Words

A fun part of nature journaling is exploring and observing the natural world, and sharing our discoveries with others. Often we might not know the name of some of the plants or animals we spot, so we will need to use a variety of words to describe them as best we can.

Spelling

For our purpose of describing nature in our journals, we aren't going to think about correct spelling. We want to encourage everyone to use as many incredible, fantastic, wonderful words as possible, without worrying about spelling.

We'll be learning about ways to describe what we see.

In our observations we'll be noticing the shape, size, texture, weight, color, and much more.

If you came across these beautiful flowers how would you describe them?

Could you use any of these words, large, small, soft, smooth, prickly, or delicate? How would you describe their colors? Do you think they have a pretty smell to them? What is different about them, or the same? Don't hurry, take some time to think of as many details as you can to describe them.

Pinecones

Describe these pinecones. What colors do you see? How are they the same and how are they different?

You could create a box to collect the words in or perhaps you would like to organize them in a notebook or binder.

Word Collection Box

Use an empty cracker or cereal box. Cut off the top half to leave the bottom as a place to file your words. You could decorate a piece of paper and glue it to the outside.

You could draw a picture of something in nature and use as many words you can think of for that object and include that in your box.

Start Your Word Collecting

It's as much fun for adults as it is for kids!

You can use index card size paper to write you words on, or make mini word cards if you rather.

soft

smooth

prickly

rough

fabulous

fluffy

scatchy

prickly

hard

windy

wet

muddy

In the book, The Word Collector, by Peter H. Reynolds, a young boy named Jerome collects words, like other people collect rock or stamps. This book trailer shows you how delightful it is to collect words. Some read-alouds of this book can be found on YouTube.

You can learn about the author and his many great books here. Peter H. Reynolds author and illustrator.

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