Make Your Own Stick-bound Nature Journal

 Every budding naturalist needs a nature journal! Opportunities for writing, drawing, documenting and collecting small, flat treasures from the great outdoors are a huge part of our nature adventures. There are many options on the market when it comes to stocking your Nature on the Go Kits with a notebook or journal. You can use a regular, run of the mill notebook or journal--even better if you can recycle one that's been partially used over the school year. You can buy waterproof notebooks especially constructed for outdoor use. You can carry a sketch book or pad. But what better way to bring a bit of nature on the go than to create your own stick-bound nature journal?

There are a few ways to do this project and while it is a great one for kids, some adult assistance may be necessary with younger ones. We've done this activity in a couple of styles here; a smaller sized nature notebook with the binding on the side (as pictured to the left) and a full page size version with the binding at the top (as pictured below). Here's how you can make both versions at home (or at the park, as we did on our nature based playgroup's first meetup of the season).

How To Construct Your Own Stick-bound Nature Journal

You will need:

• a stick: this is a great task to put your little ones up to--finding the perfect stick! It needs to be an appropriate size for your paper and not too thick or brittle. It needs to be just right and little ones have an inherent talent for finding and collecting these!
• cover paper: For your cover, I recommend a sturdier paper, either construction paper, watercolor paper or card stock. If you are making the smaller version, you'll need only one sheet. If you are making the full sized version, you'll need two.
• filler paper: I love to use recycled/scrap paper as filler. Mix it up between lined and unlined, graph paper, sketch paper, colored paper, recycled artwork and plain ol' white paper if you like. You can choose how many sheets to include. I like my journals to be about 10 pages long, so if you're making a folded version, you'll need 5 filler sheets and 10 filler sheets for the larger one.
• rubber band: long enough to stretch the width of your binding without snapping and breaking, I prefer thinner bands as they are easier to work with
• a hole punch
• art supplies for decorating your cover: If you are creating a cover from scratch, decide what medium you'd like to use. For our larger nature journals, I set the boys up outside with watercolor paper and watercolors at their portable easels. I recycled some old artwork of mine to create my cover and recycled artwork can be a great cover source! For our group activity at the park, I brought along oil pastels and anything goes--whatever floats your boat!

Instructions:

Version 1:

For the smaller version of the stick bound journal, I folded the cover and filler papers in half, width wise. I positioned my hole punch about an inch and half or two down from the top and up from the bottom. If you like to be really exact, you can use a double hole puncher. I don't have one and didn't care! For me, the easiest way to ensure the holes would line up on the filler pages was to slip them inside the hole-punched cover and match up the hole puncher to the existing hole before pressing it through. Lastly, pinch one end of your rubber band and thread it through the top hole, so a small loop comes through to the front. Slip one end of your stick through the loop and lay it flat on a tabletop. Pull the other end of your rubber band (on the backside) through the other hole in a little loop and stretch the loop over the other end of your stick. This will affix your stick in place. You may need to wiggle it a bit to adjust the length evenly, but it should be secure at this point and create the binding of your journal. Voila! 

Version 2:

For the full sized page version, you'll follow much of the same instructions as with the half size journal. However, rather than folding your pages, you'll leave them flat. Take your cover page and punch a hole about an inch and half or two inches inward from the left and from the right top side. Position your back cover below it, with the part you want showing, out. Using the existing hole on the front cover as a guide, punch through the back cover. Set that aside for now. Take about half of the filler sheets (my hole puncher can go through about 5 sheets of regular weight paper at a time, but you may need to adjust this if you are using thicker paper or more sheets than 10). Position the front cover over the top, centering your filler sheets as you'd like (especially if your cover sheet happens to be a bit wider around the edges than letter size). Punch through, using the existing holes on the front cover as your guide. Set those aside and repeat this step with your remaining filler paper. Once everything is hole punched, line up your paper and holes, and loop one end of your rubber band through from the back to the front of one hole. Slip one end of your stick in place and from the back, stretch and pull the other end of the rubber band in a loop through the back of the other hole, to the front and over the stick to affix it in place. Adjust your stick as necessary and you're done! 

The last thing to do is decide how, when and where you'll use your nature journals! Stock your Nature on the Go Kits. Pack a set in your car. Set them out on your art or writing center. Perhaps they will be child led and directed. Perhaps you'll provide prompts or use them for a particular project or purpose. You might even decide to gift these to someone special who also loves nature and art! The options are limitless and when you make it yourself, especially from recycled and natural materials, you're saving green both in your wallet and in the environment. 

Happy Trails and Happy Playing!