[0:00] [Music] [0:03] I like to journal about different plants [0:07] especially the flowers and I love to [0:09] journal about the pollinators nature [0:11] journaling is the process of keeping a [0:15] place-based personal record of your [0:17] outdoor experiences that you have and [0:21] it's your events and observations that [0:24] you go through it's really a tool about [0:27] learning and discovery nature journaling [0:31] is important because you actually get a [0:33] deeper connection to Nature and you have [0:36] time to sit and reflect use your senses [0:40] and really enjoy nature but it also [0:42] gives you a purpose to be [0:45] outside at the Minnesota Valley National [0:48] Wildlife Refuge we do use our nature [0:51] journaling for the K through eth grade [0:54] students as well as some of our [0:56] educational programs that we have and [0:58] our outreach program [1:00] we do give them a nature Journal similar [1:04] to one like this and it is a pre-filled [1:07] out nature Journal you can also do [1:10] something more like this where it's just [1:13] a blank Journal that I have written in [1:15] the prompts myself and if you're really [1:18] not feeling up to writing in the prompts [1:21] yourself you're maybe not exactly sure [1:23] where to start I would definitely [1:25] suggest looking online for something [1:27] like this it is more of a guided [1:29] experience expence but really on any [1:32] sort of Journal you can find a way to [1:36] Nature Journal you can use tallies [1:39] colors diagrams we also can do things [1:43] like sketches and [1:46] photographs where you are sketching what [1:49] you see as well as taking an actual [1:51] photograph of what you see and then [1:53] filling out the information on that [1:55] plant or if you don't have access to a [1:58] camera you can just [2:00] draw your image we strongly suggest [2:03] using color color makes it very fun and [2:06] there are other things you can do like [2:08] using the environment around you we have [2:12] a box elder Leaf rubbing so taking a [2:15] leaf and slipping it underneath the [2:17] paper and going over with a crayon great [2:19] way to get those real fine textures and [2:22] details of the tree or species you may [2:25] be looking at so if you're interested [2:28] more in nature journaling you can always [2:31] go to any sort of store and pick up a [2:33] journal or if you'd like to learn a [2:36] little bit more in depth of what we do [2:38] for nature journaling feel free to [2:40] either contact the National Wildlife [2:42] Refuge or head out here yourself and we [2:44] would love to chat more about nature [2:46] journaling [2:47] [Music]