A form of art that I really admire is nature journaling. I’ve never nature journaled as a consistent and dedicated practice but it’s something I have tried and decided to give it another go as part of my series of backyard adventures. Nature journaling involves creating an illustrated observational journal grounded in your experiences in nature. It does not involve any special artistic skills and you don’t need any fancy art supplies to do it. The process of making a nature journal is a really great opportunity for a backyard adventure. It involves getting outside, getting curious about the world around you, and (in my opinion) having a lot of fun.

Nature Journaling is collecting and organizing your observations, questions, connections, and explanations on the pages of a notebook using words pictures, and numbers. You do not need to be an artist or a naturalist to begin. These skills can be learned by anyone, and you can develop them with deliberate practice.

From John MUIR Laws

Below is a video about starting a nature journal featuring John Muir Laws, a nature journaling aficionado. It includes some stunning examples of what nature journaling can look like and some steps for getting started. Another amazing example of nature journaling comes from Lyn Baldwin, a professor at Thompson Rivers University, who has some amazing examples here and here.

My Nature Journaling Experience

Feeling inspired by people like Lyn Baldwin and John Muir Laws, I’ve tried out nature journaling a couple of times at a park I love to visit. I’ve included a couple of examples below, one from last spring and one from this fall during this project. I have really enjoyed the experiences I’ve had engaging with the environment I am a part of and art in this way and I hope to make more time for it once the term is over.

Some photos of my most recent nature journaling adventure. I went out close to sunset and was treated to a stunning sky show. I labelled some of the things I saw and tried to also illustrate some of the sounds I heard (e.g. car alarm and kids playing). I just used pencil for this drawing because I had limited time but I would like to add colour with watercolours or pencil crayons.

A previous nature journaling adventure in the same park but in Spring when there were leaves on the trees and flowers coming up. This illustration focused on smaller scale parts of the park, like individual plants and was done in watercolour and ink.

Nature Journaling in the Classroom

I would love to include nature journaling as a practice in a future classroom. I think it is a really great way to integrate art and creativity into other subjects, especially science. It is also a great way for students to start to build a relationship with the environment they live in and are a part of. The practice of nature journaling integrates really well with sit-spots as well, which I discussed a bit in an earlier blog post. Below I’ve linked a bunch of resources I have found for integrating nature journaling into the classroom, including prompts for journaling, lesson plans, and examples.