Category Archives: Nature Notebooks

Nature Study Lays the Foundation for Science

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Form 1 science (grades 1-3) includes all nature study and no formal science. (e.g., chemistry or physics) That is hard for some people because they want to get to the “good stuff,” but it’s essential to understand that “out-of-door nature-study lays the foundation for science.” (3/281)

When Charlotte Mason talked about nature study, the terms she most often used were: out-of-door work, field studies, fieldwork, or field nature studies. Somehow, when she says it, it doesn’t sound like fluff or buying time before they can start REAL science classes.

Out-of-door work includes:

  • Nature walks
  • Keeping nature notebooks
  • Reading natural history
  • Doing special studies
  • Parent-led object lessons

I discussed the first two items at the beginning of this series, and I will talk about the last three in the following articles, but first, let’s consider how nature study lays the foundation for science? And how are those habits carried over into the upper-level science classes? Please note that if you have children older than Form 1, it is still worth following along because all students should be doing nature study.

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Keeping a Wildflower List (video)

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I’ve written extensively about “The Lists” but I thought it might be helpful if you could see one of my own lists and learn how I keep it up.

This video was first shared with ADE’s Patreon members in December 2020.

Resources:
Notebook: Blueline Business Notebook
Family list: The Naturalist’s Notebook by Nathaniel Wheelwright and Bernd Heinrich
Tabs: come with the book or I like these adjustable ones.
My favorite pens: Pilot Precise V7 RT
White out tape
Seek app by iNaturalist
For those of you in California, definitely get Laws Field Guide To The Sierra Nevada

Return to An Overview of School Science

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The Lists

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In Form 3 (grades 7-8,) a new Natural History assignment appeared on the PNEU programmes. While in Forms 1 and 2 students were simply told to “Keep a nature notebook,” now in Form 3, they were instructed to keep a “Nature Notebook with flower, bird and insect lists, & make daily notes.”

“The Lists” as they were commonly referred to, were described by G. M. Bernau in this way:

The children should also keep a flower list, i.e., a diary of when each flower has been first seen in the year; a tree list, saying when each tree comes into leaf and flower; a bird list, stating when a bird is first seen, etc. (PR 4, p. 605)

Some students also kept lists of mosses, lichens, fossils, animals, and birds’ nesting dates, such as “the dates when the song was first heard, nest building began, eggs were laid and hatched, nestlings took flight.” (Drury, PR 24, p. 188)

Each list item included the common name of the specimen and also the scientific name. Alfred Thornley, an examiner of the House of Education student-teacher nature notebooks, exclaimed in his 1926 yearly report: “The searching out of the scientific names is a good discipline which helps to promote more exact observations, and to systematise them. Let us have scientific names please!” (PR 37, p. 137) Agnes Drury, Natural History teacher for the House of Education, explained further, that the use of Latin names shows the relationship between species where English names cannot.  Continue reading →