G2: Healthy Living
Nature Journaling: I Notice..., I Wonder...?, It Reminds me of...
Nature Journaling is an incredible tool for students to observe and connect with themselves and their surroundings. 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 to making connections.. 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)
Observe the movement of living things surrounding you
Make leaf prints ( paint the leaf and press the print into the journal)
Make leaf rubbings
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.
Bird Nutrition and Habits
We are going to explore what and how birds eat. This will lead us to think about how humans eat and then we will compare the needs of living things.
Use the link to the Ontario Feeder Watch Cam to observe, compare and describe the different birds of Ontario and their needs.
What habits do you notice the birds use for eating? Do they eat only one type of food? How do they collect and eat their food? How often and how much to do they eat?
Draw the three foods you think you could eat all the time that are also healthy for your body. How do you collect, prepare and eat this food?
Finish this sentence: I wonder how birds and people are....