Resource for Nature Notebooks

If you are doing a Nature Notebook à la Audubon, may I suggest National Geographic Encyclopedia of Animalsas a resource.



It is easy to use if you are searching for an animal (table of contents and index), gives nice color drawings for each, includes the scientific name for each AS WELL AS of an overview of animal classification in the beginning pp.10-11 (the bio of Audubon we are reading talks about scientific names for the animals so it's a good way to get into the topic).

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

The overview is wonderful and shows how for the mallard it gets narrowed down each time from Animalia to Chordata to Aves, etc. And then it gets even better! On each page this information is detailed. For example, the border of the pages for mammals are color coded orange, birds are red, reptiles are purple, amphibians are blue, fish are green, and the invertebrates are teal. The system of classification is further reinforced on each page in small print above the title.

Monotremes: 1 Order, 2 Families, 3 Genera, 3 Species

Marsupials: 7 Orders, 19 Families, 83 Genera, 295 Species

Pelicans: 1 Order, 6 Families, 8 Genera, 63 Species

and so on. There is general information about each group of animals that would be good for a nature notebook (on the facing page) as well as maps which show where in the world these animals live, "Conservation Watch" for those that are endangered, and more. A wonderful resource from National Geographic! $16.47 right now on Amazon and well worth every penny if you are looking for an overview of the Animal World (focus on vertebrates) and a resource which groups similar animals together for purposes of comparison.