Kids Nature Journals

Do you keep a nature journal with your children? These were the journals the students at Nature Preschool went home with last spring.

I've found that the easiest journal for young children is to use a two pocket folder that has built in brads. Now is a good time to stock up on them since many stores sell them for five to ten cents as a back-to-school deal buster.

I whole punch plain and colored paper and insert it in the journal. There are countless things to record and write about in the journal. For now my son mostly likes to draw pictures of what he sees in nature. I've tried to get him to write sentences or even label the pictures but so far he is reluctant to do so.
Another favorite activity in the journal this summer was to trace the cucumbers and measure them.

Do you use a nature journal with your kids? I'd love to hear more about it!

Hand Trees

We received a couple more inches of snow today, but luckily I have my son's budding tree and sunflowers to make at least the indoors feel like spring! 
My daughter also tried her hand at the same craft as big brother....

And her's turned out just as charming. She loves when she gets to do the same projects as her 'DiDi'!

After she put the stickers on she was sure to count them, "one, do, free".

These hand trees are hanging in our dining room, reminding us of the treats that nature has in store for us. Later we will add them to our Nature Journals, along with all the bark rubbings and drawings of the trees we are going to learn about this month!

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In my opinion, handprints and footprints make the best keepsake art projects! Today I found a great blog that has just that for every season and holiday: http://funhandprintart.blogspot.com/

Signs of Spring

Try explaining to a five year old that it really is now spring, despite the fact that there is still lots of snow on the ground and it is barely getting above freezing!

We finally came to the compromise that we would call this "early spring" since my son says, "it's just starting to be not winter."

To celebrate the new season we have been reading a bunch of spring themed children's book. I thought it would be great way to get him excited about the warmer days to come. Unfortunately, the books just gave my five year old some good ammunition in proving that, in fact it is NOT spring. "See we don't have flowers blooming. Our grass isn't green. We don't have our umbrellas out because we have SNOW not rain."

Ahhh...sometimes those teachable moments are turned against us!

None the less, we have been on the hunt for 'Signs of Spring' and luckily for us, this project will continue for at least a month more! We are going to add photographs to our nature journal to document what we find.

So far we have found puddles, mud, melting snow, and brown grass....

Puddles - on the days it does get above freezing!



Mud, mud, glorious mud!



Melting snow and dead brown grass!

"The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month." ~Henry Van Dyke