Observing Nature – A Journal Sketching Guide to Discovering Your Natural Environment
The moment I printed this plan out and put it into a binder, I knew I was going to like the approach taken to help teach children (and adults) how to tap into their observation skills and translate them into their nature journals. This is a wonderful plan for homeschoolers to use on their own or through a co-op. If you are interested in learning how to help your children learn how to create wonderful nature journal entries…read on!
There are two parts to this review.
Observing Nature-Teacher’s Manual
This 18 page teacher’s manual is very well put together and gives enough detail that you would feel confident to teach a whole group of students about sketching and journaling. The targeted age group is 8 years old and up but I did not feel it was too easy for my high school age boys.
Here is a link to the Course Objectives and example of a completed journal page.
Valuable aspects of the Teacher’s Manual:
- Directions for gathering and displaying observation trays.
- Supply checklists.
- Thorough instructions for teaching the three student projects, see LINK.
- A class plan with suggested time values if you are going to be teaching this course to a group of students. Also a plan for an assistant if you are so lucky to have one in your co-op. The author suggests teaching the entire workshop in one session but after that you can practice the skills over a period of time.
- Template to print out for making collection or observation boxes…very handy.
- $24.95 as a PDF download.
Observing Nature Student Guide
- This workbook style guide will work alongside the activities suggested in the teacher’s manual.
- There are exercises right in the guide that will help your child become better observers and as a result, better at recording their observations in a nature journal. (SAMPLE)
- There are plenty of examples to view and in the back of the workbook there are reference drawings for plants, insects, reptiles, birds, mammals (SAMPLE) and tracks.
- My favorite part of the guide is the Question Page. This page gives your child lots of journal prompts to make the nature journal entries come alive with their own words.
- There are blank journal pages in the guide for your child to use in getting started with their own sketching. We were able to glean some fresh ideas from these pages for our own personal journals.
- Once you buy the student workbook you can print as many copies as you need for your family or co-op.
- $24.95 for PDF download.
I would give this plan a big thumbs up as far as value, content, and organization. These may be the plans your family needs to jumpstart your nature journals and/or breathe some fresh air into some nature journals that are becoming ho-hum.
Please note:
I received these ebooks in exchange for a fair and honest review. I only review items I have personally used and would recommend to my readers. Also, I am not affiliated with Nature Works Press and I will not receive any compensation if you purchase these ebooks. My sole motivation for writing this review is to share another valuable tool with families that might like this sort of guide to use personally or in a co-op setting.
Looks like a very interesting resource, Barb! I’m going to look into it and pass it along to our CM group moms!
Thanks!
Hi Barb,
Do you feel it would be necessary to have both the teacher’s and student’s book? Would there be benefit to having both or might the information in them be redundant? Which would you recommend if only one were to be bought. Thanks for any extra insight. It looks like a good resource!
Nikki,
My best answer is that I would recommend getting them both but if I had to choose between one or the other, I would most definitely get the student workbook.
I say that assuming you are using it in the home and not in a co-op.
They contain different information and the Teacher’s Manual really is helpful in guiding you through the process of using the student guide.
If I had to say one negative thing about this product it would be that I wish they were in the same book and the price was lowered. 🙂
I justified the cost by reasoning that if a group of parents got together to teach this program in a co-op sort of setting they could share the costs.