Pond and River Nature Study

Resources and learning activities to enhance nature study pond and river style.

“May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.” ―Rainer Maria Rilke

Pond and River Nature Study

Books

Nonfiction

• All About Turtles by Jim Arnosky

• Beavers by Gail Gibbons

• Frogs, Toads, Lizards and Salamanders by Nancy Winslow Parker

• Frogs by Gail Gibbons

• The Frog Book by Steve Jenkins

• Fanatical About Frogs by Owen Davey

• About Fish by Cathryn Sill

• What’s It Like to Be A Fish?

• Freshwater Fish and Fishing by Jim Arnosky

• Snakes by Gail Gibbons

• The Big Book of Bugs by Yuval Zommer

• Watching Water Birds by Jim Arnosky

• Ducks! by Gail Gibbons

• On Duck Pond by Jane Yolen

• On Gull Beach by Jane Yolen

• Henry the Impatient Heron by Donna Love

• National Wildlife Federation World of Birds (pages 46-61)

• Marshes & Swamps by Gail Gibbons

• One Small Square: Pond

• Frogs, Toad, and Turtles Take-Along Guide

• Pond Life Golden Guide

• Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman

• Curiositree: The Natural World (What’s In the Pond?)

Fiction

• Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner

• Butternut Hollow Pond by Brian J. Henz

• Pond by Jim LaMarche

• Mr. Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter

• Mossy by Jan Brett

• Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

• Just Ducks by Nicola Davies

• It’s Mine by Leo Lionni

• Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni

• Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel

• In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming

• The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver by Thornton Burgess

• The Adventures of Grandfather Frog by Thornton Burgess

• Among the Pond People by Clara Dillingham Pierson

Nature Journaling

- Secret Item: Pick an item. In your nature journal use words, drawings, and numbers to describe it. Then, have a partner find it.

- Zoom in, zoom out and life size: Take a view and draw it three ways.

- Field Notes, make a collection of things: It could be rocks, leaves, plants growing, bugs in the water, or animals nearby.

- Compare two things like freshwater and saltwater wetlands

- Matching items to words and numbers with partner

- Timeline of a pond’s life cycle.

- Soundscape

- Data and graphs

- Questioning observe, hypothesis, research ask what, why, how, when, where, who

- Writing options: labels, lists, sentences, paragraphs, phrases

- Different perspectives, angles

- Observe pond water under a microscope and identify microscopic creatures.

- Complete a cross-section mural of a pond.

- Make a pond food chain.

- Research: Learn about photosynthesis in pond plants.