The Stick Book

'A beautiful and inspiring book, bursting with practical suggestions which will appeal to every child’s imagination. Reading it, I wanted to rush out to my nearest wood immediately!' Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo   Who doesn’t love a stick? The universal toy for children and adults alike, sticks can provide endless opportunities for outdoor adventures, creative play, woodcraft and conservation. Packed with 70 ideas and projects, The Stick Book will give you loads of inspiration for using the wonderful, free and all-natural toy: the stick. As The National Museum of Play (New York) pointed out when they put the stick in their National Toy Hall of Fame, 'It can be a Wild West horse, a medieval knight's sword, a boat on a stream, or a slingshot with a rubber band …' A stick can be anything you want it to be. This book will give you loads of inventive ideas for spending quality time outdoors with your children – from the adventurous to the magical, getting creative to playing games, making music to building bug hotels. Try your hands at:- Making a DIY tent or den- Creating a woodland monster or magic carpet- Wild weaving or making your own natural wind chimes- Playing capture the flag or a woodland mapping game- Making a bird feeder or bug hotel With 70 ideas and projects, there will be something for every little adventurer, dreamer or budding ecologist in The Stick Book. All you need to get started is … a stick!

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. Their latest book Make This Book Wild was shortlisted for The Week Junior Book Awards for best Illustrated books. 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.

Discovering sticks Adventure and bushcraft sticks Make a fire Cook over a fire Build a den Make a DIY tent Make a staff Make a stick sword Make a catapult Make an ancient spear-thrower and a spear Make a bow and arrows Make a pea-shooter Magic sticks Make a star wand Make a wizard's wand Make scavenging sticks Make a witch's broomstick Make a wiggly snake Make shadow pictures Make stick characters Make stick and clay animals Make a fairy house or an elf castle Make miniature worlds for toy people and animals Make hobby animals Make woodland monsters Make woodland magic carpets Make a flying creature Make fairy and fish sticks Make wild storyboards Creative sticks Draw in mud and sand Make charcoal pencils Make a paintbrush Make a picture frame Make a woody crown Make a necklace Create stick art for a woodland gallery Choose a stirring stick Make a nest Make a dream-catcher Make a loom for wild weaving Weave a wild basket Make stick and paper lanterns Make natural mobiles and wind chimes Make a wreath Decorate a seasonal stick tree with stick stars Stick games Throw a stick for a dog Play pick-up sticks Make a flying machine Play capture the flag Play quoits Play Aunt Sally Invent your own stick games Do the stick tower challenge Play tracking with sticks Play the woodland mapping game Sunny sticks Navigate with a stick and the sun Make a sun clock Measure the radius of the earth Musical sticks Make percussion sticks Make stick rattles Bushcraft busking with a can guitar Watery sticks Play Pooh sticks Mini raft challenge Make a pond-dipping net Make a fishing rod Measure the depth of a stream Woodcraft and conservation Make your own walking/tracking stick Make a stretcher Make a mouse trap Plant a tree Make a habitat pile Make a creepy-crawly hotel Make a bird feeder Stick stuff Index Acknowledgments