Nature Journaling

The goal of nature journaling is not to create a portfolio of pretty pictures but to develop a tool to help you see, wonder, and remember your experiences.

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Create a Nature Journal


Materials:

Notebook
Pens
Pencils
Crayons/ Colored pencils
Your senses
Your imagination
What to do:

Find a natural spot outdoors to explore. You don't have to look far, a great nature spot can be as close as your backyard or your local park. Visit this spot once a week or so, and write down the things you observe there. Remember to always let an adult know where you'll be. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Suggestions:

Using as many different adjectives as you can, describe the area you are in. Adjectives are descriptive words like brown, magnificent and soft. Be sure to use more than just your sense of sight. How do things smell? What sounds do you hear?

Sit very still and close your eyes, try to stay like this for at least three minutes. Listen to all of the noises and sounds you hear around you. Open your eyes again, and write down or draw pictures of what you heard.

Using a crayon and a piece of your journal paper, make leaf and bark rubbings of different trees. Then go to your school or local library and find a book about trees. See if you can identify the trees from the rubbings you have.

Come back to the same spot at different times of the day, such as early morning, noon, dusk and night (with an adult, of course). What is different? What is the same? Write down or draw what has changed and what has remained the same. Try this again under different weather conditions. What changes and what remains the same when it is rainy, sunny, cloudy, windy, cool, warm, cold or hot outside?

How many different kinds of plants can you find? Draw them! What features do the plants have in common? How do they differ? Check out a book about local plants from your library and see if you can identify the plants you've seen.

Get those creative juices flowing. Sit quietly in your outdoor spot and write a poem about the natural world around you. There are many types of poetry for you to write. Remember, poetry can rhyme, but it doesn't always have to. Who says that your words have to be in straight lines across the paper. If you're writing a poem about a flower, try writing the words in the shape of a flower. Try a haiku, this form of Japanese poetry consists of three lines: the first line has five syllables, the second has seven, and the third has five. Here's an example.

I see a small leaf

Softly gliding on the wind

It drops to the ground

Keep safe:

Always make sure an adult is either with you, or knows exactly where you are.

Keep a safe distance from wild animals. If an animal feels that you are a threat to its home or its family, it will attempt to protect what is theirs, and might feel that it needs to attack you to do so. Remember, wild animals are not pets, they are not tame.

Make sure you know what poison ivy looks like, and stay away from it!