Try a Nature Journaling Activity

If you’re feeling the tug to slow down, step outside, and reconnect with the world around you, nature journaling might be exactly what you need. But where do you begin? The easiest entry point is one that feels more like play than practice: go on a nature scavenger hunt or take a simple walk outdoors. Whether you're on your own or with kids, this gentle activity opens the door to curiosity, observation, and connection—the very heart of nature journaling. And when I say "nature walk," I simply mean stepping outside. Whether you're facing desert heat or a winter blast, you can observe the world around you and begin with any notebook or journal.

This post provides a starting point with some prompts, and it gives some resources and materials for stepping into the outdoors.

Our daughter’s favorite part of a trip to Lowe’s is walking through the garden section to see the flowers and collecting a stack of “rainbows”—color paint sample cards. After one of these trips, I remembered that I had a writing prompt kit called Paint Chip Poetry. This little box includes a wide variety of colors, each paired with a word or phrase, along with prompts to spark ideas. There’s something magical about color—how a single shade can evoke a memory, tell a story, or capture the essence of a season. When we combine that sensory experience with the power of words, we open up an entirely new pathway to creativity.

One of my favorite tools for inspiring outdoor journaling is using paint chips taped into a notebook. Paint chip poetry and color-based activities offer an accessible, playful, and deeply reflective way to connect with nature, especially when paired with time spent outside. Whether you’re journaling in your backyard, at a park, or on a classroom nature walk, these activities add a vibrant lens to the experience.

This post outlines five color-inspired journaling activities to try with your students or in your own nature notebook. It also includes recommended picture books that serve as wonderful resources for kids of all ages, from upper elementary to high school.

In all classrooms that thrive, students are not only readers and writers—they are thinkers. Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, in their foundational text Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Engagement, Understanding, and Building Knowledge, Grades K-8, remind us that comprehension is more than just decoding words; it’s about making meaning. The six key strategies they outline—monitoring comprehension, activating and building background knowledge, asking questions, visualizing and inferring, determining importance, and summarizing—are not only tools for deep reading, but also cornerstones of effective writing.

Strategic readers make intentional decisions as they interact with texts. The same is true for strategic writers. When students are invited to use writing as a thinking tool, especially through writing-to-learn strategies like outdoor journaling, they begin to connect ideas, process emotions, and synthesize information in authentic and meaningful ways. Outdoor journaling, in particular, provides a rich opportunity to activate background knowledge, ask curious questions, and synthesize observations—all while immersing students in the world around them.

In this post, we’ll explore how each of these six comprehension strategies can be found in journaling activities. Outdoor journaling can foster not just literacy growth, but confident, curious communicators. Let’s take literacy goals out of the classroom and into the fresh air—where thinking and writing grow together. Below, you'll find a list of 42 different journaling activities that align with literacy goals. Included is the activity name, a brief description, suggested resources, and example classroom applications.

“What is poetry?” Daniel asks.
“Come with me,” says Spider, “and I will show you.”
— Daniel Finds a Poem by Micha Archer

In Daniel Finds a Poem, readers journey with Daniel as he walks through the park and asks his animal friends, “What is poetry?” Each creature responds in their own way. Spider speaks of dew, Frog talks about cool water, and Owl praises the night sky. As Daniel listens, observes, and reflects, he discovers that poetry is all around him. Poetry is what you see, hear, feel, and imagine—just like what our students can discover during a walk outside.

Using Daniel Finds a Poem as a mentor text, you can create a powerful classroom-building activity that also helps destigmatize the practice of writing poetry through found poems.

Creating a sense of belonging in the classroom isn't just a goal—it’s the foundation for all other interactions. This activity is a great way to build community at the beginning of the year, or to reconnect after a longer break. Found poetry invites writers to “find” words and phrases from existing texts or the world around them. For this activity, you might take students outside, but you could also use books, signs, notes, or even snippets of spoken dialogue—then arrange them into a new poetic form.

In this variation, students become the source text. You collect their words and transform them into a poem that reflects your shared classroom identity. The best part? When everyone shares their favorite line to create a collaborative community poem, it almost feels like teaching magic.

In Wonder Walkers by Micha Archer, two curious children explore the natural world by asking poetic questions like, “Are trees the sky’s legs?” and “Is dirt the world’s skin?” This mentor text serves as a powerful model for both students and teachers—it invites readers to slow down, observe, and wonder. The book can inspire an activity that not only takes students outdoors, but also encourages them to reflect on the different kinds of questions they are asking each day. The very place where we are standing can become a tool for learning if we’re willing to pause and look closely through a lens of inquiry.

This post offers a walkthrough of a lesson you can bring outside—as a StoryWalk or as an introduction to nature journaling. It’s also a great cross-curricular activity that can launch an inquiry or research unit, blending observation, curiosity, and writing in a meaningful way.

A great way to bring nature journaling into your daily life is by using the Compass Page. This page organizes your journaling around four meaningful areas: Daily Life, Nature and Surroundings, Memory-Keeping, and Reflection. However, you could always choose the four different regions of your compass. With all of the various planning methods and choices for goal-setting, the heart of this work is narrowing down the way you go about finding your purpose through journaling. This layout is a perfect blend of planning and creative expression, allowing you to stay organized while connecting with nature. Every time you create a new Compass Page for your day, week, or month, you’re not just setting goals and scheduling tasks—you’re also opening the door to new reflections, observations, and moments of inspiration. Whether you sketch a quick landscape, jot down a feeling inspired by the weather, or simply reflect on the natural world around you, the Compass Page makes it easy to weave nature journaling into your routine. For the Compass Page, you can reference this work each and every time you make a new layout for your day, week, or month.

You can find inspiration from my Compass Page or you can download your own ready-to-use template.

“Your mind is the garden, your thoughts are the seeds. The harvest can either be flowers or weeds.” —William Wordsworth

Just like a real garden, our thoughts need space, nourishment, and time to grow. I sometimes like to pause on certain words that come across in readings, poetry, or even on social media. The word cultivate stuck out to me when I initially started trying this activity in journaling workshops and seminars because we are not only constantly creating, but we are growing in many ways, too. I am not necessarily a person who has a green thumb, but I do think that journaling can be used as a tool for tending to what is going on in our minds each day. The idea of a thought garden is not new. Below are some of the inspirations for this journaling prompt, including one of my favorites from Morgan Harper Nichols.