Tally Walks

I have seen a lot of ideas for nature walks and journals for kids. These are wonderful for children who can read and write but what about preschool/kindergarten kids? We can do tally walks. 

You will need

• A small notebook
  
• A pencil
  
• Some markers or colored pencils
  

1. When you are about to go for a walk, open the notebook to a blank page.
   
2. Write the day, date and year at the top. Say what you are writing to your child/children as you do this.
   
3. Ask “What shall we look for on our walk today?”
   
4. When you have decided, draw a picture of it in your notebook.
   
5. On your walk, everytime your child sees an instance of the item, they put a check in their book. 
   
6. After the walk, count how many checks your child made. Talk about the number: “So today we say two green doors. How do we write two?”
   
7. At the end of the week you could look back at each day and talk about the walks you went on. ​
   

---

Tip 1: Start with something really easy and then get more challenging over time. We started with pink flowers in July because I guessed (correctly) that there would be a lot for my daughter to find. Eventually a number or a letter would be great, especially in urban areas where more signage can be seen.

Tip 2: Being seasonal is a good way to encourage your child to observe the changes in nature. You could throw in a trick item such as pink flowers in October and then talk about why you didn’t see any. 

Tip 3: Create a tally journal for your backyard if you have one or local park/green space. Your child could record what things they see growing in the garden, what wildlife they see. Again, use simple drawings to help them record what they see. 

Tip 4: We started with one item to find per walk but as time goes on we plan to add extra items. This is easier in the yard than on a walk as it can be quite a lot to keep track of.

Tip 5: Be prepared to stop and dawdle as your child looks and marks things down. 

Tip 6: Always date your entries. This helps your child learn about days and dates and also means you can look back over the entries and talk about the changes you see. I also find that adding a date for my daughter makes it “official” and she somehow is responsive to that. 
​
Tip 7: My daughter rather cleverly has decided to keep her tally notebook/journal near the door where we go out so we don’t forget it!