Invasive Species Council of British Columbia

For Educators

Unit: We Care for the Land and Prevent the Spread of Invasive Species – Activity 3: Nature Journal Discoveries

Grade: 4 to 6

Duration: 45 min - 1.5 hours

Setting: Outdoor

Subjects: Arts Education, Math, Physical and Health Education, Science

Physical Activity: No

Nature journaling builds a sense of curiosity for students, deepens their attention, and connects them to the natural world. In this activity, students hone their observation and communication skills using sketches, words, and numbers. Students then challenge a partner to find a “nature mystery” based on their journal entry.

This activity is adapted from My Secret Plant in How to Teach Nature Journaling by John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren. 2020. Heyday, Berkeley, California.

This is the third activity in the Grade 4-6 Learning Resource, We Care for the Land and Prevent the Spread of Invasive Species. Please see the Overview for this resource for more information, including the lesson sequence.

Learning Objectives

By participating in this activity students will: 

  • Slow down and look at nature from different perspectives.
  • Effectively communicate observations using sketches, words, and numbers.
  • Problem-solve using analytical and critical thinking skills to interpret the observations of classmates
Inquiry Questions
  • How can using a nature journal enhance my observation skills?
  • What can I learn about the natural world by looking closely?
BC Curriculum Links

Physical Health Education Curricular Competencies

  • Assess strategies for promoting mental well-being (Grades 4-6)

Arts Education Big Ideas

  • Creative expression is a means to explore and share one’s identity within a community (Grade 4)
  • Engaging in creative expression and experiences expands people’s sense of identity and belonging (Grade 5) and community (Grade 6)

Math

  • Regular changes in patterns can be identified and represented using tools and tables (Grade 4 Big Idea)
  • Data represented in graphs can be used to show many-to-one correspondence (Grade 5 Big Idea)

Science Big Ideas

  • All living things sense and respond to their environment (Grade 4)
  • The motion of the Earth and moon cause observable patterns that affect living and non-living systems (Grade 4)

Science Curricular Competencies

  • Experience and interpret the local environment (Grades 4-6)
  • Express and reflect on personal/ shared or others’ experience of place (Grades 4-6)
  • Make observations in familiar or unfamiliar contexts (Grades 5-6)
  • Demonstrate curiosity about the natural world (Grade 4)
  • Make observations about living and non-living things in the local environment (Grade 4)
  • Collect simple data (Grade 4)
  • Explore and pose questions that lead to investigations (Grades 5-6)
  • Communicate ideas, explanations, and processes in a variety of ways (Grade 4-6)
Materials
  • For nature journals: paper, thick card stock for covers (recycled cereal boxes work well), scissors, hole punch, rubber bands; thick sticks for book binding. Optional: large ziplock bag to protect nature journal from the elements.
  • Pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners
  • Outdoor seats (sit-upons)- make out of newspaper, cardboard, plastic bags, and duct tape. See the Additional Resources section for more information.
  • Optional tools: rulers, magnifiers, containers for temporary collection and viewing of natural objects
Background Information

“Nature journalling is one way we’ve found to connect to a place of joy within ourselves as we encounter the wide and wonderous world.” 

“There is wonder, intrigue, and insight around every corner, if you know how to look.”  – John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren. How to Teach Nature Journalling.

Journaling is a way to keep written records of nature observations. Observations can include sketches, measurements, written notes, texture rubbings, or small pieces of natural materials. You don’t have to be a gifted artist to keep a nature journal (or to teach how to journal!); start where you are and develop skills over time. Some helpful strategies to record observations include zooming in to show fine details (like hairs on a leaf) and zooming out to show scale (like the shape of a tree’s canopy); recording measurements in sketches (such as the length of a petal), and using lines and arrows or boxes to show the flow of thinking and connect drawings, numbers and written observations.

You don’t need to be able to identify what you are observing. The point is to be curious and open, to observe and question. Deeper inquiry may follow, including learning how to identify species, if they are native or introduced, species at risk or invasive, their cultural or ecological importance, how they may have changed over time.

Nature journals can combine scientific information, artistic expression, language arts, mathematics, and even emotional connection.

Preparation
  • Make nature journals as a separate activity to prepare for going outdoors. See the Additional Resources section for some ideas.
  • Find an outdoor area to explore that has a variety of plants and is safe and accessible for students.
  • Include the date, time, weather, and location each time that you make a nature journal entry.
Procedure
  1. Tell students they will be making a nature journal treasure hunt for a classmate using a combination of sketches, words, and/or numbers to record their observations about a secret plant or other natural object that their partner will need to find. Reassure them that this is not about being able to make a pretty picture but about recording accurate information using whatever means they feel most comfortable.
  2. Show an example of a natural object and brainstorm what they might record about that object in their journal using sketches, numbers, or words. For example, if your mystery object is a tree, you might sketch or describe its bark or include a bark rubbing, trace the outline of a leaf from the tree or describe its shape, colour, and size; measure the width and diameter of its trunk, count the number of trunks or main branches, estimate its height; include any unique features (holes, broken branches), sketch any flowers or seeds from the tree. You could also include a map with the location of the tree relative to other natural or human-made features.
  3. Have students spread out within the exploration area and choose a natural object (plant, tree, leaf, rock, fungus, etc) to observe and record in their nature journal. Give them a specific amount of time to record their notes (10-15 minutes). Circulate and support students. Give a 2-minute warning before the time is up.
  4. Before calling time, remind them to make sure that they take a very good look at where they are and their natural object so that they can be sure to find it again!  Add date and location to the entry.
  5. Have everyone gather together and find a partner (someone who wasn’t near them when they were recording in their journal).
  6. Swap journals with your partner and use their journal to find their mystery object. If the exploration area is large, bring them to the general vicinity of where the mystery object is located.
  7. Put all the journals out and circulate to notice patterns and different ways that people used to record information. Consider the unique features of the objects that you and your partner observed.
Reflections and Assessment
  • Guide students to think more deeply about what they saw and enhance their journal observations.
    • Look over the observations that you just made. Are there any things you observed but did not record? Add those in.
    • Add a special symbol (e.g. a heart or star) to the observation or question that is most interesting to you.
    • Add questions and things that you wonder about to your page. Circle the question that you want to learn more about the most.
  • Were you able to find your partner’s mystery object? What information in the journal helped you to find it? What information do you wish you had included in your journal to help your partner?  What kinds of details might be helpful to record in future journal entries?
  • Consider patterns, structures and functions of the plants or natural objects that were observed. What things in the surrounding environment might impact the plant? How might this plant affect its surroundings? How might the shape texture or other feature help it to function in its environment?  Is there evidence that the plant is taking over the area (such as by forming a dense ground cover or tall thicket, covers a large area, or has spines that prevent it from being eaten) and might be invasive? 
  • When evaluating students’ nature journals, focus on the goal of journaling, which is to create accurate observations of the world and spark their curiosity. Give feedback on what they have noticed or how they have communicated and the techniques they used, rather than if it is a “good drawing”.
Accessibility and Adaptations
  • Emphasize that nature journaling is not about being a good artist. We all can notice what is around us and wonder about it. Use whatever means you are most comfortable in recording information (words, sketches, measurements, numbers, shapes).
  • Help keep students on task for the allotted time by letting the group know that if they feel done early, that this is just a feeling and to keep working and that some of the most interesting things come when you keep going.
  • Help redirect distracted students by asking them “what have you noticed so far?” or by suggesting more detailed observations. If they share information that they haven’t included in their journals, encourage them to do so.
  • Bring natural objects indoors if the weather prohibits time outdoors.
Extensions
  • Do a creative writing exercise based on your observations. Use the sentence starters “I notice”, “I wonder” and “It reminds me of” to describe the object and how it makes you feel or what it makes you think of.
  • Continue to use nature journals to record outdoor observations and at sit spots. Try investigating an object at different scales (zoomed in, life size, and zoomed out). What structures are noticed at different scales? How might they help that living thing to survive?  Focus on invasive plants and notice the structures that help the plant to spread and take over, such as numerous seeds, burrs or parts that stick to clothing and fur, or spines that prevent the plant from being eaten.
Connections to First Peoples’ Perspectives

In Indigenous cultures, knowledge was traditionally kept and handed down through oral tradition in stories, lessons, songs, and narratives. The oral tradition was used to entertain, to teach skills, to transmit cultural values, to preserve and share histories, language, and knowledge, and to explain the natural world. The oral tradition is still highly valued today, transmitting history, culture, knowledge, language, and values from one generation to the next and connecting people to their heritage.

Try this! Challenge your oral storytelling skills based on nature observations. Everything in nature has a story, and it can be fun to imagine how something came to be here in your nearby environment and what it has experienced along the way. Have students choose an object in nature such as a rock, tree, feather, or shell. Imagine it could tell its story. Where has it been? What has it experienced as it travelled through the landscape or through time? Find a buddy and share nature stories.

Additional Resources

Nature Journaling

Outdoor Learning Tips and Tools

Native and Invasive Species