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A great poster about nature for children

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PLT is a great environmental program that provides trainings and curriculum books. Their site also have resources.

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We provide a wealth of up-to-date resources, support, and ideas for teachers and other educators. We also offer grants to schools and youth organizations for service-learning projects. Plus, PLT's extraordinary network of State Coordinators and certified workshop facilitators provide local assistance and community connections.

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We provide a wealth of up-to-date resources, support, and ideas for teachers and other educators. We also offer grants to schools and youth organizations for service-learning projects. Plus, PLT's extraordinary network of State Coordinators and certified workshop facilitators provide local assistance and community connections.

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Journaling is very popular in schools today. This blog talks about why nature journals are important and provides many work samples. There are also additional resources at the end of the post.

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(This post contains affiliate links and links to my business website.)
If you've been around here much, you know the importance I place on nature study. The real-life science lessons that offer a consistent "lab" experience are unmatched compared to simply studying the same topics from a textbook. But, just as important, nature study reaches so naturally into other academic areas that it's priceless for gently integrated learning.

Today I'm focusing specifically on the nature journal and how it enhances learning through all subjects. There is no need to take a nature journal on every single nature walk, but make time for it frequently and see for yourself the wonderful learning that ensues.

Nature journals reinforce observation skills.

Drawing the treasures found in nature naturally encourages children to notice the details - big and small. It's during the sketching that my children will notice things they might otherwise pass right on by.
| 3 year old's drawing of a flying butterfly |
Nature journals reinforce scientific language, descriptive language and general vocabulary - not to mention, spelling.

Nature journal pages don't always have to have writing on them, but it's easy to naturally expect children to label sketches and/or write descriptions. Through these writings (or even simple discussions), vocabulary is readily taught.
| 4 year old's sketch of an insect eaten leaf |
Nature journals allow for creativity.

Of course I'm talking about artistic creativity : what they draw and art tools they choose to use. I think you'll be surprised to notice, though, that children find very creative things in nature and very creative perspectives when allowed freedom in nature journaling. So many school lessons tell children exactly what to do, allowing them no freedom, that nature journaling can be a breath of fresh air - especially for the creative type.
| 5 year old's drawing of sea life observed on vacation |
Nature journals naturally grow skills in art.

Consistent practice and frequent use of various art supplies makes for growing artists. I've been so pleased in the artistic growth of my children from simply using nature journals frequently: four times a month on average.

| 6 year old's detailed drawing of roadside flowers |
Nature journals provide documentation of learning.

Some of you sweet mommas really like having papers in hand to prove that lessons have happened. While I don't ever think a paper trail is necessary to prove learning, the nature journal certainly does leave a pretty paper trail showing proof of your amazing outdoor lessons.
| 7 year old's drawing and description of autumn spider webs |
Nature journals promote real-life writing.

It's pretty easy to see from our nature journal samples that writing becomes a bigger part of nature journaling as children get older. Beyond descriptions, we also tend to write poems, prayers and even small stories in our journals. Not only is the writing real-life (meaning it has a tangible purpose related to something they've been doing in real-life), I've found it to flow pretty easily compared to other writing assignments.
| 8 year old's documentation of metamorphosis |
Nature journals encourage research-based learning.

When you stumble upon something you don't know about on a nature walk, it's very natural to want to learn what it is and what it does. So, out come field guides or informational books or website search engines.

Because you're documenting information, collecting data and maybe even noting experiment results, it's easy to go back through nature journals to see patterns and make connections, too.
| 9 year old's detailed description of ducks at a park |
Nature journals promote real-life mapping and graphing skills.

While you certainly can use maps to help you find your way around a nature area, nature journaling allows you to create your own maps as well. Drawing the insects you find in one-square foot of grass or creating a to-scale map of a pond and it's plant life would be two examples.

And graphing information from nature walks is a very natural activity to do. Examples: Tally the number of various wildflowers you find. Collect leaves in the fall and create a pictograph. Make a bar graph to show how many various colored birds you saw.
| 10 year old's documentation and reasoning of slug behavior |
Nature journals help us to love and care for creation - and love the Creator deeply.

When you're in nature, interacting with nature and noticing every little detail about it, an interesting connection is born that makes you fall in love with the created world around you. More importantly, because of the beauty and amazing intricacies of each and every living thing, you are left with no doubt that we have an amazing Creator who is not only ultra-creative, but loves us enough to provide such wonderful things as you find in nature.

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Note that nature journals can be in any format you like. We've used spiral drawing pads, blank white copy paper (that we file away in a three-ring nature or science binder), and prepared notebooking pages. There is nothing specific that must be written in a nature journal. Drawings, labels, dates, weather conditions, descriptions of time/location/observations, poems, prayers, feelings, descriptive adjectives, stories, paintings, samples, data, graphs, photos... Any of these and more are completely wonderful to include.
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Nature Study Resources

1. If you're new to nature study and need to know where to start, I've put together the Ultimate Guide to Nature Study for you.

2. If that's way too overwhelming, you might prefer the ready-to-go nature lessons {with notebooking suggestions} found in 100+ Creative Nature Walks.

3. If you're ready to go for it with nature walks, follow-up activities and a bazillion ideas for incorporating other academic areas, then you will find NaturExplorers studies to have everything you need.

Enjoy the wonderful learning and fabulous memories made through nature study and nature journaling!

P.S. I would LOVE for you to include links in the comments to pictures or posts of your children's nature journaling!

This post has been linked to:

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Why Nature Journals Are Important - Our Journey Westward

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(This post contains affiliate links and links to my business website.) If you've been around here much, you know the importance I place on nature study. The real-life science lessons that offer a consistent "lab" experience are unmatched compared to simply studying the same topics from a textbook.

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This NAEYC article talks about how bringing nature into the classroom enriches the life of each child. It also has many great ideas like the nature wall.

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Benefits of Connecting Children to Nature

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Benefits of Connecting Children to Nature

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Connecting children to nature has many benefits to their social, and cognitive, physical development. Other benefits are listed and described as well. While this is for children in childcare, I believe that it can be transferred to other grades and produce similar benefits.

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Boston Schools Strive for Outdoor Opportunists

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Boston Schools Strive for Outdoor Opportunists

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This article tells about public schools in Boston and how they changed their student's learning by creating enriching outdoor spaces. Classes now use the spaces recesses as well as lessons of all subjects.

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I talked to teachers at a handful of schools to find out how the outdoor facilities have affected everything from science curriculums to behavior management.
ELLIS MENDELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
When the Boston Schoolyard Initiative begins the process of creating an outdoor space, they start by talking to the community about the wants and needs of their teachers and students.

For the Mendell School, Klopfer Martin Design Group incorporated several features, like a lab workspace and planting beds, into the school playground.

The school's science specialist Elizabeth Hadley uses the arbor with a pulley system to teach her fifth grade students about simple machines. The meadow and woodland area come into play when she covers ecosystems and food webs. Her second-grade students collect bugs under the logs and then apply lessons from their classroom to determine whether or not those bugs are insects.

The outdoor space has also become integral to Hadley's work with a diverse student body. The outdoor space "levels the playing field," she said, for students from different backgrounds and for students with special needs. "The amount of background knowledge and experiences of going outside and exploring nature that kids bring to the table can be drastically different...Even if they've never had any experience before with touching animals or looking for animals in their habitats, they are all doing it at the same time. They can all talk about it together."

These outdoor experiences can be especially crucial for ESL students, who can use new science vocabulary in its context. "Because students internalize [new vocabulary] best when they are exposed to it in multiple ways, in different kinds of contexts, I find that the language they are using is a lot higher when they've had a chance to experience it in multiple settings," she said.
YOUNG ACHIEVERS SCIENCE AND MATH PILOT SCHOOL
At the Young Achievers School, administrators had to create a space to accommodate an influx of younger students when the school went from being a 6-8 middle school to a K-8 school. Before the renovations, teachers held recess in a parking lot and struggled to encourage play while keeping the children safe. The new outdoor space was designed to encourage "nature play," a term for informal interactions with natural materials, like logs, gardens, and trees.

The uses for Young Achievers School's outdoor space "aren't quite so clearly specified," Johnson said. For example, the logs in the outdoor classroom are used as balance beams during recess and the decking is used as a stage or as a fort. Bo Hoppin, the school's experiential education coordinator, said, "We didn't want our outdoor classroom to be just a classroom, we also wanted it to a place where kids could come as a recess alternative to interact with nature in a non-formal way." Hoppin believes that nature play "stimulates cognitive development and definitely helps with behavioral issues and challenges that we have."

The outdoor space is also used for formal instruction. For example, in a myth, legends, and folktales unit, students read the Native American story of the Three Sisters Garden. Then they learn about the agricultural practices of Native Americans while planting a Three Sisters Garden in the outdoor classroom. The unit also ties in science instruction, when the students learn about the structures of seeds and plants.

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'Nature Is a Powerful Teacher': The Educational Value of Going Outside

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I talked to teachers at a handful of schools to find out how the outdoor facilities have affected everything from science curriculums to behavior management. ELLIS MENDELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL When the Boston Schoolyard Initiative begins the process of creating an outdoor space, they start by talking to the community about the wants and needs of their teachers and students.