Using the Handbook of Nature Study
Winter Series #1
Cattail Study-Winter
Inside Preparation Work:
Read the section on cattails in the Handbook of Nature Study on pages 500-503. Pay close attention to suggestion #7 on page 502. If you completed an autumn cattail study, you may wish to pull out your nature journal page and refresh your memory with how your cattail looked a few months ago.
Outdoor Hour Time:
Take your Outdoor Hour Time and visit your cattail location if possible. Many of us were surprised that we actually had cattails close to our homes and it will be fun to revisit the area now that winter is upon us. (If you do not have cattails in your neighborhood, see the alternate activity below.)
Cattail Study-Winter
Inside Preparation Work:
Read the section on cattails in the Handbook of Nature Study on pages 500-503. Pay close attention to suggestion #7 on page 502. If you completed an autumn cattail study, you may wish to pull out your nature journal page and refresh your memory with how your cattail looked a few months ago.
Outdoor Hour Time:
Take your Outdoor Hour Time and visit your cattail location if possible. Many of us were surprised that we actually had cattails close to our homes and it will be fun to revisit the area now that winter is upon us. (If you do not have cattails in your neighborhood, see the alternate activity below.)
You may wish to take along your nature journal or your camera to record how your cattails look during the winter. Use your best observation skills and observe as much about your cattail as possible.
You might include:
Is your cattail still growing in water or has it dried up?
What does the “cattail” parts of the plant look like now?
What color and shape are the leaves?
Do you see the cattails seeds or balloons?
Can you pull some of the fuzz from the cattail and observe it more closely?
How do you think the seeds spread, by wind or water?
How crowded are the cattails growing together?
Follow-Up Activity:
Follow up your outdoor time with a chance to draw the cattail in the nature journal. You can use the notebook page I created for the Winter Series (available only with the ebook or notebooking page purchase-see link below), the notebook page from Autumn, a blank page in your journal, or any other general notebook page listed on my sidebar of my blog.
Cattail Creator
In a field of lifeless cattails
Amoungst frozen water
Her closed fist gripped
A velvet brown cylinder
She seperated single seeds
From the masses
Tiny white souls
Satiny against her fingertips
She held her arms high, caressing the sky
Head tilted upward
Breathing in the atmoshere
She opened her fists
Flinging the miniscule spores
Into the wind
She watched as they scattered
And floated on the breeze
Like weightless feathers
Exaltation becomes creation
Kayla Peterson
Winter Series #2
Winter Tree Study
Inside Preparation Work:
Now that winter is upon us, let’s take this week and observe the tree we chose last autumn to study during each of the four seasons. This week you will use the suggestions on pages 624-625 of the Handbook of Nature Study to make general winter observations of your tree. You may wish to read through the suggested ideas for studying your tree before heading outdoors so you will have those in mind. If you started a year-long tree study a few months ago during the Autumn Series of challenges, you may want to pull out your nature journal and refresh your memory about your particular tree. Hopefully when you go outdoors you will observe some big changes.
Winter Tree Study
Inside Preparation Work:
Now that winter is upon us, let’s take this week and observe the tree we chose last autumn to study during each of the four seasons. This week you will use the suggestions on pages 624-625 of the Handbook of Nature Study to make general winter observations of your tree. You may wish to read through the suggested ideas for studying your tree before heading outdoors so you will have those in mind. If you started a year-long tree study a few months ago during the Autumn Series of challenges, you may want to pull out your nature journal and refresh your memory about your particular tree. Hopefully when you go outdoors you will observe some big changes.
Also, if you have the Discover Nature in Winter book, turn to pages 76-81 for valuable information on branch patterns, tree silhouettes, twigs, and seed containers.
Outdoor Hour Time:Take your 10-15 minute outdoor time to study your tree. If you are just starting out with a tree study, pick a tree from your yard that you can watch through all four seasons. Have your children make as many observations as possible, perhaps comparing the appearance to how it was during autumn. Another way to record your tree changes is to take photographs in every season. This makes for a very easy nature journal entry once you get back indoors. If your weather is too cold or snowy to go outdoors, you can pick a tree to observe from your window or you can bring in a twig or cone to study from your tree instead.
Simple Suggestions for Winter Tree Study:1. Pick a tree in your yard or on your street and view its branch patterns and silhouette.
2. Find a tree that has lost its leaves and sketch its shape in your nature journal. This activity can be done from a window if your weather is too cold or snowy.
3. Collect some seeds from trees that may still be left over from last season. Look for sweet gum, locust, yellow poplar, ash, mimosa, or sycamore.
4. Collect twigs from different trees and compare them.
Outdoor Hour Time:Take your 10-15 minute outdoor time to study your tree. If you are just starting out with a tree study, pick a tree from your yard that you can watch through all four seasons. Have your children make as many observations as possible, perhaps comparing the appearance to how it was during autumn. Another way to record your tree changes is to take photographs in every season. This makes for a very easy nature journal entry once you get back indoors. If your weather is too cold or snowy to go outdoors, you can pick a tree to observe from your window or you can bring in a twig or cone to study from your tree instead.
Simple Suggestions for Winter Tree Study:1. Pick a tree in your yard or on your street and view its branch patterns and silhouette.
2. Find a tree that has lost its leaves and sketch its shape in your nature journal. This activity can be done from a window if your weather is too cold or snowy.
3. Collect some seeds from trees that may still be left over from last season. Look for sweet gum, locust, yellow poplar, ash, mimosa, or sycamore.
4. Collect twigs from different trees and compare them.
Follow-Up Activity:After your outdoor time, complete a nature journal entry. If you purchased the Winter Nature Study ebook you will have a custom notebook page or there are several free alternatives by using a general notebook page from the sidebar of my blog, the original Seasonal Tree notebook page, or your own blank journal. You can take photos of your tree to put in your nature journal as well. The Handbook of Nature Study suggests sketching your tree to show its shape as it stands bare. File your nature journal page as a record of the season.
Additional Project:
Anna Botsford Comstock in the Handbook of Nature Study suggests on page 624 to take a twig from your tree in February and look at it carefully. She suggests placing the twig in a vase of water and then leaving it in a warm, light place and see what happens to the buds.
Additional Project:
Anna Botsford Comstock in the Handbook of Nature Study suggests on page 624 to take a twig from your tree in February and look at it carefully. She suggests placing the twig in a vase of water and then leaving it in a warm, light place and see what happens to the buds.
The Last Leaf
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes
I saw him once before,
As he passed by the door,
And again
The pavement stones resound,
As he totters o'er the ground
With his cane.
They say that in his prime,
Ere the pruning-knife of Time
Cut him down,
Not a better man was found
By the Crier on his round
Through the town.
But now he walks the streets,
And looks at all he meets
Sad and wan,
And he shakes his feeble head,
That it seems as if he said,
"They are gone."
The mossy marbles rest
On the lips that he has prest
In their bloom,
And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb.
My grandmamma has said
Poor old lady, she is dead
Long ago
That he had a Roman nose,
And his cheek was like a rose
In the snow;
But now his nose is thin,
And it rests upon his chin
Like a staff,
And a crook is in his back,
And a melancholy crack
In his laugh.
I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
But the old three-cornered hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so queer!
And if I should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring,
Let them smile, as I do now,
At the old forsaken bough
Where I cling.
As he passed by the door,
And again
The pavement stones resound,
As he totters o'er the ground
With his cane.
They say that in his prime,
Ere the pruning-knife of Time
Cut him down,
Not a better man was found
By the Crier on his round
Through the town.
But now he walks the streets,
And looks at all he meets
Sad and wan,
And he shakes his feeble head,
That it seems as if he said,
"They are gone."
The mossy marbles rest
On the lips that he has prest
In their bloom,
And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb.
My grandmamma has said
Poor old lady, she is dead
Long ago
That he had a Roman nose,
And his cheek was like a rose
In the snow;
But now his nose is thin,
And it rests upon his chin
Like a staff,
And a crook is in his back,
And a melancholy crack
In his laugh.
I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
But the old three-cornered hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so queer!
And if I should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring,
Let them smile, as I do now,
At the old forsaken bough
Where I cling.
The Last Leaf
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Winter Series #3
Winter Sky and Stars
Inside Preparation Work:
There is a section starting on page 823 on the Winter Stars. The clear explanations of the constellations in the Handbook of Nature Study make it an excellent first resource for families. For example: The lessons on page 820 explaining the North Star and the Big Dipper are clearly put down for anyone to follow and are timeless. The language used in the Handbook of Nature Study makes it enjoyable to read.
Winter Sky and Stars
Inside Preparation Work:
There is a section starting on page 823 on the Winter Stars. The clear explanations of the constellations in the Handbook of Nature Study make it an excellent first resource for families. For example: The lessons on page 820 explaining the North Star and the Big Dipper are clearly put down for anyone to follow and are timeless. The language used in the Handbook of Nature Study makes it enjoyable to read.
"After the polar constellations are learned, we are then ready for further study in the still earlier evenings of winter, when the clear atmosphere makes the stars seem more alive, more sparkling, and more beautiful than at any other period of the year."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 823
"Orion is one of the most beautiful constellations in the heavens. It is especially marked by the three stars which form Orion's belt, and the line of stars below the belt which form the sword."
Handbook of Nature Study page 825
Read pages 823-829 in the Handbook of Nature Study. These pages outline a study of the winter stars along with some ideas for observations and activities.
Read pages 855-859 in the Handbook of Nature Study. This section on our moon is a delightful lesson showing some basic facts about the moon and its make-up. On page 858 there are 16 suggestions for observing the moon. If you purchased the Winter Nature Study ebook, you may wish to print out and take the Moon Observation Notebook Page so you can record your nightly moon observations this month. Otherwise, you can record your observations in your nature journal.
Additional Preparation Work:
Read chapter three in Discover Nature in Winter. Read the chapter with a view to picking some winter stars to learn about and observe as a family. Start with the North Star or Orion’s belt if you are not sure what you are doing yet. You can also choose to view the moon in the winter sky.
Page 37 give this advice, “Unlike owls and other nocturnal creatures, our eyes are not well designed for seeing in the dark. After leaving a lighted building at night, it takes about thirty minutes for our eyes to become adjusted to the lower light levels.” Allow plenty of time for your eyes to adjust and to take in the night sky.
Our family decided to make sure we can find these four constellations in the winter sky:
Big Dipper (North Star as well) page 44
Ursa Major page 45
Cassiopeia page 47
Orion (using Orion’s belt) page 49
Outdoor Hour Time:
Use your outdoor time this week or any week this month to observe the stars and moon. Our family bundles up with blankets to observe the winter sky. We use our simple binoculars to observe the moon especially when it is full or near to being full.
If you can’t fit in some night time star gazing, how about some sunset observations? Being able to name a star or constellation is a great skill but it can be just as satisfying to spend some time contemplating the universe while gazing up at the winter sky.
Follow-Up Activities:
Follow up with the notebook pages (Winter Sky and Moon Observations) in my Winter Nature Study ebook or with any of the general notebook page from my sidebar. You can also record your observations and thoughts in a blank journal of your choice. Star gazing is something you can do at any time of the year and we try to make it a habit in our family to observe the moon as it makes its full cycle.
A Cloud withdrew from the Sky
A Cloud withdrew from the Sky
Superior Glory be
But that Cloud and its Auxiliaries
Are forever lost to me
Had I but further scanned
Had I secured the Glow
In an Hermetic Memory
It had availed me now.
Never to pass the Angel
With a glance and a Bow
Till I am firm in Heaven
Is my intention now.
Emily Dickinson
Winter Series #4
Winter Weather
Winter weather is usually pretty interesting to children. Observing snow, ice, rain, fog, hail, or just feeling the cooler air is enough to get them interested in going outdoors for this week’s nature study challenge.
I have a vivid memory from my childhood of taking a walk in a raging downpour. I challenge you to experience your weather outdoors at least for a few minutes this week. Properly dressed, your children might just make a fond memory of their own.
"There is no reason why the child's winter walk should not be as fertile in observations as the poet's; indeed, in one way, it is possible to see the more in winter, because the things to be seen do not crowd each other out."
Charlotte Mason, Volume 1, page 86
Inside Preparation Work:
You can read the section in the Handbook of Nature Study on water forms to arm yourself with some basic weather information. Pages 808 to 814 have lots of fun ideas for learning about different aspects of our winter weather.
Optional Inside Preparation Work:
More ideas for winter weather study are found in chapter two of Discover Nature in Winter. There are so many great ideas for studying snow in this chapter that you will find at least two or three that you would like to try with your family. Use your highlighter or sticky notes to mark the places that you find with interesting information or ideas for including in your winter nature study.
Check out the Winter Wednesday entry from last year to glean some ideas for your Winter Weather study: Winter Snow
Outdoor Hour Time:
This week you can use your time to enjoy the winter weather in your backyard. If you have chosen some weather related activities to complete outdoors, make sure you bring any items you need for your study. You may wish to bring along your weather notebook page or your nature journal with pencils to take a few minutes of your outdoor time to record the weather conditions. If your children are enjoying their time outdoors, you probably want to wait until you go back inside to talk about the weather.
Follow-Up Activity:You can read the section in the Handbook of Nature Study on water forms to arm yourself with some basic weather information. Pages 808 to 814 have lots of fun ideas for learning about different aspects of our winter weather.
Optional Inside Preparation Work:
More ideas for winter weather study are found in chapter two of Discover Nature in Winter. There are so many great ideas for studying snow in this chapter that you will find at least two or three that you would like to try with your family. Use your highlighter or sticky notes to mark the places that you find with interesting information or ideas for including in your winter nature study.
Check out the Winter Wednesday entry from last year to glean some ideas for your Winter Weather study: Winter Snow
Outdoor Hour Time:
This week you can use your time to enjoy the winter weather in your backyard. If you have chosen some weather related activities to complete outdoors, make sure you bring any items you need for your study. You may wish to bring along your weather notebook page or your nature journal with pencils to take a few minutes of your outdoor time to record the weather conditions. If your children are enjoying their time outdoors, you probably want to wait until you go back inside to talk about the weather.
Be sure to complete your Seasonal Weather notebook page from the sidebar of my blog or the Winter Nature Study notebook pages (see link below). You could talk about the differences between what you observed in autumn and those things you recorded this time.
How is the scene you drew this week different from the autumn scene?
How are the temperatures different?
Is there a difference in the number of hours of daylight?
SnowflakesHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent and soft and slow
Descends the snow.
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent and soft and slow
Descends the snow.
Winter Series #5
Pine Trees in Winter
Inside Preparation Work:
This week read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 670-675 to learn more about pine trees. Even if you don’t think you have any pines in your area, it is still interesting to read the information for future reference. Make sure to note the ideas suggested for studying pines in the lesson at the end of the section.
Outdoor Hour Time:
Spend 15 minutes outdoors this week with your children in your own yard or on your own street. This week you will have two suggested activities.
*If you have a pine tree of any variety in your yard or on your street, use the ideas from the lesson on page 674 and 675 to guide your observation of the pine tree.
Some ideas to get you started:
What is the general shape of the pine tree?
Is there one central stem running straight up through the center of the tree to the top?
What color is the bark? Is the bark ridged or in scales?
Study the pine leaves. Why are they called needles? How many needles in the bundle?
Does it have a cone?
*If you do not have a pine to observe or you would like an additional activity, take some time to lay under any kind of tree that is available. Look up at the branches. Listen to the sounds of the leaves. Try to spot some kind of wildlife in the tree. Have your children tell you with their words what they experienced while under the tree.
Follow-Up Activity:What is the general shape of the pine tree?
Is there one central stem running straight up through the center of the tree to the top?
What color is the bark? Is the bark ridged or in scales?
Study the pine leaves. Why are they called needles? How many needles in the bundle?
Does it have a cone?
*If you do not have a pine to observe or you would like an additional activity, take some time to lay under any kind of tree that is available. Look up at the branches. Listen to the sounds of the leaves. Try to spot some kind of wildlife in the tree. Have your children tell you with their words what they experienced while under the tree.
After your observation time, use a field guide (see suggestions on the bottom of this post) to identify your particular pine tree. Make a rubbing of your tree’s needles. We have found this blog page to be especially helpful in identifying pines:
http://treenotes.blogspot.com/2007/07/identifying-pines.html
Here is another website that may be helpful:
http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-pines-by-region
Make sure to give time and the opportunity for a nature journal entry. If you observed a pine tree, try to complete Exercise Ten of the lesson on pine trees: Draw a bundle of pine needles showing the sheath and its attachment to the twig; the cone; the cone scale; the seed. Sketch a pine tree. You could also include a leaf or needle rubbing in your nature journal this week. There is a notebook page included with the Winter Nature Study ebook or you can complete another Seasonal Tree Study page with your pine tree. As always, you are free to use a blank journal page in your nature journal.
The Norfolk Pine Of Port Fairy
'Tis said they grow more than a metre each yearAnd they do seem to have grown since I was last here
The Norfolk Island pine of Port fairy they tower over all
Beside them most other trees look rather small.
Though not quite as tall as the mountain ash tree
They seem to grow well in the Towns by the sea
On either side of the streets by Griffith Island tall and evergreen
These beautiful trees in their dozens are seen.
As a feature of the Town in the Coastal Countryside
The norfolk pine of Port Fairy have become known far and wide
They do look quite graceful for want of a better name
And without them Port Fairy would not look the same.
A feature of Port Fairy for visitors to recall
The evergreen norfolk pine trees stand graceful and tall
Nature's beauty at her finest for Nature lovers to see
On either side of the streets that lead down to the sea.
Francis Duggan
Salt
For this challenge we will be doing something a little different. How would you like to grow your very own crystals to observe? You can make our own crystals by dissolving salt in water and then letting it sit in a saucer in your very own windowsill.
Inside Preparation Work:
Read pages 753-754 in the Handbook of Nature Study. These pages give you a quick study of this common substance that we use daily. Be sure to read through the lesson starting on page 753 that outlines an easy to complete activity to make salt crystals to observe using regular table salt and water. Get your crystals growing and then take your outdoor time. I would suggest putting the saucer in a warm windowsill where it will not be moved.
Outdoor Hour Time:
Spend 15-20 minutes outdoors this week in your own backyard carefully looking for something that interests you. Relaxed nature study outside your own backyard can be surprisingly fun since you let your children lead your adventure.
Something you might like to try if you have freezing temperatures in your area is to conduct an experiment where you try to freeze salt water outdoors in your own backyard. Take two pie pans. Fill one with tap water and one with saltwater. Compare the time it takes for each to freeze.
Follow-Up Activity:
Keep close watch on your salt crystals growing in your saucer. Use the notebook page from your Winter Series ebook or a blank page in your nature journal to record your crystal’s growth. You can use a hand lens to observe the crystal's shapes more closely and then record their appearance in your nature journal.
It took about six days before we actually began to see some salt crystals form in our saucer. They are fairly small but with a magnifying glass we could see their shapes easily. We found it easier to observe the crystals if you put them on a dark surface.
I know there are lots of fancy salt experiments out there, but I like to keep things simple. This simple salt and water on a saucer experiment is easy enough for any family to complete with children of any age.
I know there are lots of fancy salt experiments out there, but I like to keep things simple. This simple salt and water on a saucer experiment is easy enough for any family to complete with children of any age.
Snowflakes
Linda A. Copp
Snowflakes spill from heaven's hand
Lovely and chaste like smooth white sand.
A veil of wonder laced in light
Falling Gently on a winters night.
Graceful beauty raining down
Giving magic to the lifeless ground.
Each snowflake like a falling star
Smiling beauty that's spun afar.
Till earth is dressed in a robe of white
Unspoken poem the hush of night.
Linda A. Copp
Snowflakes spill from heaven's hand
Lovely and chaste like smooth white sand.
A veil of wonder laced in light
Falling Gently on a winters night.
Graceful beauty raining down
Giving magic to the lifeless ground.
Each snowflake like a falling star
Smiling beauty that's spun afar.
Till earth is dressed in a robe of white
Unspoken poem the hush of night.
Winter Bird Study
For this challenge, instead of picking a particular bird from the Handbook of Nature Study, we will focus on learning about bird migration and then spend some time outdoors looking for birds in our own neighborhoods. In addition, I am encouraging you to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count that takes place from February 12th to the 15th. You can participate in the bird count even if you just spend 15 minutes observing birds in your own yard or neighborhood. See their website for more information: GBBC.
Inside Preparation Work:Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 35-37. This will help explain why you have some birds in your area only during certain seasons. If you are interested in more information, you might want to check the Peterson Field Guides (see links below) for additional information about particular birds that you have in your feeders or near-by parks. There will be maps in the field guide that show where birds winter, migrate, and spend their summers. I encourage you to pick one common bird you have in your area and see if it migrates. (If you do not have a field guide, use the links in the Follow-Up Activity to research your bird.)
Outdoor Hour Time:Spend 15-20 minutes outdoors this week looking for local birds. Choose one of the birds to learn more about and to record in your nature journal. If you are participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count, plan on spending your outdoor time to tally birds you see in your yard. If the weather is too cold, you can always sit at a window where you can see your birdfeeder and take a tally from there.
Follow-Up Activity:
Give an opportunity for a nature journal after you talk about any birds you observed. Help your child identify any birds they saw if you can. Remember to check the table of contents in the Handbook of Nature Study to see if your bird subject is covered in a lesson. You can use those suggestions to learn more about your backyard birds. If you have a field guide, use the information there to discuss if the bird is a winter resident or a year-round resident. Our family uses this online bird site to help us identify birds: WhatBird? And this website for additional information as well: AllAboutBirds.
Also make sure to log into the Great Backyard Bird Count and record your results from your neighborhood.
Here is a link to Cornell's bird coloring book: Backyard Birds. You can use a coloring page instead of recording your bird in your nature journal if you wish. I like to use the coloring book images to help my boys draw their own bird in their journal.
Additional bird migration websites:
Bird Migration (Backyard Nature)
Bird Migration (Wild Birds Unlimited)
Winter Birds
anonymous
I can't go visit a snowbird
-I don't know where he stays.
I can't go visit a chickadee
-He has such flitty ways.
I can't go visit a blue jay
Atop a snowy tree,
And so I scatter seeds around
And have them visit ME.
anonymous
I can't go visit a snowbird
-I don't know where he stays.
I can't go visit a chickadee
-He has such flitty ways.
I can't go visit a blue jay
Atop a snowy tree,
And so I scatter seeds around
And have them visit ME.
Winter Series #8 One Small Square-Winter
Outdoor Hour Time:
Gather:
Yarn
Scissors
Ruler
Four rocks
Optional: small garden trowel and magnifying lens
Measure off one square somewhere out in your yard or near-by park. I prefer to do this somewhere I can dig up a few inches of soil and not get into trouble. Use your ruler to place rocks in a one foot square plot. Use the yarn to mark off the edges of your square.
Now the challenge comes in. See how many different things you can find in your square. Now that it is winter, you may need to dig a little snow up to see if there is anything hidden in the snow or under the snow. If there are leaves, lift them up and see what is underneath. If there are rocks or gravel, scrape them aside and see what is underneath. If there is grass and you have permission, use your trowel to dig up a few inches under the grass, moving it carefully to the side to replace when you are done observing. Use your hand lens if you have one along with you on your challenge. If you would like more information on square foot nature study, you can click over to my Squidoo Lens: Square Foot Nature Study.
Follow-Up Activity:After your outdoor time, take a few minutes to discuss what you found in your small square. Make note of any items you want to research further.
Gather:
Yarn
Scissors
Ruler
Four rocks
Optional: small garden trowel and magnifying lens
Measure off one square somewhere out in your yard or near-by park. I prefer to do this somewhere I can dig up a few inches of soil and not get into trouble. Use your ruler to place rocks in a one foot square plot. Use the yarn to mark off the edges of your square.
Now the challenge comes in. See how many different things you can find in your square. Now that it is winter, you may need to dig a little snow up to see if there is anything hidden in the snow or under the snow. If there are leaves, lift them up and see what is underneath. If there are rocks or gravel, scrape them aside and see what is underneath. If there is grass and you have permission, use your trowel to dig up a few inches under the grass, moving it carefully to the side to replace when you are done observing. Use your hand lens if you have one along with you on your challenge. If you would like more information on square foot nature study, you can click over to my Squidoo Lens: Square Foot Nature Study.
Follow-Up Activity:After your outdoor time, take a few minutes to discuss what you found in your small square. Make note of any items you want to research further.
“Make the lesson an investigation and make the pupils feel that they are investigators…….The ‘leading thought’ embodies some of the points which should be in the teacher’s mind while giving the lesson; it should not be read or declared to the pupils……..The outlines for observations herein given by no means cover all of the observations possible; they are meant to suggest to the teacher observations of her own, rather than to be followed slavishly….If the questions do not inspire the child to investigate, they are useless.”
Handbook of Nature Study
Give an opportunity for a nature journal entry. If you used your hand lens during this week’s challenge, encourage your child to draw something they saw that you would not normally see like a small insect, worm, or seed. Your child could also make a list of things that were found in the small square in addition to the drawing. You can use the provided notebook page in the Winter Series ebook, a blank notebook page from the sidebar of my blog, or your nature journal for your observations.
One time we did a really big square in the woods and we kept the yarn up for a complete year. We would go back and make observations in each season. I would highly recommend this activity if you have a place you can mark for a whole year.
In The ForestOut of the mid-wood's twilight
Into the meadow's dawn,
Ivory limbed and brown-eyed,
Flashes my Faun!
He skips through the copses singing,
And his shadow dances along,
And I know not which I should follow,
Shadow or song!
O Hunter, snare me his shadow!
O Nightingale, catch me his strain!
Else moonstruck with music and madness
I track him in vain!
Oscar Wilde
Winter Series #9
Mammals in Winter
Many mammals are nocturnal and you will rarely spot them to observe up close. Some mammals hibernate in the winter and they are not easily observed either. Many more mammals are just plain shy and rarely show their faces. Reading about them and learning their behaviors will help you find and observe them in the wild if you are diligent...it may not be this week or this year but you will be ready if you do the study ahead of time.
Any study of mammals can be done with what you have on hand. Do you have a pet dog, cat, mouse, or rat? Do you have a relative or neighbor that has a dog or cat they will let you observe? How about visiting a pet store? Be creative. If you would like additional information on what a mammal is so you can share with your children, here is a link to a general definition as well as links to various mammals and their photos.
Mammals
For this challenge, you can use the Handbook of Nature Study to pick a mammal to study this winter or you can use the Discover Nature in Winter book to read about mammals and then use the information there to look for animal tracks during your outdoor time. Either way will give your family a great study of a mammal.
Mammals in Winter
Many mammals are nocturnal and you will rarely spot them to observe up close. Some mammals hibernate in the winter and they are not easily observed either. Many more mammals are just plain shy and rarely show their faces. Reading about them and learning their behaviors will help you find and observe them in the wild if you are diligent...it may not be this week or this year but you will be ready if you do the study ahead of time.
Any study of mammals can be done with what you have on hand. Do you have a pet dog, cat, mouse, or rat? Do you have a relative or neighbor that has a dog or cat they will let you observe? How about visiting a pet store? Be creative. If you would like additional information on what a mammal is so you can share with your children, here is a link to a general definition as well as links to various mammals and their photos.
Mammals
For this challenge, you can use the Handbook of Nature Study to pick a mammal to study this winter or you can use the Discover Nature in Winter book to read about mammals and then use the information there to look for animal tracks during your outdoor time. Either way will give your family a great study of a mammal.
Inside Preparation Work
If you are using the Discover Nature in Winter book:
Read chapter nine in Discover Nature in Winter. Mammals in general tend to be shy of humans. In the winter, it is even more difficult to observe mammals. The chapter suggests looking for signs of mammals instead like tracks and scat. Highlight ideas for your family to try this week while you are outdoors and looking for mammals.
Our family is going to review the chart showing different animal tracks on page 182 and 183. We might try sketching some of the tracks into our nature journal as a reference for future outdoor time. In our area, we often come across animal scat as we hike and we are going to familiarize ourselves with the various kinds of scat by studying the illustrations in this chapter.
Without the Discover Nature in Winter book:
You can still look up some animal tracks online using this link:
Animal Tracks at Beartracker
Outdoor Hour Time
This week the challenge is to get outdoors and look for signs of animals. You can look for tracks, scat, holes, scratches, hair, or other things that mammals leave behind. Remember to make your nature study time like an investigation.
If you are using the Discover Nature in Winter book:
Read chapter nine in Discover Nature in Winter. Mammals in general tend to be shy of humans. In the winter, it is even more difficult to observe mammals. The chapter suggests looking for signs of mammals instead like tracks and scat. Highlight ideas for your family to try this week while you are outdoors and looking for mammals.
Our family is going to review the chart showing different animal tracks on page 182 and 183. We might try sketching some of the tracks into our nature journal as a reference for future outdoor time. In our area, we often come across animal scat as we hike and we are going to familiarize ourselves with the various kinds of scat by studying the illustrations in this chapter.
Without the Discover Nature in Winter book:
You can still look up some animal tracks online using this link:
Animal Tracks at Beartracker
Outdoor Hour Time
This week the challenge is to get outdoors and look for signs of animals. You can look for tracks, scat, holes, scratches, hair, or other things that mammals leave behind. Remember to make your nature study time like an investigation.
Follow-Up Activity:
1. Keep a record of animal tracks you have observed in the snow or mud. Record your findings in your nature journal along with a drawing, the date, the weather, the time of day, and the type of animal if you have identified it at this time. You can use the Winter Series notebook page, pages from the sidebar of the Handbook of Nature Study blog, or your own blank journal.
2. Compare a dog’s and a cat’s footprints in the snow or mud.
3. Research an animal that hibernates and record what you learn in your nature notebook. You can also sketch your animal and what its tracks look like.
1. Keep a record of animal tracks you have observed in the snow or mud. Record your findings in your nature journal along with a drawing, the date, the weather, the time of day, and the type of animal if you have identified it at this time. You can use the Winter Series notebook page, pages from the sidebar of the Handbook of Nature Study blog, or your own blank journal.
2. Compare a dog’s and a cat’s footprints in the snow or mud.
3. Research an animal that hibernates and record what you learn in your nature notebook. You can also sketch your animal and what its tracks look like.
Squirrels
I’ve watched squirrels my whole life. Theyinhabit a zone just outside domesticity, are
diplomatically wild. They worry and stare,
behaviors of which I approve. They horde
forgetfully, gorge daintily. Sometimes
they just stop. And fall asleep, mid-day,
on a limb or a fence post, all energy
drained. Sometimes frenzy
possesses them—something to do
with sex or fleas—mad bursts of wants
followed by a frozen pose. Squirrels
are not everything I had hoped wilderness
to be. They are though everything
I would want squirrels to be, and
slightly more, for there’s always
just one more surprise ready to leap
out of squirrel-evolution and seize
the nut, bury it, and pat fresh
soil over the nut-grave. And run away!
Hans Ostrom
Winter Series #10
Early Spring Flowers
“The tulips blossom early, because they have food stored in the bulbs the year before, ready to use early in the spring….These observations may be made upon tulips in school gardens or bouquets.”Inside Preparation Work:
Handbook of Nature Study, page 554
This challenge is to learn a few things about spring flowers and then observe some up close.
Suggested sections in the Handbook of Nature Study:
- The Crocus: pages 547-549 (make sure to note that it has corms, not bulbs)
- The Daffodils and their Relatives: pages 549-552
- The Tulip: pages 552-555
Outdoor Hour Time:
Spend your outdoor hour time this week looking for signs of spring bulbs or flowers. If you planted some bulbs in the fall, take a look for any new growth. You may have neighbors that have bulbs sprouting and blooming or there may be some at a near-by park. Many flower nurseries will have blossoming bulbs you can purchase and observe as well.
Follow Up Time:
Use a few of the suggestions from the Handbook of Nature Study (pages 548, 551, and 555) to study your spring flowering bulbs. You can record your observations on the notebook page from the Winter Nature Study ebook, a blank notebook page from the blog sidebar, or in your own nature journal.
Journal Suggestions:
- Sketch the shape of your flower and record the number of petals.
- Look for the different flower parts: stigma, petal, sepal, anther, stem, leaves. (See page 548, 551, and 554 of the Handbook for diagrams.)
- Observe the flower’s colors.
- Describe the stem’s shape and compare it to other flowers.
- Study and sketch a flower bulb.
- Watercolor drawings can be made of any of your early spring flowers.
The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble sheep a threat'ning horn:
While the Lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.
William Blake
