Nature Walks and Nature Journals With a Waldorf-Inspired Co-op

The simplest way to walk with a co-op group is to choose one short route near your meeting place and walk it each time you meet, through the whole year. Name 5 or 6 stopping places along the way that the children will come to know: the big oak, the bridge, the wet corner, the bench with the view. At each stop, the group looks and listens for a minute or two. Afterward, each child draws one thing from the walk in their own nature journal. The youngest draw from memory, and children from about grade 3 can draw on the spot and write a line.

For a single child at home, how to start a Waldorf nature journal covers the book, the crayons and journals by age. With a group, you need a bit more: a route everyone knows, a way to walk it together, and a journal time that works for a 5-year-old and a 10-year-old side by side.

Why walk the same route every week?

Waldorf schools often take the same kind of walk, week after week. Charlottesville Waldorf School's kindergarten takes weekly nature walks "to the woods and stream through the changing seasons." Richmond Waldorf School says its first and second graders take a weekly nature walk. The Waldorf School of San Diego writes that the grade 1 child becomes familiar with their surroundings "through the simple act of taking walks with the class."

The same route is what makes the walk work in a group. By the third week, nobody needs telling where to stop. The children run ahead to the bridge and wait. By November they're telling each other that the oak "has lost half its leaves since last time." That comparison, one place against itself a week ago, is the heart of it, and it only comes from going back.

It also makes the walk easy for any parent to lead. When the route and the stops are fixed, whoever is on walk duty that week already knows the way.

Choosing your route and your stops

Walk the route with one or two other parents before the first co-op day.

• Keep it short. A route you'd walk alone in a few minutes can take a group of small children much longer, with all the stopping. That's the right pace.
• Look for variety close together. One big tree and some water, even a ditch or a puddle that always forms. Add an open patch of sky, a hedge and somewhere to sit.
• Choose 5 or 6 stops and give each a plain name the children can remember. Let the children rename them if they want. "Frog corner" will stick better than anything you choose.
• Plan for mud and wet weather, since you'll walk it in most weather.
• Check the rules. In a park, find out whether collecting is allowed. The National Park Service's Leave No Trace guidance asks visitors to "leave rocks, plants and other natural objects as you find them."

If your co-op meets somewhere with no green space nearby, a street with trees and front gardens still changes through the year. So does a churchyard. The route matters less than going back to it.

Walking with a group

Put one adult at the front and one at the back, every time. The front adult sets the pace and stops the group at each place. The back adult keeps the slowest walkers company and makes sure no one is left looking at a beetle. Count heads before you leave and when you get back. The co-op safety policy has more on headcounts and telling a leader before a group goes out.

Start with a short verse or song at the gate, the same one each week, so the children know the walk has begun. At each stop, gather the group and wait until everyone is quiet. Then ask one question, no more:

• What can you hear?
• What's different since last week?
• What color is the bark today?
• Where do you think this puddle goes?

Let the answers come, then move on. Washington Waldorf School describes its teachers on woods walks taking leisurely walks with the children and observing what they discover. The adult's job is mostly to slow down and wait.

Between stops, let the children walk and play. A walk that's all stopping and asking gets long for a 5-year-old.

What do children notice through the seasons?

Here's a rough guide to what your group might look for at the stops, season by season. Use it as a prompt for the adult leading the walk, not a list to get through.

Season	At the tree	At the water	In the sky and air	Around your feet
Early fall	First leaves turning, seeds and nuts	Low water, insects on the surface	Birds gathering, morning mist	Acorns, pinecones, seed heads
Late fall	Leaves falling, bare branches showing	Leaves floating, higher water after rain	Earlier dusk, geese	Leaf piles, mushrooms (look, don't touch)
Winter	The shape of the bare tree, buds	Ice, frost at the edge	Breath clouds, low sun	Tracks in mud or snow
Early spring	Buds swelling, catkins	Frog spawn, running water	Birdsong, longer light	First green shoots
Late spring	New leaves, blossom	Tadpoles, water plants	Swallows or swifts	Wildflowers, snails after rain
Summer	Full shade, small fruits	Dragonflies, lower water	Clouds, heat	Grasses, beetles, ants

What your group sees depends on where you live. In the southern hemisphere, turn the table around. The grade 2 nature studies guide has more on walking the same path in every weather.

Tie the route to the festival year where it fits. A walk in late September can gather the last apples or seed heads for the harvest festival. A spring walk can gather flowers, where picking is allowed, for May Day.

Nature journals, by age, in one group

Each child keeps their own book of plain paper for the year. It lives in a named basket at co-op or travels home and back each week. After the walk, sit everyone down together. One table with a basket of block crayons and colored pencils works well.

Under 7. They don't need a journal, though many will want one once they see older children drawing. Let them draw freely and don't ask what the picture is. Their part of the walk is carrying the basket and bringing things back for the nature table.

Grades 1 and 2 (about 6 to 8). Draw from memory with block crayons. A parent writes the date and a word or two the child says. If your co-op meets once a week, the drawing can happen after snack, once there's been some time since the walk. Some families prefer the child to draw at home the next morning and bring the journal back.

Grades 3 and 4 (about 8 to 10). These children can start drawing on the spot, with a clipboard at one of the stops, and write their own caption. John Muir Laws is a naturalist who teaches nature journaling. His curriculum is mainly for children of 8 and up, and uses three prompts: "I notice, I wonder, It reminds me of." In a group, these children can say their prompts out loud at a stop before anyone draws.

Grade 5 and up. Drawing from life becomes the main thing. One plant or one tree, drawn carefully with colored pencils, with notes. This fits the botany walks in a co-op for grades 4 to 6.

Give journal time 15 to 20 minutes. Adults draw in their own journals too. Don't correct and don't compare. If a child finishes early, they can add the weather or help a younger child find a crayon.

A group book for the year

You can also keep one more book alongside the children's own: a big sketchbook with a double page for each stopping place. Each week, one or two older children add a small dated drawing of their stop. Or they write a line: "Oak. Wind. All the leaves on the ground." By the end of the year, each place has a whole year on one page. Bring the book out on the last co-op day so everyone can look through it together.

A walk plan to copy

Copy this, fill in your own places and change it as your group finds its way.

• Route: from ______ to ______ and back. About ___ minutes with the children.
• Stops: 1. ______ 2. ______ 3. ______ 4. ______ 5. ______
• Walk leaders this term: ______ (front) and ______ (back)
• Opening verse or song: ______
• Collecting: allowed / not allowed on this route. If allowed: one thing each.
• Bad weather: we still walk, except in thunder or ______.
• After the walk: journals at ______ for ___ minutes. Journals live in ______.

Getting started this term

Walk your route with one other parent this week and name the stops. Buy or gather a plain book for each child. On the first co-op day, walk it slowly, stop at every place, and ask only what the children can hear. Then sit down, write the date at the top of the page, and hand out the crayons. If you want outdoor play time as well, outdoor time at a co-op covers how long, what to wear and what the adults do.

Looking for a Waldorf-inspired group to walk with? The Waldorf Map lists co-ops and schools by area.