Get Outside And Start Nature Journaling
Nature journaling with children is a beautiful way to help support spoken linguistic skills and creative writing. It further helps develop higher levels of communication with your class or group by incorporating more creative skills like art and photography; you can invigorate and further enhance a regular lesson or topic.
Nature journaling helps us pay increased attention to the natural world around us and our diverse surroundings. It also forces us to slow down, think more creatively, and then transfer these unique skills into various other curriculum areas. It is easy to implement and something we can do daily.
Spending just 20 minutes outside each day constructively can increase your overall health and vitality, enabling you to use your natural surroundings in a practical, valuable and meaningful way.
What is Nature Journaling?
Keeping a writing journal and then including sketches, photographs is very beneficial to cement observations and then further develop ideas. This is something I have regularly done during each of my Outdoor Learning sessions.
Nature journaling is the practice of drawing or writing in response to observations of nature. This practice is usually best practiced in an outdoor environment, allowing all participants to create their unique nature journal compiled from the observations made within a unique natural space. Such practice can positively impact children's experiences of nature, wildlife, and the outdoors.
This active and thought-provoking practice enables children to get outside, slow down, immerse themselves in their natural surroundings, increase positive opportunities for mindfulness, focus on the unique details they see, and begin to show an appreciation of the beauty that can be found all around.
Using the nature journaling approach in your lesson or outdoor learning practice will help children notice the more delicate details in nature; it will improve their overall recognition of different species and help them understand where and how they live.
Over time, using the practice frequently also enhances your ability to observe appropriately and listen attentively to instructions and the natural sounds around you. In turn, you can use these observations and adapt them differently to suit the needs of the group and audience.
How to use Nature Journaling
When compiling a nature journal, it is essential to let your ideas take hold. I encourage the children to sketch down ideas and draw what they observe. Still, I also think it is beneficial to create using natural materials and document this with photography. This is a fantastic way of breaking down barriers to learning through practical activities for a Kinesthetic learner.
I use nature journaling in various ways and feel there should be no set rules. After all, some of life's most successful and inspiring lessons come from when you think on your feet.
Not only do I use it to get outside, enjoy the fresh air and help to reinvigorate the senses. As an educator and an outdoor leader, I feel it helps maximize the group's potential and bring learning to life.
I have been teaching for a long time and firmly believe education should be broad, balanced, inquiry-based, and built upon children's interests. It should be creative and practical and allow children to take necessary risks. For too long, the curriculum (in my opinion) has become stale, and there is a feeling among teachers there is too much emphasis on doing things because we have ALWAYS done them like this.
Of course, I am not daft, and sometimes we need to accept that we have to do the boring stuff, but it should be that this does not take over and narrow the many incredible opportunities out there. Suppose we can incorporate journaling into our approach first and foremost and then build from there. In that case, I feel it has endless possibilities to help break down barriers, increase communication, support learning behaviours, and develop skills within children and adults that perhaps we didn't realise we possessed or were encouraged to use.
I find journaling works perfectly with language skills and acquisition. It encourages participants to talk about what they see and then communicate in a broader sphere, learning as they go along—making mistakes and building upon them to develop the greater good. These practical and meaningful discussions can be further developed into supporting writing ideas and used to create an imaginative story-based approach.
The process involves observations and drawings, which help to develop and support critical drawing skills and the awareness to write in detail about the whole experience. It would help if you were not an art expert as these skills tend to develop over time, and improvements are made with the frequency you get outside and complete these exciting tasks.
From my own experiences, I have taught myself to do such things and noticed an improvement in my art skills; the more I do, the more time I spend on it. It helps to focus your attention and learn from others. As a result, many people worldwide have seen the benefits of capturing and supporting their ideas through nature journaling, which I value greatly.
Tips for Getting Started
Getting started with anything new concept or idea isn't as easy as it looks. Taking the first steps often takes time and effort. Although sometimes it is easier to throw yourself in and give things a go, learn from your mistakes and educate yourself not to make the same mistakes again.
With those thoughts in mind and ideas to inspire you to pick up your pen, pencil, and paper, I have come up with some tips that might help you get started.
Choose a dedicated nature journal. I have an A5 sketchbook. This will help you to solidify your intentions to observe and understand what is happening outside. It also keeps your recent observations at hand so you can spot trends, seasonal patterns, or behavioural relationships of animals. Buy some drawing pencils and colours, and the journal will start to come to life.
Always bring your journal and a pencil so you will be ready to record your observations. Something small can easily fit in your backpack or suitcase if you travel further afield.
Record the details of what you see. This could be recorded through small pieces of writing, a small detailed sketch, or a photograph. Once recorded, it is important always to note the date, time, place, and weather conditions. This provides unique information for that moment and allows you to compare your knowledge over time.
Slow down. Allow your senses time to observe what is going on around you.
Open all your senses. Record what you see, hear, and smell.
Use prompts to focus your observations, emotions, thoughts, and ideas.
Don't let the weather stop you. Nature happens whether it is raining, snowing, windy, or a beautiful day. Weather and climatic changes offer some of the best moments to record, so be sure to get outside and experience all that is on offer at different points in the year.
Be inquisitive and keep curiosity alive. Allow the journal to be the beginning of an investigation. Research the things further, discuss what you find, and allow yourself to keep the door open. Information gathering is a powerful tool, enabling you to develop your ideas further.
Watch for signs of wildlife. Do you see movements in the undergrowth, animal sounds, and tracks left behind? Listen to the birds, observe animal teeth marks and scratches left behind, delicate bird nests, or spider webs found in the woods.
Explore all local nature sites, from extensive forest landscapes to scrub land reclaimed from man and industry. Look carefully as nature is next to you, in our gardens, the local neighbourhood, or the park.
Here is an example of my artwork captured from a woodland walk during autumn. This artwork is developed with watercolour paints and can be further enhanced with written work and explanations back indoors.
Observing a regular tree trunk and creating an imaginary world is an exciting concept for your audience or group. It enables discussion, creative thinking, and ideas to develop into story writing and showcasing through drama. Nature provides many amazing opportunities for this to take place and there is no limitation on what you can achieve.
Publications
Further Examples
There is a wealth of knowledge and experience of people using nature journaling in their daily and weekly practice, and they are much better than me. They inspire and hopefully push us to develop our ideas even more. A nature journal story — Nature Journaling Week