To Thoreau’s eye a meadow was more then just undifferentiated green space, more than the green blur my college plant taxonomy professor tried to clear up for us. It was specific plants and creatures whose forms, colors and habits he knew well.
Almost all great naturalists, writers and artists were most certainly journal keepers. Journals develop an observant eye and acute senses. Journals help deepen perception and focus attention. Journaling reminds us that we all lead lives worthy of observation.
One thing I like to put in every journal is an observation log. Repeatedly collecting data at the same place provides a wealth of information to be used later on. The Observation Log does just that—it forces observation. Children begin to notice day-to-day or week-to-week changes. They can graph temperatures for a given month or year or average precipitation. Children can compare and contrast cloud cover at different times of day and look for correlations. The possibilities are endless and depend only on your creativity.
An observation log might look something like this:
OBSERVATION LOG
Place- Yellowstone National Park
Date- December 22, 2010
Time- 4:35 pm
Temperature- 5 F
Wind- Light, wispy breeze from west
Cloud Cover- Almost 100%, thin, low clouds
Precipitation- Very light snow, medium-sized flakes
What do you notice about this place?- Snow piling on the back of bison as they push the snow
with their massive heads looking for vegetation.
For the "What do you notice about this place?" question, Encourage kids to use descriptive words and to notice details. They don’t have to capture everything, but they should capture a of couple things well. Since this is a place they will be returning to, they should look for new details each time.
You can modify the categories, help younger children write the words down, or suggest they draw pictures. Nature journals are extremely adaptable.
Melynda Harrison is mom to two wild boys (ages 2.5 and 4), a writer, naturalist and ridiculously enthusiastic about playing outside with her family. She writes about connecting kids and nature at Your Wild Child and Outdoor Baby Network .
Thanks for the opportunity to post!
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