Jan. 14, 2009 - Nature Journaling - Keeping Inquiring Minds Inquiring
It's not used nearly enough but we do keep a nature journal. It's nothing special to look at. But to us it is special, because it is full of memories, discoveries and reminders of God's creativity in how He put this world together. Some entries include a pictorial and written record of the spiders we watched build their webs, logged the growth of a banana plant, done leaf and bark rubbings, colored the clouds in today's sky and a host of other activities.
Below is list of resources and ideas I have compiled to get you started. If you have been wanting to start up a nature journal, today is as good a day as any. Start small. Start with a bang. Start any way at all. But, just start! You won't regret it!
Suggested Supplies: (you should keep these together and ready for spontaneous exploration)
Field manuals/spotter’s guides
Magnifying glass
Binoculars
Clip board/Notebook
Handheld Field scope
Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola
Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock
Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth (note this book is not from a Christian worldview)
Usborne or other pocket guides to trees, flowers, insects etc.
Picture Books that encourage nature exploration:
I Am an Artist by Pat Lowry Collins
Play with Me by Marie Hall Ets
Henry the Explorer series by Mark Taylor
The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer
*Begin to go on a weekly or monthly nature walk. You could visit the same route on different days or times of the day to see if you see anything new on consecutive walks or you could change the route each day. Your child could journal or draw about what they see. They could also dictate to you what they saw.
*Make a nature bracelet: take wide clear tape and attach it around your child’s wrist, sticky side out. On his/her nature walk have them find flowers, leaves, blades of grass etc. and attach them on the sticky tape until their bracelet is complete.
*Talk about how your senses work. If you close your eyes can you hear better than you do with your eyes open? Sit very still with your child and listen, smell, and look around.
*Make a sky and cloud viewer: Take a piece of white poster board (approx. 8 ½ X 11) and cut a large rectangle out of the center, leaving a border of about 2 inches around. Discard the center piece. With pencil or maker, draw small bands of about 1-2 inches around the border. Experiment with paint (blue/black/white) to create a variety of shades and tints (several blues and some grays) that you might see in the sky. Fill in the bands you have segmented off with these various colors. Be sure to leave one of the bands white. When it dries, number your color squares and your sky viewer is ready to use. Hold it up to the sky and view through the cutout to determine which color best represents the sky today.
*Put a hula hoop in an area of your yard and have your child observe and list or draw everything he/she sees in that area.
*Choose a portion of your yard/a park and match some flowers/plants etc. with various shades of crayons. Have your child find something that matches the crayon colors you have selected and draw and color each thing.
*Make leaf or bark rubbings on typing paper. This could be used to decorate cards or stationary.
*Observe and journal the life of a fruit or vegetable plant from seed to fruit.
*Keep a weather chart for a week
*Lie on your back in the grass to watch the clouds. Draw what you see.
*Press flowers by putting them between two pieces of wax paper and putting them under a heavy book for several weeks. Besides putting them in your nature journal, these could be used on cards or stationary or could be put on a large piece of cardstock and laminated for a placemat.
*Take a wet nature walk (in the rain or just after the rain) to notice the difference from a “dry” walk.
*Find some sleepy grass and enjoy it. What out for the thorns, though!
*Find some moss and note where it grows and where it doesn’t
*Draw a spider in a web. Observe what insects have been caught in his web.
*Observe some ants for several minutes.
Comments
Jan. 26, 2009 - Thank you
Posted by Anonymous
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