Art journaling starts with explaining how one of the best ways to observe nature is through kids art drawings. Art journals promote scientific exploration, support writing, allow for freedom of expression and also helps to understand the elements and principles of design.
What is art journaling?
Art journaling is a way of recording observations, ideas, learned topics, emotions, and self expression through drawing, doodles, painted images, and collages, using a variety of art mediums. These artistic works are created and arranged in an art journal—a binded book of blank pages; art journals can vary in size and are similar to a self-reflective written diary.
For educators, art journaling can be an extension to other lessons you present. It can give students the chance to reflect on other subjects through an artistic lens, which can help them gain a deeper understanding of what they’ve learned. Additionally, art journaling can be done in any fashion, there’s no right or wrong way to create an art journal. The owner of the art journal is the curator of its life.
How-to start journaling
You really don’t need much for journaling. Start with basic drawing materials are simple: kids just need a blank paper, pencil, and eraser to start. Then transition them into using more colorful mediums, such as crayons and colored pencils, and eventually paint and collage materials. The idea is to mix up the mediums students have access to; offering different materials to create with helps them make connections to the concepts and subjects they’re learning.
Drawing outdoors
Integrating the study of the natural world into art journaling can give children their own unique learning experience. Moreover, art journaling provides a dynamic spatial understanding that is wired by their sensory inputs. Through critical observations, notations, writing skills, and storytelling.
Where To Start Art Journaling With Kids
Art journals are really exciting for kids to use! They love having a special place where they can keep all their artwork, thoughts, and observations! Finally, you don’t have to have or do anything fancy to start nature art journaling is to go outside!
Set aside some time for your kids to head outdoors and just observe the natural world around them. Next, head to a backyard, school yard, garden, local park, local trail, or even a city street. So long as there are aspects of nature for them to see. A part form kids spending so much time in front of screens. Spending just a few minutes outside is so important for children to connect with nature.
Nature journaling is a tool scientists and explorers use to record important field notes and observations. It can also serve as a way to record history. Sometimes we can’t disturb nature, but we can record the experience by carefully observing and taking specific notes. Students can improve their critical-thinking skills through nature journaling.
One Step Further: Outdoor Nature Journal Checklist
And journals are unique to each individual owner; they’re composed of what inspires the artist, or in this case, student. Usually, nature journals are a variety of artistic expressions based on the natural objects students see outdoors, including:
- Observation notes
- Descriptions of experiences
- Simple diagrams
- Simple sketches
Benefits For Kids
Keeping a nature journal strengthens students’ observational skills. For instance, when a child knows they’ll have to draw or record specific characteristics of the natural world, they’ll put care into taking a closer look at their subjects as well as noticing and memorizing details.
Nature art journaling is specifically suited for teaching students about biomes. It requires students to focus on, analyze, and record different parts of a biome. Each page can be dedicated to a different part of the biome. Nature activities like art journaling can help students become naturalists who are more aware of and feel more responsible for their ecological footprints on earth.
Nature Journaling
Once tjeu have a journal to work wiith, the next step is going outside; they can head out, depending on when and where they’re completing this nature activity. Instead of letting them wander, ask them to focus on and sketch one object for 5 to 8 minutes (this helps sharpen their observation skills). Then direct them to move on to another object and time them again. Once they’ve observed and drawn a few different specimens, head back into the classroom.
Journaling Tips
Before heading outside with my students, make sure to tell them they might only have a short moment to check out something cool (like animals or insects). That’s why it’s important to observe and jot down details fast. Later they can search for more info and dig deeper later on. Learning to observe and take notes will make it easier for them to connect the dots back in class and tidy up their drawings.
It’s important to teach your students that nature journaling is about recording details—not creating perfect drawings. The key is to collect enough information quickly in pencil, with detailed observational notes. After they’re done observing and doing additional research, they can update their field notes and finalize their drawings with more details, colors, and descriptions.
People like naturalists, botanists, and artists who illustrate books do the exact same thing: they head outside to watch, gather info, and jot things down. Later on, they add detailed colorful sketches to their journals using colored pencils or watercolors. They also read up more to fill in any missing details.
While I encourage you to do a few “trial runs,” and give your students the freedom to observe and record whatever interests them, eventually you want them to complete and create more focused nature observations.
Drawing prompts
- The date
- The start and end time of their observations
- The location where they’re observing
- The atmosphere (dry, humid, etc.) and temperature
- A description of the outside landscape
- How they were feeling that day
You can also ask them to make observations using their sensory system. Ask them to record the answers to these questions:
- What do you smell?
- What do you hear?
- What do you see?
- How do things feel to the touch?
Other prompt ideas:
- Recording a species, include:
- General name of species
- Size
- Color
- Unique features
- Describe their actions
- Any noticeable patterns or textures
- Observe the seasons
- Observe feelings and experiences
- Observe interesting non-living objects
- Observe plants
- Observe states of matter
- Observe local micro-biomes
- Observe things in the sky, things in the grass, and/or things in the water
Journaling Color
Color theory lessons can also be easily integrated into nature journaling. Nature journals offer kids the opportunity to investigate and observe color while recording their nature and outdoor observations.
Color theory is a foundational area of visual arts studies. Understanding color and color theory is essential to developing art skills. All artists must learn how different colors complement each other; part of this means understanding the principles of the color wheel and creating mixtures of color values and intensities of different hues.
When students work on their nature journals, ask them to write about the colors they see and use stuff like crayons, colored pencils, or paint to draw what they observe. They can sketch leaves, tree bark, ponds, or the sky and match these drawings with descriptive color words.
Journal Ideas
- “The tree had small, bright green leaves growing.”
- “The bark on the tree had a cool feeling and looked dark brown.”
- “A bird with reddish feathers flew by.”
It can be overwhelming to think about taking your class outside for an art lesson. Maybe the idea of rounding up your students and keeping them focused on lessons outside the classroom—when all they want to do is climb a tree or jump on fallen leaves—stresses you out. I get it and I’ve been there!
What to look at
Keeping young students’ attention comes down to giving them something specific to focus on while they’re outside. Color can be found in outdoor environments in all different shades, hues, and tones:
- The colors of a rainbow
- The natural pigments found in flowers and minerals
- The iridescent colors of a butterfly wing
- The color differences in males and females of a species
- The green tones in different types of tree leaves
Color even plays a role in the survival of particular organisms in certain biomes! There are amazing teaching opportunities to point out in the natural environment. These kinds of observations can lead to fun and insightful scientific discussions in your classroom! Observing nature and recording natural color values are great ways to integrate science and art.
Here are some color topics you can explore with your students:
- Warm and cool colors
- Colors in plants
- Colors of wildflowers
- Colors in different species
- Colored chemicals
- Wavelengths of light
- Pigments in rocks and minerals
- Color adaptation in different species
- How chlorophyll makes plants appear green
- What causes the sky to appear blue
I hope you get outdoors with your kids and try natural journaling. Love to hear your feedback.
One Step Further: Outdoor Nature Journal Checklist
Now that your students are ready to head outside with their nature journals, I want you to be prepared too! While nature journaling is a pretty independent activity, there are ways—besides just sharing the above prompts—that you can help guide them. This Outdoor Journal Checklist will make sure you have everything you need to keep your students on track and ensure they’re implementing both scientific and artistic principles during their expedition.
You can print it out or save it on your phone so you have it with you the next time you lead your students outside to journal.
Video Training
How-to Theme Art & The Natural World
About this training
Grow your child’s knowledge about the natural world by taking them outside and challenging them to create focused art based on the nature around them.
Every aspect of nature—seasons, layers of the earth’s soil, energy, rocks and minerals, fossils, landforms, water, flora, fauna, the atmosphere—can all be represented and expressed through art lessons.
3 videos to watch
- Inspire your child’s creative thinking
- Make art connections with science topics
- Book resources list download
To purchase the Theme Art & The Natural World, click here.
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