In all the host of educational projects and curricula and programs, I have found no greater teachers than nature itself and a stack of excellent stories.
Nature gently teaches foundational ecology, botany, zoology, geology, meteorology, astronomy and physics, even math. Time spent in nature brings strength to the body, wonder to the mind, peace to the spirit and richness to the soul. It sparks curiosity and creativity while growing attention spans, powers of observation and reasoning skills. It is a source of beauty and place to rest. In nature, children can connect with others and get to know themselves.
Stories grow the mind and the heart. Poems, fables, old tales and new picture books teach literature, history, cultural geography, ethics, facts and communication skills. Time spent reading excellent books gently broadens vocabularies, stretches attention spans, reveals different perspectives and flexes the imagination. Noble stories grow bravery, empathy, faith and character too. Like nature, books spark curiosity and creativity. Reading aloud grants an opportunity for children to connect with one another and become themselves.
In all the lists of activities and worksheets and tech-resources, I have found no greater way to interact with knowledge than through creativity.
Learning does not have to be prescriptive. It can be personalized and self-led and rooted in discovery. Children can learn by drawing what they experienced outside or heard in stories or saw in illustrations. In doing so, they gain independence, confidence and vision while improving their fine motor skills and artistic talent. Merely writing and drawing what they have learned may seem overly simple, but it’s quite natural and beautiful and effective.
Teachers can unite creativity and nature and stories in the fruitful and delightful habit of nature journaling.
At times, yes, you can take a blanket and journals and art supplies outside for your kids to draw what they see. For me, with young children, I often found such undertakings difficult enough to dread. Alternatively, you can spend lots of time playing and exploring outside, then study more nature through field guides at your table. Nature journaling through books and memories is very doable and fun. And it launches a endearing habit that grows with your children.
Here’s how:
Gather your children to read aloud a short story or a 100-year-old poem or 1000-year-old fable about an animal. Then use that literary launchpad to study the day’s featured creature.
Favorite Poems Old and New contains over eighty delightful poems about ants, squirrels, monkeys, donkeys, daffodils, minnows, bees, kangaroos and more. Characters in Aesop’s Fables include cranes, mice, peacocks, foxes, crows and lions, etc. Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories tell of elephants, leopards, whales, rhinos and crocodiles! James Heriott’s Animal Stories witness to cats and cows and pigs and puppies. Not to mention Beatrix Potter’s Jeremy Fisher and Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle-duck. Or the Bremen Town Musicians, The Three Bears, The Three Pigs, Little Bibaji or The Little Red Hen. Biblical accounts of Noah’s ark, Jonah in the whale and Daniel in the lion’s den make great launchpads too!
The library is stocked with easy reader science books about every animal you can think up. And many libraries offer curbside pickups of hold items during Covid. Field guides like Fun with Nature, Nature Anatomy, Golden Guides, Eyewitness Handbooks, One Small Square and the multiple National Geographic Kids series make worthy mainstays for your bookshelf.
So, read aloud,
The Ostrich is a silly bird with scarcely any mind,
He often runs so very fast he leaves himself behind.
And when he gets there, has to stand and hang about til night
without a blessed thing to do until he comes in sight.
then, after a good laugh, open up a library reader to study ostriches! As you read, have the kids draw, color and label ostriches in their nature journals.
Read Kipling’s classics How the Whale Got His Throat, How the Camel Got His Hump and How the Elephant Got His Trunk, and open up National Geographic’s Big Book of Animals to learn about all three! As you read, the kids can illustrate his fantastic stories or draw a more scientific picture.
Read Aesop’s The Frog and the Ox or The Frogs Who Wished for a King and spend a week comparing frog species featured in The Fun with Nature Guide while drawing and labeling their favorites.
Read Howitt’s poem, The Spider and the Fly, then talk about the ones they observed in nature and look both up in the Ultimate Bugopedia. Read Aesop’s The Ants and the Grasshopper and talk about the ones they’ve caught themselves (as well as the fable’s moral) while they color their drawings.
Read Lewis Carroll’s The Walrus and the Carpenter as a launchpad to learn about oysters and walruses. Listen to Tom O-Bedlam’s reading of The Tyger by William Blake to study Bengal tigers. Enjoy Kipling’s Rikki-Tikki-Tavi then study cobras and mongooses. Figure out Emily Dickinson’s riddle-poem, Our Little Kinsman after Rain then study worms.
Bring classic picture books into your study too! Learn about several animals at once by reading LaMarche’s The Raft, Hader’s The Big Snow, Brown’s The Little Island or Polseno’s Secrets of Redding Glen.
Use Potter’s Squirrel Nutkin and Timmy Tiptoes as a launchpad to study squirrels. Start a day’s study of great horned owls with Yolen’s Owl Moon and bears with McCloscky’s Blueberries for Sal. Study ducks after reading his Make Way for Ducklings or Flack’s Story about Ping. Recollect memories of farm visits while you research and draw bulls from Leaf’s Story about Ferdinand and horses from Anderson’s Billy and Blaze.
Read Grimm’s Little Red Riding Hood to learn about wolves and Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling to learn about swans. The list goes on!
As your students make connections with creatures through insightful and imaginative tales, curiosity will drive them to learn more. When the habits of creativity (formed through self-led art-making) and observation (formed through unrushed self-led time outside) collide with stories, memorable learning happens. As they practice researching what they are curious about, they will become self-led learners too.
Buy high quality colored pencils and blank books or make your own out of stapled paper, then choose a slot in your routine to slide nature journaling into. Their nature journal is a cherished record of things learned and memories shared. Completed journals can proudly share shelf space with your nature guides.
Their journals need not impress. They just need to be their own. Start stress-free and simple. Don’t use journaling as a spelling or handwriting opportunity. Don’t even correct them. Overtime, your kids will apply new skills, like writing or watercolor painting, to their journals. And their creative learning habit may spill over into how they approach other school subjects.
As they personalize their work, they may take journaling outside. As journaling becomes second nature, taking supplies on day trips will become easier. When that time comes, inspire them by strewing Clare Walker Leslie’s or John Muir Law’s guides for them to peruse.
Have fun learning together.
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Why Nature is a Well-spring and a Mainstay in my Children’s Days
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