Outdoor Activities for Children
Autumn
Journals for Children
Nature Journaling with your children can be rewarding. Autumn is a wonderful time to start keeping a journal.
Decide ahead of time what to focus on for each day’s journaling. For younger children get blank paper for them to use. Later you can place this in a binder or scrapbook. Older children will find a book of blank pages suitable. Have pencils available as the preferred writing tool. Be sure to include some basic nature field guides for children, and a small magnifying glass or lenses to help observe parts of plants and insects. And although not necessary, binoculars are helpful to observe songbirds.
Take a mini field trip to your backyard, or local park. Allow the children to explore and observe prior to writing. Then ask the children to write down what they saw. What was their favorite wild thing? Ask them to write about what they want to share with others. Older children can record the date, time, location and weather for each day's observations.
During the autumn season, the children can include include leaf and tree bark rubbings in their journal. Record the day the leaves began to change color and how many days it took for all the leaves to change. Keep a record of how many birds are coming to the bird feeder. Record and sketch how the plants look on the day of the first frost.
Journaling will improve your children’s observation skills and help them appreciate nature. You will discover children enjoy exploring and observing the natural world.
Outdoor Activities
Children in Nature
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
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