IF YOU ARE NEW TO NATURE JOURNALING PLEASE LOOK AT OUR NATURE JOURNALING PAGE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Roles and responsibilities play a major role in nature. Students can use their nature journal as a tool  to integrate  and highlight this concept as they can observe the roles and responsibilities of plants, trees, animals, insect, etc.

At this age all three prompts "I notice..., I wonder...?, and "It reminds me of..." become very intuitive.  However the last statement becomes very important for connection making.  Encourage them to begin writing themselves using single words or simple sentences. Please note that spelling is not a focus in the nature journal.  At this age you may start to see art fears - please ensure you are re-iterating it is not about a pretty picture. It is about their observations.  Please see the link feedback at the bottom of this lesson for tips on this.  Using words, pictures and numbers allows the students multiple tools to document their observations.  With permission Bethan Burton has allowed us to link to her website as she has written a blog post for Teaching nature journaling at all ages.  

Here are some more  ideas to get you started.

• Engage the fives senses (whenever possible)

• Make leaf prints ( paint the leaf and press the print into the journal)

• Make leaf rubbings

• Trace the items they are looking at 

• Add leaves into the journal using tape

• Count the birds/squirrels/insects etc. 

• Measure as much of the phenomena as the students can using non standard and standard units of measurement.

Here is a downloadable lesson from John (Jack) Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren book: How to Teach Nature Journaling. All resources shared with permission.  "I Notice..., I Wonder...?, It Reminds me of..."

GIVING FEEDBACK here is a fantastic resource from Jack and Emilie

NOTE: You are encourage to spend time in the outdoors Nature Journaling.  However, you can also bring nature inside, look out your wonder window, have a refrigerator Safari or even observe a house plant or pet.

Watch the first video to the left to see what the roles and responsibilities the Peel Field Centre staff have at the Jack Smythe Field Centre.

• Discuss how your own roles and responsibilities are similar or different

• Take a walk through your community or look out the window  and brainstorm what roles and responsibilities are happening.  

  • • What are some of the roles in your community?

    • Who are in these roles?

    • Do you play a role in the community?  If so, what is it?

    •  What are the responsibilities in your community?

    • Who is responsible for these tasks?

    • Are you responsible for anything in your community?  If so, what?

    • How do the roles and responsibilities you have in your community, school and home differ?  In a creative way share your findings.  Here are a few ideas of how you might do that:

      • • Collage

        • Video

        • Slide show

        • Chart

        • Or any other way you would like

watch the second video and see all the responsibilities female bees have in the colony.  Compare it to the roles humans have in the house hold how are they the same/different?  Is there any other family in nature that have roles similar to this?

Go for a walk or look out the window to see if you can observe any of these roles.

NOTE: This can be used with the Nature Journaling activity at the top of the page.