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Educational Goals

Big Backyard is National Wildlife Federation's (NWF’s) nature magazine for children ages 4 to 7 years.

The National Wildlife Federation believes that the most effective way to introduce wildlife to children is through lively literature and games that correspond to children’s current stages of cognitive, affective, social/emotional, and physical development. In designing developmentally appropriate material, Big Backyard has four main educational goals.

Provide natural science information that focuses on the characteristics, basic needs, habitat, and/or life cycle of different plants and animals.
Support early emergent readers by providing stories and activities that foster print awareness, sound-letter correspondence, letter formation, vocabulary building, picture reading, and story discussion. Support upper emergent readers by printing all text in typefaces and sizes appropriate for young eyes to read, keeping sentence length short, highlighting important sight vocabulary, enhancing reading comprehension through step-by-step photos and artwork, and having fun with language.
Enhance mathematical development by finding ways in the feature articles to encourage children to count, add, and subtract objects; to compare quantities; and to identify and categorize shapes and patterns.
Provide opportunities to practice gross and fine motor skills through games, crafts, and cooking activities.

Instructional Strategies

Each issue of Big Backyard incorporates the following approaches to learning.

Read-Aloud Opportunities: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents begin reading aloud to children during the early years of a child’s life to enhance intellectual potential. Big Backyard articles are designed to be read aloud to children.
Independent Reading Opportunities: Feature stories appear in large, readable type that encourages some children to begin to read the magazine on their own. Photos and artwork follow the storylines, which in turn, help enhance children’s reading comprehension.
Connections to Prior Knowledge: In accordance with recommendations by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, all Big Backyard issues build on children’s prior knowledge by helping them make connections between experiences they have had in their everyday lives and those that exist in the larger world (e.g., learning from parents, playing with peers, communicating feelings, eating food, keeping warm).
Active Learning: Educational research shows that in order to truly understand something new, children must do more than just listen to an explanation. They must read, write, or talk about its content—or be engaged in problem solving related to the content. All pages of Big Backyard involve children in doing such things and
in thinking about what they are doing.
Comprehensive Learning: The magazine’s stories and activities develop cognitive, affective, social/emotional, and physical skills as well as provide fun and creative approaches to the areas of science, reading, and math.

Content Overview

You’ll find the following regular features inside Big Backyard.

What’s That? A wildlife photograph that stimulates curiosity about the natural world.

Animal Feature: Photo story that spotlights a specific animal— its physical characteristics, habitat, and behavior.

Theme-Related Feature: Photo story that explores a natural phenomenon, such as camouflage, nest building, migration, or hibernation.

My Little Book: Ten-page mini-book that children pull out, assemble, and read. Each little book focuses on a specific thinking skill, such as making comparisons or solving problems.

The Ądventures of Bonnie and Chester: Tale that uses words and picture cues to chronicle the humorous exploits of Bonnie Bluebird and Chester Chipmunk.

Backyard Buddies: Drawings of animals submitted by our readers.

Ever Wonder? Simple answers to those elusive questions that kids ask about nature, such as: Why do cats have whiskers? What is thunder? Why do tulips close at night?

Poster: Two-page animal photograph that children can pull out of the magazine and hang up.

Nature in My Neighborhood: Short reports from readers on wildlife in their neighborhoods.

Let’s Draw: Step-by-step directions for drawing simple animal pictures.

Ricky and Pals: Fictional stories about the adventures of Ricky Raccoon and his friends that adults can read aloud to children.

Explore the Big Outdoors: A graphical nature guide that introduces a seasonal plant or animal. This page encourages children to go outside and experience nature firsthand.

Family Fun: A three-page supplement for parents packed with songs, crafts, recipes, outdoor activities and other interactive learning opportunities that can reinforce and enrich the content of each issue.