books out there featuring nature that I had a difficult time narrowing them down to just ten.  So many other picture books tempted me with their stunning illustrations and sweet stories, but I will be featuring them on my Instagram instead. (Follow me there to see them featured! You’ll find me as: book.nerd.mommy) In the end, one of the main criteria I used was books that highlight great ideas for out-door play or can easily be used to introduce a fun outdoor-themed activity.  I am thrilled with the ten that I will share with you here and hope you enjoy them as much as we do.  I even threw in a couple books for mom as well!

Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.  This book has simple text and is full of leaf “animals’ and the “leaf man”.  A great activity to go with this  book would be leaf collecting followed by gluing leaves on paper for littles to create their own leaf animals.  Two other  fun aspects of this book are the beautiful and unique illustrations as well as the interesting way the pages are shaped. My little guy was fascinated by the pictures and looked through it over and over again!

Summer Days and Nights by Wong Herbert Yee.  This book goes through a summer day and night full of simple activities that any kid can do in the summer.  It’s cute and a great spring-board for outdoor play ideas.

A Stick Is an Excellent Thing: Poems Celebrating Outdoor Play  collected by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by LeUyen Pham.  This  has moved to one of my top favorite poetry books!  Its illustrations are absolutely beautiful and all of the poems are centered on outdoor play.  There are poems including everything from jacks, hopscotch, tag and bubbles to swings.

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, illustrated by John Schoenherr.  This is an older book, but it is so enchanting.  I remember the first time I was introduced to it.  I was in elementary school and the school librarian read it aloud to us.  I was transported, It was like I was there along with the little boy owling.  From then on, I was in love with this book.

It’s about a little boy and his father going out on a night walk on the night of the full moon to go owl spotting.  It has a simple, but it has a poetic feel about it.   The pace of the story is slow and soothing, making it a perfect bedtime story.

This book would be perfect to introduce the idea of nature walks to your children.   They could go on a nature walk to “leaf-spot” or “animal-spot”.  The possibilities are endless.

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopehr Silas Neal.  This book is highly informative and done in a way that is both easy to understand and interesting for children.  It goes through all four seasons and explains what activity is taking place above the ground and below the ground.  For example: in the spring they spread compost on the soil and down in the dirt pill bugs are eating through last years leaves. What a great introduction to decomposition!

After reading this book your child will have a fresh and focused perspective with which to see nature around them.  It would also be fun to go outside and look for the processes talked about in the book and maybe even make a Nature Journal.

Planting a Rainbow written and illustrated by Lois Ehlert.  Me and my toddler particularly love this book.  The bright, contemporary illustrations help keep his attention and the text is simple, short and sweet for him.  However, it also manages to be very informative considering how simple it is and therefore is also applicable to older children as well.  You can tell that Lois Ehlert really did his research in how each of the plants he mentions grow.

This is the type of  book that is fun to introduce seeds to toddlers with while growing a seed as an extension activity afterwards.  Also, you could go outside to gather a rainbow of plants to then come inside and create art with.  You could also visit a local plant nursery and search for each color of the rainbow there.  Really, there is so much you could do with this beautiful book.

Play with Me (Picture Puffins) by Marie Hall ETS.  Okay, I’ll be honest with you here, the cover of this book is not my personal favorite.  However, it is a lovely little book. (And there are newer editions you can buy that have a different cover.) It is the story of a little girl who tries to play with all the animals outside, but they run away.   It’s then she learns that the best way to “make animal friends” is to sit still, quiet, and patient until they come out. It’s a great book to introduce wildlife observation to your littles.

Know Your Numbers: Nature (Numbers 1-20) by Mary Elizabeth Salzmann.  This is a numbers book that uses items in nature to show the quantity of the numbers 1-20.  However, instead of using drawn illustrations, it uses actual photos of the nature items.  That is why I think this book would be excellent to take on a nature scavenger hunt after reading to see how many of the items in from the book you can find at your local nature park.  You could even collect some of them to count as a counting extension activity afterwards.

Fifteen Minutes Outside: 365 Ways to Get Out of the House and Connect with Your Kids by Rebecca P. Cohen.  This is a book full full of simple, incredibly inexpensive or free, creative and fun ideas for outdoor play.  It is meant to be a resource for a parent in facilitating outdoor-play with their children as a way to enjoy nature and have some bonding time.  The ideas in this book are short and sweet (meant to be about 15 minutes as the title suggests) and organized into seasons, months, and days.  They really are easy enough that you could do them everyday throughout the year.  Think of it as a yearly outdoor-play advent calendar! I love it!

Get Outside: The Kids Guide to Fun in the Great Outdoorsby Jane Drake and Ann Love, illustrated by Heather Collins.  This is an activity manual full of all kinds of wonderful outdoor play ideas that are free or inexpensive.  It includes everything from rock-toss games to how to build things like wind-chimes and kites.  Everything is organized into seasons and each activity includes numbered instructions, step-by-step illustrations, and a list of materials needed.  This would work great as a reference for parents to help facilitate outdoor play, but many of these activities are simple enough and explained clearly enough that older kids could even do them independently.  It’s a great resource to have!