Making a Bestiary

Explorers of long ago made bestiaries, or books with drawings and descriptions of the strange new creatures they encountered in their voyages.  You and your children can pretend you are explorers and make bestiaries of your own.

For your bestiary, you can use an old notebook or diary that still has blank pages, or you can make and bind your  own  book.  

You can make your bestiary about real animals.  Perhaps you have done the other nature observing activities featured in this blog, like bird watching or observing indoor wildlife, and you would like to make a bestiary as a way to record your observations.  You can fill your bestiary with your observations -- in words and in drawings  of how various animals look like and behave. 

Or you might want to fill your bestiary with animals of your own imagination, like what Matthew Mehan did in his book entitled Mr. Mehan's Mildly Amusing Mythical Mammals.  Ask yourself what your imaginary beasts would look like, sound like, eat, and do; where would they live; how they would move; and other details.  Write and illustrate your descriptions as well.

You may also want to combine real and imaginary beasts in your bestiary, and that is fine, too.

The important thing is to enjoy drawing and writing about the world you see with your eyes or your imagination.