Books with author Scot Ritchie

Maps are about far more than getting from a to b. Maps can help children understand and explore both their everyday environment and faraway places. With an appealing search-and-find technique, Follow That Map! is an interactive picture book that explains and demonstrates key mapping concepts. Kids will enjoy following Sally and her friends as they search for Max and Ollie, a mischievous dog and cat on the lam from the backyard. Sally and friends take an imaginative trip through the neighborhood, city and country, around the world and beyond. Kids can join in the search for Max and Ollie, who are hiding somewhere in every map. An activity at the end of the book shows children how to make a map of their bedroom.

Learning about buildings and how they are constructed has never been so much fun. This gem of a book introduces young readers to basic construction concepts through the eyes of five friends keen on building a doghouse for their pet pooch, Max. To find out more about the task, Yulee, Martin, Nick, Sally and Pedro head to the library, where they learn about foundations, beams, frames and other building fundamentals. Fun facts, bright illustrations and comic-book-style discussions among the characters add to the mix. An activity at the end of the book invites readers to make their own mini doghouse out of marshmallows, paper, glue and craft sticks.

Get your pencil ready—it’s time to jumpstart your imagination with The Everything Kids’ Connect the Dots Puzzle and Activity Book! When you crack the connect-the-dots puzzles in this book, you’ll climb aboard a ship and encounter swashbuckling pirates, dig up a dinosaur skeleton, or get behind the wheel of your very own racecar! Count your way through puzzles to discover: Exciting sports and games Cuddly cats and dangerous dragons Slimy, smelly, and gross creatures Sneaky spies and their secret lives Perfect princes and pretty princesses Vehicles that go vroom! With tons of terrific puzzles that deliver hours of fun, you won’t want to stop connecting the dots!

In this engaging nonfiction picture book, five young friends --- Nick, Yulee, Pedro, Sally and Martin --- spend the day traveling around their neighborhood and participating in activities designed to raise money for their local library. Along the way, they learn about the people and places that make up their community and what it means to be a part of one. A map opens the story, with each of the places the children will be visiting labeled, including the gas station, retirement home, school, police station, soccer field, community garden and, of course, the library! Then each of the following spreads features a different location, detailed in a bright, busy illustration. Illustration captions expand the locations' connections to the concept of community. For example, when they stop at a yard sale, the caption reads, ?Donating means you give something to help a good cause. You can donate money, things or your time.? In some cases, readers are asked to find things or people within the illustrations, which adds an interactive experience. Author and illustrator Scot Ritchie has created a rich resource for social studies lessons on places, roles and jobs within a community, and what it takes to be a responsible citizen. But there is also the potential here for even broader classroom discussions, including about the economy of a community, geography and mapping, and how the character education concepts of cooperation, responsibility and teamwork apply. The author has also included step-by-step instructions for a puzzle-making project.

Part of the popular Exploring Our Community series, here's the perfect child-friendly introduction to mindfulness.Friends Yulee, Nick, Martin and Sally are at Pedro's house for a sleepover. Pedro is moving in a few days, and he's been feeling both sad about leaving his old house and worried he won't be happy in his new one. To try to help Pedro feel better, his mom decides to teach the five friends about mindfulness, which is, as she describes it, ?being aware of what is happening right now.? As the children practice focusing on their bodies, using their senses, paying attention to their feelings and accepting life as it happens, Pedro learns there are many ways to manage the stress of his upcoming move.As with all the titles in the popular Exploring Our Community series, award-winning author Scot Ritchie tells an engaging story about five culturally diverse friends while also providing comprehensive factual information on each spread. Fun mindfulness activities follow the story. Studies have shown the many benefits of mindfulness for young children --- from increased attention and self-control to decreased stress and disruptive behavior --- and teachers are using it more and more in the classroom. By learning how to incorporate mindfulness into their lives, children gain lifelong coping skills they can use to stay physically and mentally healthy. All the facts in the book have been reviewed by a mindfulness expert.

Pedro, Nick, Yulee, Sally and Martin are buzzing with excitement today! The five friends are visiting Martin's neighbor, Mr. Cardinal. He keeps beehives in his backyard, and he's offered to show them how honeybees live. As the kids help Mr. Cardinal with his work, he explains how bees feed and pollinate, what happens inside their colony, how they build their hives and even why they like to dance! He also tells the friends why some bee populations are in trouble and what people can do to help. And the perfect sweet ending to the day? Honey, of course! These children are sure to remember: it's best to ?bee a friend? to the bees of the world!This playful book mixes narration, facts and appealing illustrations to introduce young children to why the world needs bees, and how people can help them thrive. It's part of the critically acclaimed Exploring Our Community series from award-winning author and illustrator Scot Ritchie, which features the same five culturally diverse characters throughout. Comprehensive yet entertaining, the book encourages children to look closer at the natural world around them, including in cities, and raises their awareness about how each person can do something to help the environment. It aligns perfectly with the early science curriculum, particularly sustainability and stewardship, and understanding life systems. Rounding out the information in the story are a full bee illustration with the parts identified, a glossary and two activities that can be done at home or in school.

Yulee and her four friends --- Nick, Pedro, Sally and Martin --- are taking a trip to her aunt's farm to pick apples and make an apple crisp for a potluck harvest dinner. Yum! But first, Aunt Sara gives the friends a tour of the whole farm, where they learn what it means to eat balanced meals, why eating local food matters and all that goes into getting food from farm to table. Who knew there was so much to learn about what we eat? It makes everything taste better!Award-winning author and illustrator Scot Ritchie uses accessible and entertaining language and familiar characters from his other books to encourage young children to make healthy choices about what they eat. Each stop on the farm tour introduces a basic food group: the field of wheat and oats for grains, the garden for vegetables, the henhouse for protein, the barn for dairy and the orchard for fruit. Ritchie's cheerful, busy illustrations invite children to look closer at the details. This is a terrific book for a science or health lesson to broaden young children's understanding of healthy eating and why local food matters. The potluck dinner includes a multicultural group of neighbors and provides opportunities for discussions about community involvement. There is an apple crisp recipe at the end of the story. Also provided are a table of contents and glossary.

For his birthday celebration, Nick has challenged his friends - Yulee, Sally, Pedro and Martin - to spend the day without using any single-use plastic. This means they use their own cloth bags for shopping, they say no thanks to plastic straws and, instead of balloons, they decorate with kites and streamers made of natural materials. The children discover that not using plastic is not that hard. They also learn about what plastic is made of, how much of it surrounds us and how it's polluting our oceans and affecting the food chain. Most importantly, the five friends learn ways to use less - including just saying NO! The book concludes with fun ideas for readers to do a No-Plastic Challenge of their own! This friendly introduction to a timely and urgent topic is part of Scot Ritchie's popular Exploring Our Community series. It will raise awareness of just how much plastic we use every day, and why that matters. Rather than focusing on the negative, however, the book takes a positive, proactive approach to the subject, empowering children with ideas for what they can do about it. As with all the books in the series, this one features friendly, appealing illustrations and the same diverse cast of characters. It has strong curriculum ties in science, including environmental awareness, sustainability and stewardship. It also offers terrific character education lessons in responsibility, citizenship and initiative.

It’s the day of the first salmon ceremony, and P'ésk'a is excited to celebrate. His community, the Sts’ailes people, give thanks to the river and the salmon it brings by commemorating the first salmon of the season. Framed as an exploration of what life was like for the Sts’ailes people one thousand years ago, P'ésk'a and the First Salmon Ceremony describes the customs of the Sts’ailes people, an indigenous group who have lived on the Harrison River in British Columbia for the last 10,000 years. Includes an introductory letter from Chief William Charlie, an illustrated afterword and a glossary.

Kids can get up close to fire-breathing dragons in this magical puzzle and activity book. Featuring more than 100 fantastical puzzles, this activity book teaches kids everything they need to know about these mystical creatures, including: the history of dragons, known as dragonology; dragons from around the world; friends of dragons and how baby dragons grow; the many different types of dragons; how to make friends with a dragon; dragons caves and lairs; and more! With this book, kids can dare to venture into the mythical world of dragons—without getting burned!

Classified information. Secret files. Mysterious missions. A spy's life is full of excitement and suspense! Packed with more than 100 covert puzzles and activities, The Everything Kids' Spies Puzzle and Activity Book gives you all the top-secret information on: Famous spies like Mata Hari What it takes to be a spy Super-secret spy hangouts Cool gadgets and gizmos Special spy language and codes So choose your disguise and grab your night-vision goggles. Your undercover adventure is about to begin!

Word searches, mazes, hidden pictures, scrambled words, and more--the fun never ends! In this book, kids find 100 brand-new puzzles of all kinds. They'll love to play their way through kid-friendly topics like:Eeky creepy!Fish frenzyDino-might!Hummin' hoedownPirate powerrrr! And many, many more! Parents and kids alike will delight in the newest edition to the series that the Associated Press has called "Everything you want in a kids' book." So sharpen those pencils and get ready for hours of puzzling fun!