Books published by publisher Stillwater Publishing

No Student Left Indoors is your opportunity to learn and teach about our planet by helping your students to create a field guide to your schoolyard. Whether you're a nature buff or nature-phobe, a literary genius or writing impaired, artistically talented or one who can't draw a straight line with a ruler, and teaching gift or challenged students in an urban, suburban, or rural school—you'll wonder why you didn't think of this before.You'll learn:Who can participate in and benefit from a schoolyard studyWhat those benefits areWhere to look for nature in your schoolyardWhen to conduct your studiesHow to teach students to discover, observe, and record the nature in your schoolyardWhy everyone is talking about No Student Left IndoorsThis is a project for a class, grade, or entire school. It can be a long-term project based on inquiry, investigation, and hands-on learning, The project connects science, language arts, history, creative arts, and technology.

Presenting the waterfront ecosystem in a way that offers much to observe and explore, this educational guide reconnects children with the outdoors in today’s highly technological age. Packed with fun and interesting sidebars, this book instructs kids to take field notes, make lists, and learn about what they discover. They will gain the ability to identify shells, birds, crabs, plants, and insects, as well as obtain deeper knowledge about the environment, such as how beaches are formed, why they are important, and how so many different kinds of creatures can survive there. Young explorers will also learn details about the effects of tides and currents, as well as the causes of beach pollution, providing insights into a fascinating part of the world they might otherwise take for granted.

Promoting observation, discovery, and wonder, this take-along nature guide explores an overlooked yet fascinating environment: the city. Arguing that there is no better—or more convenient—place to find prime examples of plant and animal adaptations, see the impact of humans on the environment, and understand the importance of sustainable lifestyles, this book provides activities, artwork, and stories, that explore the world of nature in human-built surroundings. Sidebars supply definitions and pronunciations of new words and concepts, important plants of the urban landscape are detailed, and the most famous hawk in North America even makes an appearance. City dwellers will be astounded by the wealth of nature in their neighborhoods as they explore the plants and animals right under their noses.

Packed with fun and interesting sidebars, color photographs, and artwork by other kids, this award-winning series is as useful in the classroom as it is fun to readers. Designed to educate, entertain, and help create environmental stewards for our planet, the format presents science in a way that helps teachers address both national and state science and literacy standards. Topics are presented in convenient spreads that enable readers to flip throughout the books, and they provide definitions, resources, poetry, and quotes by celebrated people. The entire series is recommended by the National Science Teachers Association. Examining what happens to the environment during the winter season, this take-along guide helps children observe and understand the habits of the wildlife in their locale. They will discover how various plants and animals adapt to survive, where the insects, reptiles, and amphibians retreat to, and when they might expect to see them again. Differences between cryptic coloration and camouflage as well as hibernation and torpor are identified and explored, along with why some animals migrate and others don’t. Among the creatures covered are bears, deer, foxes, rabbits, squirrels, cardinals, chickadees, and titmice.

Packed with fun and interesting sidebars, color photographs, and artwork by other kids, this award-winning series is as useful in the classroom as it is fun to readers. Designed to educate, entertain, and help create environmental stewards for our planet, the format presents science in a way that helps teachers address both national and state science and literacy standards. Topics are presented in convenient spreads that enable readers to flip throughout the books, and they provide definitions, resources, poetry, and quotes by celebrated people. The entire series is recommended by the National Science Teachers Association. Children reconnect with nature while developing an understanding and appreciation of the wetlands with this guide. Readers will learn about various types of wetlands such as marshes, bogs, floodplain forests, and swamps; how wetlands are formed; their function as a food source; and how they serve as nurseries for animals. They will also become acquainted with the birds, frogs, turtles, hawks, insects, mollusks, and more, which inhabit the wetlands. With this book and their in-field experiences, the children will begin to understand the effects of humans on the wetlands' ecosystems and why the wetlands are becoming a focus of environmentalists and conservationists all over the world.

The essential educator’s guide to helping students discover, observe, and record nature in their schoolyard—urban, suburban, or rural—this book outlines a class, grade, or school-wide project connecting history, language arts, art, and technology. This is a complete source for place, project, and standards-based nature studies conducted under current conditions of any schoolyard, with no need for a special outdoor classroom. Included are case studies, stories, instructions, and resources for getting kids into the outdoors.

GETTIN’ WEIRD is a sequel to award-winning author Terry Trueman’s critically acclaimed second novel INSIDE OUT (HarperCollins 2003). Alan Mender has served his time for his participation in the robbery of Sunshine Espresso a year earlier, but Alan has a host of old and new issues with which he has to deal: His father, who everyone assumed was dead has sent Alan an obviously unexpected and mostly unwanted letter; Alan is a high school drop-out and has developed an alcohol problem; his younger brother Joey seems to be thriving, but is that a true picture? Add to all of this, Alan’s best friend Wally Britton (a re-appearing character from Trueman’s fourth novel NO RIGHT TURN), after sharing a few ‘rum and cokes’ with Alan has been busted for drinking and talks Alan into joining him at AA. What else could go wrong in this coming of age story? You might be surprised. As with all of Terry Trueman’s novels, there are no vampires or werewolves or running around in a dystopian world here, after all, real life is tough enough. How does a good kid who’s made some bad mistakes get a second chance? What’s really most important in life? How come things are never quite how they appear to be? Trueman takes on these difficult questions in a story that entertains, enthralls and touches readers’ hearts, while changing and expanding our understanding of our own choices and lives.

You do not know a person until you know their story. We each have a story and it is filled with both factual details and personal details. I believe the amount we are willing to reveal to another is in direct proportion to the amount they are able to love us. You cannot love what you do not know. When a group of people get together, one of the quickest and easiest ways to get to know one another is through the use of questions that prompt us to tell our story. That is the purpose of this book. The material is divided into three sections. New small groups might want to start near the front of the book with questions that are easier to answer.Getting to Know You is a series of factual questions that will allow you to know someone at a surface level.Getting to Know What You Think questions are a bit deeper and allow you to begin to know a person’s experiences as well as their thoughts on various subjects. Getting to Know What You Feel are a series of questions that often require a bit more of thought before answering.You may ask the questions in a variety of ways:Ask everyone in the group the same questionHave group members open to a random page and answer the first question they seeHave group members open to a random page and ask another group member the first question they seeYou may also use the book in a variety of circumstances:As an icebreaker for new groupsA fun break for groups that have been together a long timeAs a “get to know you” session whenever a new person is added to the groupThe first few minutes of every group meetingGreat for use in small group ministries!From the author of the bestselling Cooper Moon series (the first book of the series, Cooper Moon: The Calling, is available for free as an ebook from most online retailers)!