Activity: How to make a Nature Diary/Dialann Nadúr
Age appropriate:
- Younger children will need help with cutting and threading the twine
- Older children should be able to manage most of this themselves, with supervision
- You can make one for the year or one per month or per season
- Use it as an opportunity to help the children record their nature walks, birds visiting the garden, flowers that they see, their favourite tree…
- Encourage them to observe and record the weather, clouds, rain, wind, temperatures……
- Find out the names of the plants/animals in English and as Gaeilge and include them in the diary
What you will need:
- Use recycled materials as much as possible – you should not have to buy anything for this activity
- Cardboard – cereal box or packaging
- 6-8 pieces of paper – White or Coloured
- Hole puncher
- Scissors
- Twine/wool/string
- Glue
- Old magazines/newspaper /cards, with images of nature (plants, animals, trees, vegetables, flowers, clouds, etc!)
- Newspaper to put on table so that glue does not go everywhere
How to make it:
- It always helps to have an example, so make one yourself first if you have the time….
- There are some photos included that may help to give some ideas – use these if you don’t have time to make your own one!
- You can make it any size – e.g. A4 size diary or A5 (which is A4 cut in half)
- Cut the 2 pieces of cardboard (of equal sizes) and punch 2 holes in the sides
- Cut the paper to the same size – use the holes in the cardboard to make the holes in the paper, to make sure they line up
- Put paper in-between the two pieces of cardboard
- Thread the string through the 2 holes and tie in a bow. One tip here is to lay the diary out flat (see photo above). This makes it easier to turn the pages when they are being used
How to use your nature diary:
- Start cutting out some nature pictures from magazines, etc. and stick them in
- You can start pressing leaves and flowers (for a week) and then start adding them over time
- Sketch plants and animals, rivers, seas, mountains, anything from nature
- Pick some leaves, ferns, flowers (gently and not by the root) and use them to make colours. Rub them on the paper and see what colours they make – you will be surprised! You can also do this with soil and you get nice browns – just explore and experiment
- Investigate the name of where you live – what is it as Gaeilge? The name is often connected to the nature of the place or what used to be there. This website will help with this: https://www.logainm.ie/ga/
- To find out other words as Gaeilge for the natural world, try these links: https://www.tearma.ie and freagra@ling.ie
Birch bark and flower sketch
Colours from rubbing leaves and flowers