In part one of this article, we began looking at how parents and teachers can lead a nature walk so that “satisfactory intellectual results” are encouraged. (Hart, PR 15, p. 936) One valuable tool toward this end is to have a goal for each nature walk. In the article “Nature Study in the Home,” Alfred Thorney said, “Before the walk commences it is a better plan to have some definite aim to propose to the children; for example, that they should note how many different kinds of flowers they will find in their walk ; how many different kinds of birds they will see, etc.” (PR 19, p. 726)

Having an aim motivates the children by mimicking a treasure hunt. It also prompts them to look more diligently for the object, which may mean covering less ground, but sometimes that is in order. The children must also look more closely at the things they have found. Two little purple flowers may be counted as the same if they don’t look closely enough, especially before we are familiar with each of them. When the goal is to find a quantity of something, such as wildflowers or mushrooms, I frequently use the camera on my phone to track our progress and can later report how many different species we found.

The inspiration for these aims can be found in a variety of places. To start with, you might have noticed something on your last walk or even while you were out running errands, that you want to look for with purpose on your next nature walk. Suppose you saw a few mushrooms on your last nature walk, so next time you instruct the kids to find as many different kinds of mushrooms as possible. Maybe you heard the spring peepers as you drove by the pond, so this week you tell the kids that your nature walk will include a search for frogs’ eggs. Alternatively, that same sound may prompt a ‘listening’ walk where you and your kids note the different sounds you hear. It would be interesting to go to another location the following week to compare the sounds you hear there. Continue reading →