Nature Journals

I love the outdoors!  I love nature!  I love showing my love of nature and the outdoors to my troop!   I don’t know if my troop likes it, but oh well!  That’s what they get for having me as their leader!

I have an incessant curiosity about finding out the names of plants and birds.  I think it’s because my dad would point out the names of them while I was growing up, and I just absorbed it.  Many times people will ask, “How on earth do you know that?” and most of the time it’s something my dad shared with me at some point.  If you ever go on a hike with me, I might annoy you after a while because I like to stop and stare (and take pictures) of *stuff*. That and I’ll talk your ear off like Donkey does to Shrek.  Man, now no one is going to go hiking with me anymore.  🙁  

ANYWAY!  If you would like to pique your girls’ interest in the outdoors, have them create this very simple and inexpensive nature journal.  We went to Camp Mary Elizabeth one spring, and the camp had its fair share of wildflowers blooming in April as it always does.  I sent a note to Tina the Trainer and asked what wildflowers would be in bloom around the time we would be at CME.  So at the meeting before the camping trip, we made our nature journals.  I printed off pictures of the wildflowers from Tina’s list and also a few of the common birds we would see.  The girls pasted them into a booklet that I got at the Dollar Store, and there you go – instant nature journal!

When we went on our nature hike, I would point out a wildflower and then asked if they could identify it based on the pictures in the nature journal.  Once they figured it out, they then made a notation of the place and date on that particular page.  They could take it home, and even better, add to it!  Here are some pictures of a completed nature journal:

You never know what something as simple as this booklet will lead to for your girls!

Addendum 3/30/16:  I found the PDF file I made for the CME Nature Journals.  Here you go and have fun!