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
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
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.
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