Grade 2 Nature Observations
Second Grade Learns the Art of Nature Journaling
10/10/2013
Jane Covington’s second-grade students had a special “sensory” meeting in the Bryan Innovation Lab with Visiting Innovator Kelly Johnson on Tuesday. Ms. Johnson is the author and illustrator of Wings, Worms, and Wonder, an award-winning book that promotes the incorporation of outdoor learning into education. She spoke at a Lower School assembly and a preschool teacher luncheon in the morning, and was able to get down to ground level with the students in the afternoon.
Sitting in a circle with the students, Ms. Johnson asked them about the items in their community, “Our community isn’t just full of humans, is it? What else is in our community?” After a few answers like “worms” and “invertebrates,” Ms. Johnson asked the students to sit up straight and take some deep breaths with their eyes closed. She then led them on a tour with their senses—what did they hear? What did they smell? What did they see? Ms. Johnson used this procedure to heighten the children’s awareness of their surroundings to use in nature journaling. She shared one of her own nature journals with the second graders, encouraging them to draw pictures and note the dates and the weather in their entries.
Mrs. Covington is ecstatic about this new approach to teaching observation. She had been wanting to make her science and social studies curriculum more interesting and had been looking for a hands-on way to achieve that goal. Using Wings, Worms, and Wonder, Mrs. Covington has completely reinvented the second-grade science and social studies lessons and is incorporating STEM activities to enhance the curriculum. Science is obviously connected to the study of nature, but how does social studies fit in? She says that she is able to tie the past to the present by studying the ancient civilizations of China, Greece, and Rome.
The second graders were entranced with Ms. Johnson’s journals and eager to start work on their own, and Mrs. Covington is looking forward to teaching the new curriculum and introducing it to her colleagues.
Read More10/10/2013
Jane Covington’s second-grade students had a special “sensory” meeting in the Bryan Innovation Lab with Visiting Innovator Kelly Johnson on Tuesday. Ms. Johnson is the author and illustrator of Wings, Worms, and Wonder, an award-winning book that promotes the incorporation of outdoor learning into education. She spoke at a Lower School assembly and a preschool teacher luncheon in the morning, and was able to get down to ground level with the students in the afternoon.
Sitting in a circle with the students, Ms. Johnson asked them about the items in their community, “Our community isn’t just full of humans, is it? What else is in our community?” After a few answers like “worms” and “invertebrates,” Ms. Johnson asked the students to sit up straight and take some deep breaths with their eyes closed. She then led them on a tour with their senses—what did they hear? What did they smell? What did they see? Ms. Johnson used this procedure to heighten the children’s awareness of their surroundings to use in nature journaling. She shared one of her own nature journals with the second graders, encouraging them to draw pictures and note the dates and the weather in their entries.
Mrs. Covington is ecstatic about this new approach to teaching observation. She had been wanting to make her science and social studies curriculum more interesting and had been looking for a hands-on way to achieve that goal. Using Wings, Worms, and Wonder, Mrs. Covington has completely reinvented the second-grade science and social studies lessons and is incorporating STEM activities to enhance the curriculum. Science is obviously connected to the study of nature, but how does social studies fit in? She says that she is able to tie the past to the present by studying the ancient civilizations of China, Greece, and Rome.
The second graders were entranced with Ms. Johnson’s journals and eager to start work on their own, and Mrs. Covington is looking forward to teaching the new curriculum and introducing it to her colleagues.
