Nature-Journal Tip #1
Get Started

Find out about nature right where you live by keeping a nature journal. A nature journal begins as a blank book. When you take your nature journal outdoors, you can draw pictures and write notes in it about the interesting plants and animals you see. Along with the journal, you will need pencils, colored pencils, a pencil sharpener, and an eraser.

Each time you write in your journal, write the date and the place where you are. Also, make a note about the weather. Then look around. When you see something that is interesting, describe it using words. Make a drawing of what you see. Finally, write down your questions and your discoveries. Try to complete both of these sentences:

“I would like to know . . .”

“I found out . . .”

Nature-Journal Tip #2
Sketch What You Really See

Find an interesting natural object, such as a pinecone or a seashell. Open your nature journal to a fresh page. Place the point of your pencil on the page. Hold the object in your other hand. Look at one part of the object. Pretend that your pencil point is actually touching what you are looking at. Then let your eye begin to wander slowly over the object while your pencil point wanders in the same way across the page. Do not look at the page at all as you draw. Draw slowly as your eye explores all the ins and outs, and keep your pencil in contact with the paper the whole time. Be patient, and do not think you need to “finish” the sketch.

After a minute or so, look at your drawing. The results may look funny. Did you notice anything new about the object, or do you have a question about it now? If so, your nature journal is already helping you become a better observer.

Nature-Journal Tip #3
Make a Viewfinder

Fold a 3-inch-by-5-inch card in half the short way. Use scissors to cut into the fold about half an inch from the edge, across the top, and back down to the fold. When you unfold the card, you will have a window, or viewfinder.

Look through the viewfinder as if you are looking through a camera lens. The viewfinder will help you focus on one thing at a time, whether that thing is close up or far away.

To use the viewfinder for recording what you see in your journal, trace the inside edges of your viewfinder on a journal page. When you sketch the scene, the viewfinder will help you see and draw the shapes and colors you really see, right before your eyes.

You may want to tape or glue a pocket to the inside back cover of your field journal to hold your viewfinder when you are not using it.

Nature-Journal Tip #4
Create a Nature Center at Home

If the weather is not nice enough to record what you see outdoors, bring some natural objects indoors, such as leaves, pinecones, seedpods, seashells, rocks, or fossils. Find a spot for your “nature center,” and keep your collection there. When poor weather comes along, you’ll have something interesting to look at, draw, and write about in your journal.

Nature-Journal Tip #5
Make a Sound Map

Record what you are hearing by making a sound map in your nature journal.

1. Draw a circle. Pretend that the circle is the space all around you where the sounds you hear come from.
2. Make a little picture of yourself in the middle of the circle.
3. Start listening carefully.
4. Each time you hear a sound, try to tell if it comes from in front of you, behind you, your left side, or your right side. Draw a little picture or write a few words in the circle that will remind you of what it sounds like. As you listen, think of the way a cat or a rabbit can turn its ears when it hears something. If you cup your hands behind your ears and gently bend your ears forward, you may hear sounds better.

After listening and recording for a few minutes, look at your sound map and ask:

• Which sounds were natural?
• Which sounds were made by people?
• Which sounds were pleasant?
• Which sounds were annoying?
• Which sounds were mysterious?

If you are really curious, try to hear one of your mysterious sounds again, and try to find out what made the sounds. Be sure to record your discoveries in your nature journal!