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Nature Journaling with Preschoolers

Creating a Home Nature Journal

Spring is in the air and with it the start of our Nature Journal. As a child I remember Nature Journaling with my Mum and Dad,  it was filled with leaves we picked up, drawings we made and observations it was a scrap book of the changing seasons for us to have and look back on throughout the year. It’s a childhood memory that I want to pass to my children and something that will help us to explore the changing seasons and the back garden nature throughout the year.

Starting nature journalling with preschoolers - a great way to explore the natural world and develop observational skills

This year is the first year we’ve started with J and I’ve created a very simple one to start off with. Using A3 paper I’ve folded in half and then folded in half again and cut along the top edge to make a folded Nature Journal. Then using some yarn I tied the pages in the middle making a very simple book.

On the front I wrote Nature Journal and he wrote his name and we left space for a picture or something to be added to the front cover and then we started with our first entry.

Exploring Nature and recording the finds with simple Nature Journalling for Preschoolers

Frog Spawn – yes finally our frogs have laid eggs and we’ve collected the spawn and it’s currently sitting on my kitchen side in a Tupperware box waiting for our observations over the next few months as the frog spawn develops.

Simple Nature Journalling for preschoolers - collecting tadpoles from the pond and observing them at home and recording the progress in their own simple nature journal

To the page I added the word Frog Spawn and then J copied the word Frog underneath and then drew the spawn.

Simple Nature Journalling for Preschoolers

T is keeping her own Nature Journal – I’ve made bigger pages for her and her first entry for her Nature Journaling is Horse (not quite sure why it’s a horse – but I’m guessing there is a connection going on there somewhere).

We’ve spent the afternoon frog hunting and talking about the frog life cycle as well as reading a few of our favourite frog books with all the enthusiasm.

The advantage of the format of book that I’ve made is that I can add more pages to it throughout the year different sorts of paper and sizes will fit in when folded and I can’t wait to find out what additions we make to our book over the next year.

Do you keep a Nature Journal?

4 Comments

  1. This is such a great idea. The boys grandparents have a pond so next time we’re down we’ll definitely have to go at checking out the tadpole situation. The journal would be a great way to get our eldest writing. Thanks for sharing at the Outdoor Play Party

  2. How exciting to watch the frogs grow. We had caterpillars last year…but frogs would be amazing!

  3. This is such a great idea! Although my 2 are still a little young, it’s given me inspiration of how I could do something similar with them.

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