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

Nature Journaling is an incredible tool for students to observe the animal and plant communities to investigate how they adapt to their communities and how they compare to the human world.  Their nature journal allows them to write/draw their observations helping to cement the concepts being taught.

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.

Head outdoors for a short walk or choose an observation spot. Each day, for one week, record what you are wearing and the temperature outside. If you don’t have a thermometer or are making your observations from indoors, look the temperature up online or listen to the weather on the TV or radio. 

• Choose two other places, one within another province in Canada and one in another country and monitor their temperature every day for a week.

• Again, go online or check it out on TV. If there are pictures or videos, take note of what people are wearing, what is happening in the environment (are plants starting to grow? is it snowing? what season is it?) and what people are doing outside.

At the end of the week, create a bar graph for your temperature findings in the three locations. Compare the three locations: temperature, what people were wearing, and the activities people are doing. What conclusions can you give about how temperature and where you live affects your life and the things that you do.

How are people in other parts of Canada or another country affected by the climate and natural environment where they live?

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