Grab your magnifying glass, step outside, and take a Tiny Adventure! Join Allison for a quick visit to a fascinating moss forest then find your own to explore.

WHAT
Look at a natural object at actual size and then with a magnifying glass to take a closer look. Draw your observations.

WHERE
Anywhere outdoors, or with a natural object indoors.

MATERIALS
 – Nature Journal: A notebook (preferably with blank pages) or clipboard and stapled together blank paper
– Magnifying glass
– any item you find in nature
– pencil/pen and other drawing supplies if desired

TIME
 10-20 minutes

HOW
1. Find something in nature that interests you. It could be the underside of a leaf, a snail shell, lichen/moss, a small critter (be gentle!), a flower bud, etc.
2. Open your nature journal (or fold a piece of paper in half) and label the left page ‘Zoom Out’ and the right page ‘Zoom In.’ 
3. On the ‘Zoom Out’ side, trace the actual size of the item you are observing, like a maple leaf. Then fill in the details (like the vein patterns on the leaf you traced). 
4. On the ‘Zoom In’ side draw a big circle that takes up as much of the page as it can. This represents what you see under your magnifying glass. Look at your leaf under the magnifying glass and draw the zoomed in details that fill up your lens. It won’t be the whole leaf, but a blown up smaller section with more detail.
5. Find another item that interests you and try again. Common lawn daisies are fascinating to look at through a magnifying glass!  

JOURNAL REFLECTIONS 
– What new observations did you make when you zoomed in?
– Did you observe any repeating patterns?
– Did any details in the zoomed in view remind you of anything?