NATURE JOURNALING AND WATERSHEDS

     The Clifton Institute has a number of videos describing their approach to Nature Journaling.  You can find one with ideas for teaching students how to journal here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbN-bjJyEOc   This video demonstrates John Muir Law’s journaling model from his book  How To Teach Nature Journaling .  A free PDF download of this book is available here: https://johnmuirlaws.com/product/how-to-teach-nature-journaling/

        I wanted to briefly review some of the key points from our first ZOOM meeting this Wednesday, April 14.  We now have 17 educators involved in the grant.  In addition to the folks who attended we also have a teacher from Stafford County Schools and an educator from Fredericksburg SPCA joining the project - and a second teacher from Spotsylvania Schools.       The next event will be the onsite workshop at the Crow's Nest Research Center.  The workshop will take place on May 8, from 9:00 a.m. through 1:30 p.m.  This workshop will include: A hands-on introduction to Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs) provided by educators from the Friends of the Rappahannock A hands-on introduction/field practice session on Nature Journaling and the model described on this website under the Nature Journaling tab Distribution/discussion of the grant materials - also described on this website      We'll be sending out additional information, including directions to the site,

      There are a lot of ideas for Nature Journal formats.  Just to give you a sampling of what's available, I did a Google search for Nature Journals for Kids Amazon, and another for Nature Journal for Kids Pinterest.   Nature Journals found at Amazon.com Nature Journal templates from Pinterest      Most of the Journal books on Amazon are simply multiple copies of the same template page.  The template may include prompts for such things as weather, time, location, observations, and blank spaces for drawings and notes.  They are available for a variety of age ranges - for example a journal for younger children might include a variety of icons (sun, clouds, rain) to circle for weatther while one for older children might include prompts for estimates of cloud cover.  Prices vary, but seem to mostly be around $7.00 to $10.00.      Pinterest provides many different ideas ranging from individual template pages to collection of several kinds of pages, sometimes in the form of a complete