Prompts for Nature Journaling:
Tips for teachers and parents:
• Keep prompts and questions open and simple – empower journalers to tune into their creativity.
• Ask students to record the date, weather, temperature, dominant colours
• Ask students: What do you see in the sky, what can you feel, what do you hear close by and far away? I see… I hear… I feel… I smell…
• Ask students: What do you wonder? “I wonder what that bird eats?”; “I wonder where that insect sleeps?” To go even deeper, start with a “wonder” from a journal entry and do an online research project to learn more. Use your student’s wonders to guide a research project.
• Ask students to record some kind of quantitative data over a period of time: What will you see tomorrow? Next week? Next month? Students can record the height of a plant over several weeks, the temperature during their observations, the number of animal species they see each time, etc. Have them create a table, chart, or graph to show the data.
Do you have a photo of your nature journal? We would love to see it! Submit photos of nature journals to the Wildsight education team, we would love to help answer your nature questions and see your journals!
Make your own Nature Journal:
Materials needed: Boxboard, folded paper, an old calendar, some glue and string or ribbon.
Instructions:
- First, fold some paper to use in the journal. You can use some plain white paper and some watercolour paint paper or whatever you have on hand!
- For the cover, cut a piece of boxboard (boxes from crackers or cereal) to size a little bigger than the paper when it is folded. Over the cover, glue a nature picture from an old calendar, draw your favorite animal or plant, put a photo of you in nature, etc. Be creative here! Do what inspires you!
- To bind the journal together, put the paper inside the cover and tie some twine over the spine of the book and across the middle of the folded paper. You could also use ribbon, string, or tape.
