"Beauty + Depth + Practicality"
"What a beautiful and inspiring guide in exploration, adventure, and education!"
Easy-To-Implement Nature Study Lessons
Designed for homeschoolers, co-op groups, and traditional classes, each activity helps students observe and discover for themselves through a firsthand experience with nature. With scientific information, diagrams, and journaling prompts, this book inspires a love for nature and makes teaching it accessible to all educators.
This book covers everything you need to know about nature study
Nature study is a full process of experiencing, observing, connecting, and recording. The first two chapters cover what nature study is and how to do it.
This book also has:
- A step-by-step guide to planning your lessons
- Instructions for setting up your nature journals
- Helpful strategies that encourage thorough nature journaling
- Example nature journal entries by children
- Ideas for using this book as a group, a class, and a family
- Inspiring quotes about nature study
And includes 174 nature study lessons
At one lesson per week, there are 4 1/2 school years of content to fuel your nature study explorations. Many lessons can be repeated in different seasons and locations as well.
Each lesson is a hands-on object lesson where your kids make a firsthand connection with nature. Lessons are organized by nature study topic, making it easy to plan a full semester on the same subject.
Elementary and middle school students are the target ages as their studies focus on the physical, observable sciences. However, older students and parents will also benefit from them. The lessons were written with the contiguous U.S. in view, but the majority are open-ended enough for any region worldwide.
Each lesson includes:
- A high-level introduction to the nature topic
- Suggested read-alouds, websites, and field guides
- Instructions for a specific mission to accomplish while exploring
- Guidance for nature journal entries
- Scientific information, charts, diagrams, and prompting questions are provided when needed
Table of Contents:
About Nature Study
How to Do Nature Study
Birds
Creek, River, Lake Ocean
Fish and Amphibians
Fungus
Gardens and Crops
Insects and Spiders
Invertebrates
Mammals
Reptiles
Rocks, Minerals, Soil
Stars and Sky
Trees and Shrubs
Weather and Climate
Wildflowers
Observing Anything
Trail Activities
When You Can't Go Out
About the Author
Jamie Current is a homeschooling mom of three, pastor's wife, photographer, and lover of all things in God's creation. She developed this book from the wealth of ideas generated while leading groups of kids into nature every week. Together with her family, she has lived near the breezy shores of Lake Michigan, the bustle of downtown Chicago, the peaceful rice paddies of South Korea, and now resides in the vast prairie fields of America's heartland.
Amblesweet Press
Pub Date: June 15, 2021
0.55" H x 9.02" L x 5.98" W
204 pages
paperback