Photos of the Leaf Hunt

I know that I already posted about our leaf hunt, but I had not posted the journal entries. Thought I might do that today since I have a rare few moments with actually nothing to do. Well, I could fold laundry, but this is alot more fun.

First, we taped in the leaves and drew our representation of the many leaves we saw.

Then, we recorded our thoughts. Reflection is a big idea in education right now. I constantly have my kinder kids record their thought on stories, experiments and even solutions to math problems. Having experienced something and then writing about it goes a long way in having that knowledge set into long term memory.

Here is little Js journal entry. It is of the trees with their leaves before a couple were used in the name of science. He drew a little face among the branches. Can you find it? My little guy is just so darn cute! On the opposite page, I wrote what he dictated to me. We read it together as I pointed to the words one at a time. J felt like such a big boy that he then let me read the words while he pointed to them one at a time.

 

We have been using our nature journals as a way for my eldest son to practice writing in a fun and relaxing way. Writing has never been something T enjoys (though he can tell the most creative fictional stories). Somehow recording his reflections in this journal is exactly what was needed to make writing come alive for him.