What is Nature Journaling?
You won’t find the word journaling in your dictionary. It is a word we created as an action form of the noun ‘journal’. Simply put, nature journaling is the regular recording of observations, perceptions, and feelings about the natural world around you.
The journal is yours to use as you wish. This book is not about a prescribed activity that is done in the same way by everyone; in fact, it is about developing a very personal book of life, one that reflects the life around you – the experiences, encounters, reflections and observations that you are moved to record, remember, study, and reflect upon.”
Materials:
- Journal
- Pens
- Pencils
- Markers
- Paints
- Crayons
- Colored pencils
- Your creativity and,
- Your imagination
What to write in your Nature Journal
- Start by recording the weather and date, and then open all your senses.
- What sounds do you hear?
- What smells are in the air?
- Draw the points of the compass and try to locate the direction of the wind.
- What kinds of clouds are there in the sky today?
- Now focus on something that catches your eye, a flower, the bark of a tree, a seed, and an insect. Begin drawing in your journal.
What to do: Find a natural spot outdoors to explore. You don’t have to look far, a great nature spot can be as close as your backyard or your local park. Visit this spot once a week or so, and write down the things you observe there.
MY NATURE WRITINGS
- My Wishes for the Earth
- Ways I Can Help Nature
- Why I Like Being in Nature
- Why Nature is Special to Me
- Why I Think Nature is Important
- Spending Time Alone in Nature
Suggestions:
Using as many different adjectives as you can, describe the area you are in. Adjectives are descriptive words like brown, magnificent and soft. Be sure to use more than just your sense of sight. How do things smell? What sounds do you hear?
How many different kinds of plants can you find? Draw them! What features do the plants have in common? How do they differ? Check out a book about local plants from your library and see if you can identify the plants you’ve seen.
Get those creative juices flowing. Sit quietly in your outdoor spot and write a poem about the natural world around you. There are many types of poetry for you to write. Remember, poetry can rhyme, but it doesn’t always have to. Who says that your words have to be in straight lines across the paper. If you’re writing a poem about a flower, try writing the words in the shape of a flower.
What is Scrap booking?
Start your scrap booking project by brainstorming ideas. Here are just a few ideas of things you can include in your scrapbook.
Favorite movies, favorite books.
Animals you have seen naturally, your pets or a visit to the zoo. Places visited. What about maps, napkins, family snapshots, autographs of friends, feathers, brass rubbings, even drawings of friends or other original artwork or writing? The possibilities are endless.
What is Dream Journaling?
When you awaken, reserve a few quiet moments and lie still with your eyes closed.
Write down the dreams immediately when you wake up because the events and details of dreams fade with time. Here is a list of questions that will help you to get started.
Date of dream: ____________
1. Describe your dream. Include everything you saw or heard or felt or thought.
2. How did you feel when you were having the dream? Happy? Angry? Sad? Worried? Curious?
3. Describe how you were feeling in the dream.
4. Who were the Characters (People and Animals) in your dream?
Describe them.
5. Where did the dream take place?
6. What is a good Title for this dream?
...My Special, Incredible Book...
I would like you to make this a special journal that you can add to for many years. You can make this a combination of Nature Journaling, Dream Journaling and Scrap Booking. You can write stories or simply put your thoughts, desires or wishes. You can write about having a good day or having a bad day, but I do encourage you to keep your entries positive. Remember to start out each page with the date and location, and you can include what the weather is or anything else that may seem important at the time. You can draw, paint, use markers, paste in photos or you can cut out pictures from magazines. Use any method you can to help you recall that very moment. Maybe your parents took you to a special restaurant and you want to glue in a napkin or the stub of a ticket from a baseball game or concert you went to. The most important element of your Special Incredible book is your creativity. And most important of all…have fun.
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 Friends at SOCK
Because of unforseen circumstances, I am doing my child observations of my grandchild. I hope to continue with SOCK as soon as possible. For now I have observed many hours of the day by day new skills and developements of Jahmari. I have had full time care of him since he was 4 mos. old and he is, as of this entry almost 8 months. At this time he has much improvment of his motor skills and last night he took his teething biscut cookie and offered it to me by holding it up to my mouth. Babies are so self focused that this is a huge step. He is able to play basic games like patty cake and he remembers the routine.He is happy if he is the center of attention. He is developing his own little personality and really studies a persons face to see what mood they are in. If I raise my voice he will stare at me to see if I laugh or if I am angry and he will respond accordingly. I am trying to encourage him to crawl but he gets frustrated and flops down onto his belly. What I have found so interseting is that he explores the texture of everything....everything! I thought that everything went into his mouth because he is teething
but as I watched I noticed that it was more times than not to feel the texture of the object. Here is a good example. As soon as he felt the twig and looked at it for a few minutes, he droped it and began to reach for new things to feel.
Feeling Texture
Here is a picture of Jahmari's first art work!
This was a lot of fun to make but we did manage to get black paint all over the kitchen and all over baby. It was a ticket to his second bath of the day!
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