Nature Journaling

What we call “nature” can flourish almost anywhere, including the places where people dominate.

When I first became interested in using Utah birds as a core theme for teaching my 2nd-graders I had no idea how it would revolutionize my teaching career and connect me and my students with so many different natural and human communities.

The average 18 year-old high school graduate today has spent approximately four-years of their lives on screens. Four years. Four years of childhood that they will never get back. Our children need wildness now, more than ever.

We hear a lot these days how people spend too much time with their electronic devices. But for me, as someone who has always loved natural spaces, I’m finding that a screen can actually enhance my time outdoors.

When you take kids to learn outdoors, what is the right balance between academic focus and student-exploration and how can the instructor support such a balance?

Across my years of exploring the majestic outdoors with young children, I’ve experimented with nature journaling.

I've visited Blacksmith Fork Canyon with a thousand or so fifth and sixth graders — a few at a time — for a day with biologists and managers. Each time, we feed wintering elk about 5,000 pounds of hay.

I continue to be astonished by how much there is to appreciate and to learn from our surroundings. It’s amazing to see how just a little preparatory investigation can turn fleeting everyday moments into lifelong learning memories.

A hot, sunny, May day was Christmas for my avid 2nd-grade birders, when 35 pairs of high-quality Vortex binoculars and chest harnesses were delivered to our Edith Bowen Laboratory School classroom.

In fourth grade we look at creating a map of Utah and consider animals, plants, even people. Heritage is tied to migrations, human and animal, recent and ancient. I teach that to the children so they understand the story of the place we are in.