Fungus, lichen, and moss have been at the top of our nature study list for a few weeks now in anticipation of this month’s grid study….that is one advantage to being the author of the challenges. 🙂
I feel like we have done a decent job so far at keeping our eyes open and finding some subjects for our fungus, lichen, and moss studies. I highly recommend pulling out your March Newsletter and printing out the Study Grid….keep it in sight so you will remember to spend a few minutes each week looking for subjects to enjoy.
Words that come to mind as part of this grid study are amazing, colorful, and surprising.
Amazing – How do I miss really seeing all these lovely things? The more time we spend looking at them up close, the more amazed we are at their variety and heartiness.
Colorful – From deep greens and bright spring greens to orange and then all the way to black….there is no end to the variations.
Surprising – We found subjects at the river’s edge, alongside our walking trail, up in the mountains in the snow, and in our own yard.
Here is my number one moss, lichen, and fungus hunting buddy….after her swim in the river. Kona is always ready to accompany us on our expeditions…especially if there is water involved. She is also amazing, colorful, and surprising…
Hopefully you are finding some things of interest for your own Mushroom/Lichen/Moss study….make sure to share your entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.
You are welcome to submit any of you blog Outdoor Hour Challenge blog entries to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. Entries for the current month are due on 3/30/13..
A whole new month is ahead of us….hopefully filled with fungus, moss, and lichen! This is a topic that probably many of us won’t put at the top of our nature study favorites but it is very interesting and it can be like a treasure hunt for your kids. I strongly urge you to give it a try, even if you just use the grid study found in this month’s newsletter.
Above all, have fun outdoors!
Outdoor Hour Challenge:
Print the March Newsletter page with the Mushroom, Lichen, and Moss Study Grid (page 8). Prepare a little before your outdoor time by discussing what the month’s focus is and where you might find some subjects to study. If your children are like mine, they will have some ideas about where to look. Use the printable below to learn a little more about mushrooms and the vocabulary that goes along with your study.
If you need more help getting started, click over to my Misc/Seasonal page and find specific challenges for mushrooms, lichen, and moss which will direct to reading in the Handbook of Nature Study.
Note: We will be focusing on moss next week and mushrooms the next. You can use this week’s challenge as an introduction to the month’s study and then go deeper in the next few weeks if you want to wait.
Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #8.This challenge is all about looking closely at things you find during your outdoor time. Take along a magnifying glass or bring home a sample to look at under your microscope. Record your results on the accompanying notebook page or in your nature journal.
Keeping a nature journal using notebooking pages has been a part of our routine for many years. Each page is a treasure, showing some aspect of our personalized learning. Taking the time to slow down and record a memory, an experience, or an interesting fact takes nature study to a higher level.
But, it is always easier to have a stock of pages on hand to quickly print when the mood strikes. That is where this month’s blog sponsor comes in….NotebookingPages.com has a huge library of pages you can use that are ready to go. Although I use many, many of their pages in our homeschool, I will introduce the nature study sets we use in our home for you to get a taste of. You will see just a sampling of the pages available and for most topics there are multiple choices with lines or no lines, some with illustrations and some with a variety of sketch boxes. There will always be a notebooking page you can adapt to your area and topic.
Note: If you have visited NotebookingPages.com before and been overwhelmed, please note that they have done a complete makeover and navigation of their many resources is now much easier and simpler.
How to Personalize Your Pages
Use colored pencils or watercolors
Add an image from your study
Use the pages to keep your life list of birds
Keep track of your garden plants
Complete a four season nature study project
Add your own stories to the page…front or back
I have always had a Treasury Membership which gives me access to all the notebooking pages on the website plus all the new pages she adds during the membership year. There is no need to download every page when you purchase your membership because along with the membership comes access to all those pages forever.
But, if you are just looking to add access to pages for your nature journal and aren’t ready to jump into a full membership, you can purchase individual sets to build up a library of pages to choose from for your nature journal.
Tip: If you purchase a set of notebooking pages, print out the table of contents as a reference. This way you will have a complete list of available notebooking pages and you will be able to quickly find the page you need when the time comes.
Basic Nature Study Set
Click over and see all 292 pages in this set for your to choose from: plants, trees, flowers, rocks, weather, etc. There are primary and regular lined pages with a variety of borders, boxes, lines, and prompts. You will have access to cover pages, bordered pages, and a special Creation Notebook set too. Follow the link above and view every page you will get in this Basic Nature Study Set. $10.95 (Take 50% off with the discount code: nature50 during the month of March 2013).
Birds: North American This is the set we use the most in our family with 97 different birds and over 280 pages available at this time. $8.95 (Take 50% off with the discount code: nature50 during the month of March 2013). World This set adds 30 more birds and over 680 pages available at this time. $5.95 (Take 50% off with the discount code: nature50 during the month of March 2013). Tropical This set adds 43 tropicalbirds for your nature study. $5.95 (Take 50% off with the discount code: nature50 during the month of March 2013). All About Birds This set of 55 pages is a must have for any family that is studying birds. It includes pages for parts of the bird, feathers, migration, and plenty of general birds pages to make it valuable as a reference.$2.95 (Take 50% off with the discount code: nature50 during the month of March 2013).
Wildflowers, Weeds, and Garden Flowers This set includes pages for 45 plants featured in the Handbook of Nature Study. I love the variety of pages that are offered for each plant including coloring pages, lined pages in both primary and regular-8 different styles for each plant. $12.95
Please note: If you already own the Notebooking Treasury Membership, you have access to all these pages already and can find them in your Member Download Center.
Another month of using less plastic and I can already see a huge difference in our attitudes and lifestyle. But, there are still some areas we could improve in. Our family is not seeking to totally eliminate all plastic but to greatly reduce the wasteful practices we were falling into without thinking.
This is the key…think about what you are purchasing and then how you are going to reduce your plastic consumption before you bring it home.
We have not cleansed the kitchen of all plastic. We decided that since we already owned all those reusable plastic containers, we would use them for now. They will be replaced with non-plastic alternatives when the time comes. For our family, this is a gradual process that will probably take a year to totally figure out how to make it work.
Thanks for all the suggestions from last month in your comments. I appreciate every one and hope you will keep the suggestions coming this month.
#3 Bringing less plastic home from the grocery.
Last month I shared how we are attempting to use all reusable bags for shopping….well, I still forget sometimes. But, I found an answer that is simple and easy…a reusable stuff bag. This bag from Chico Bag unfolds into a full size bag with shoulder straps (Diana’s suggestion from last month’s comments). You can purchase one on Amazon: ChicoBag Reusable Shopping Tote/Grocery Bag.I can attach it to my purse or keys using the clip provided and this way I always have at least one reusable bag to use at all times.
The other brilliant idea that my husband had was to ask at the meat counter and the deli counter if they could wrap our meats in paper rather than a ziplock bag. No problem! The meats come home and we put them in reusable containers at home instead which is one extra step but we don’t end up with plastic bags that we can’t reuse.
If all else fails, take the item without a bag if possible.We have done this at Home Depot a number of times this month and now it seems silly when they want to use a plastic bag to carry out one small item. It is just a bad habit. (Makita spoke about doing this in her comment from last month.)
It only makes sense to bring less plastic home if we are trying to reduce our wasteful plastic usage.
Have you found a product you like for packaging sandwiches for lunches? Leave me a comment!
Have you started off this month thinking that you can’t face a month long study of mushrooms, moss, and lichen? Did you print the newsletter and look at the grids and wonder how your could possibly find anything interesting to occupy you for this month’s grid study? I don’t think you are alone…in fact, a number of years ago I might have felt the same way too.
Honestly, this month and next month are the months that I have sort of dreaded preparing for the monthly challenges. Both this month’s topic and next month’s topic of reptiles and amphibians are not easy ones for many of us girl types.
But, I would like to encourage you with yesterday’s family walk to the river where we found an abundance of moss and lichen to get our interest and our powers of observation going. Once we started looking for moss and lichen, we saw it everywhere!
The shapes, patterns, colors, and textures were all so different and interesting. There was moss on rocks and tree bark and lichen on riches in varying colors. It made our hike to the river and back a delight.
My best advice is to give it a try by printing out the Mushroom, Lichen, and Moss Grid and bookmark. Share it with your children and then follow along each Friday with the suggested study, preparation, and then activities. I almost guarantee that you will learn something interesting.
Who knows? You may even end up enjoying this month’s study and become fascinated with this topic like I have over the years.
Here is a list of the twelve topics that we are covering this year on the Handbook of Nature Study.
I know this month’s topic of mushrooms, lichen, and moss is not going to sound appealing to many of you at first glance. But, I encourage you to give it a try by reading each week’s challenge, covering the material as assigned in the Handbook of Nature Study, and then keeping your eyes open for your nature study opportunities. You can further generate some interest in the topic by gathering any resources you have and picking up a book or two at the library. I encourage everyone to participate as much as possible and if you find you need to switch to another topic that presents itself during the month of March…by all means, go with the interest.
Spring will be here in a few weeks and the mood for nature study will change along with it.
Make sure to download, save, and/or print the newsletter for future reference when you may come across a mushroom or some lichen or moss.
Contents of this edition of the newsletter include:
Articles to inspire and encourage you in your nature study
Book recommendations for this month’s study
March Study Grid and Bookmark – printables for you to use with your nature journal
Mushroom coloring pages
Show and Tell from OHC Participants
Recommended study links
I have attached the newsletter download link to the bottom of my blog feed so if you are a subscriber you will receive the link to the latest newsletter at the bottom of every post for the month of March. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can still subscribe and receive the newsletter link in the next post that comes to your email box. You can subscribe to my blog by filling in your email address in the subscription box on my sidebar.
There are lots of freebies and giveaways planned with my March Blog Sponsor: NotebookingPages.com.
How about we start the month off with lots of free notebooking pages for your family? Click below and get started with a free gift from Debra at NotebookingPages.com. Check your newsletter for additional discount codes and a giveaway announcement!
Note: You can download your newsletter from the link in two ways:
If your link is clickable, right click the link and then “save link as” to save the file on your computer.
If the link is not clickable, cut and paste the link to your browser, open, and then save your newsletter to your computer.
As we finish up this month of challenges focusing on birds, I feel a little sad that it is over. I know we can continue learning about birds at any time but I like the intense focus of learning about one particular topic. I feel so privileged to have been able to travel to Florida during this time and learn a bit about some new birds…just enough to make me anxious to some day go back again.
We also thoroughly enjoyed our time counting birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count and the anticipation of seeing which visitors we would have this time. It made me realize how much I enjoy counting birds and keeping it going from November to April with Project Feederwatch. If you want to participate this coming year, sign-ups start on March 1 and you would start counting each week in November of 2013. It is a little different than the GBBC so pop over and read about it if you think your family might want to get involved.
[See bottom of this post for the Crowe’s Nest Media giveaway winner announcement!]
Bird Grid Study
Lisa from Pilgrims at Tinker Creek shares their Finches entry with the carnival as part of their Bird Grid Study. What a treat to see their finches at the feeder and a Pine siskin too! I loved this glimpse into their Virginia bird study.
Diana from Homeschool Review submitted their bird entry – Nature Study: Birds with the OHC. She shares their seasonal visitors: Robins, Starlings, and Cedar Waxwings. I love that she has been anticipating their return and then actually got to see them. There is such value in continuing seasonal nature study!
Heidi from Home Schoolroom has put all of their bird goodness into their entry Nature Study-Birds for you to enjoy. Lots of wonderful ideas in this entry but my favorite is their customized backyard bird field guide cards…awesome! She also lists their Great Backyard Bird Count observations for you to see.
Nadene from Practical Pages shares their swallow story with carnival readers: Swallows. They are now on the hunt for the swallow’s nest….love the continuing study.
Barbara from The Schoolhouse on the Prairie joins the carnival this month with their entry Weather, Rocks, Birds, and Blessings. She recaps their last three month’s nature study along with a photo of their new bundle of joy.
Rachel at United for Christ has submitted their entry Outdoor Hour Challenge Birds for you to view. She shares how they are finding new birds in each place they live and are keeping a life list. Don’t miss reading her entry!
Sarah from GranWood Explores shares their Outdoor Hour-Birds entry for you to enjoy. She has included some additional resources and ideas for our own bird study. Always so much to learn!
Michelle from Following Footprints has gathered their whole awesome month of bird study into one entry that will encourage you in your own studies. Backyard Bird Watching. I love watching a love for birding unfold!
Owls
Robin from Academia compiled their whole month of bird related nature study into her entry: Birds! Don’t miss seeing their bird-themed nature table and their bird observation spot. They also had an owl pellet dissection party and share their results. Wonderful example for us all!
Alice from Redwoods Homeschool shares their entry Birding with the carnival for this edition. Don’t miss seeing their wonderful owl notebooking pages for their nature journals….and they ate owl cookies too!
Sarah from GranWood Explores submits their Outdoor Hour Owl Study for your to enjoy. This entry is rich with additional ideas and resources for your own owl study. Check it out!
Carol from Journey and Destination joins the carnival from Australia with her entry: Nature Study-Birds, Blooms, and Bugs. I enjoyed seeing her colorful birds and reading about their owl experience.
Kris from On the 8th Day has an awesome owl study and activity to share with the carnival: The Art of the Owl. I really enjoy seeing families take a topic of interest and go deeper. Enjoy her short video too!
Bethany from Little Homeschool Blessings shares her entry: A Hawk, An Owl, and an Eagle with you. They were able to complete their studies and journals and then follow-up with a real live visit with a red-tail, an owl, and an eagle at their local library. Excellent!
Bird Calls
Alex from Life on a Canadian Island captured their Black-Capped Chickadee and did some reading in the Handbook of Nature Study. I love the song of the chickadee and once you hear it you will be able to recognize it from then on.
Bird List Lisa from Pilgrims at Tinker Creek shares their Great Backyard Bird Count list with the carnival.I loved seeing their actual list and the variety of birds they observed over the weekend.
Mother Robin from Mother Robin’s Notes from the Nest shares two entries with the carnival: Our Backyard Bird Paradise and OHC: Great Backyard Bird Count. She shares some wonderful ideas for placing birdfeeders in the yard, types of feeders and seed, and then their official first ever GBBC story.
Potpourri
Alex from Life on a Canadian Island put together a wonderful photo essay she calls Winter at the Beach-Rocks for carnival readers. This was part of last month’s rock study and a wonderful view into their Canadian rocks.
Jen from Snowfall Academy joins the carnival from her new African home with their Monthly Nature Notebook and Our New Tree Study where she shares their first mango tree study. Won’t it be fun to watch as their year progresses?
Diana from Homeschool Review shares their 2nd Snow of the Year...in which they take a walk in the fresh snow and find all kinds of things to enjoy.
Rock Study – Outdoor Hour Challenge: Rachel’s entry from last month’s theme is a wonderful example of how you can make your study as simple as you need too.
I hope you’ll consider promoting the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival on your blog, Twitter, Facebook or other social media. For your convenience, you can copy and paste the following update for Twitter or Facebook:
Latest Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival posted @HBNatureStudy. Theme is Birds! http://bit.ly/Wn178X #nature #playoutdoors#homeschool
Don’t forget to share your blog entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. All entries done in March are eligible for the next edition. The deadline for entries is 3/30/13 and you can send them directly to me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com or submit them at the blog carnival site (link on the sidebar of my blog).
Everyone who entered this carnival was entered into a random drawing for their choice of DVD’s from Crowe’s Nest Media. The winner is…..Alicia C. from RedwoodsHomeschool! Congratulations!
Our local landscape is full of rocks…the area was settled by gold miners in the California Gold Rush and even today there are gold mines in our area that are back into production (the price of gold is up enough that they can make money). There is a park in our neighborhood that has an exposed bank next to the road and that is where we found our shale to study as part of my on-going year-long focus on rocks.
This is our official first rock from the list which we pulled from the book Rocks, Fossils and Arrowheads (Take-Along Guides).See last month’s entry for my preparation for this project where I will be attempted to locate and collect as many of the rocks from the book as possible during 2013: Rock Update.
This is what our local shale looks like….like wafers that are either horizontal or vertical. The color varies but mostly the out-croppings we have seen are light colored from a light gray or red or even green. Doing some research has revealed that it is the organic materials in the shale that give it its color: iron oxide, hematite, geothite, or mica.
This is the piece of shale that is shown sticking out in the photo above. I could just slide it out.
Shale is a sedimentary rock that is mostly composed of clay and is sometimes called mudstone. It can easily be scratched with a knife and has a quality that is listed as “laminated”. This means that the rock is made up of many thin layers.
The mystery rock from last month’s entry turns out to be slate which is the metamorphic form of shale. Guess what next month’s rock will be? You guessed….slate! I will explain how you can tell the difference because in the process of identifying the shale I also learned quite a bit about slate.
I want to thank my sponsor for the month of February for their wonderful products that encourage families to learn more about the awesome world around us! These DVD’s are such a gift to all of us with the amazing images and information that children love.
I encourage you to support this family business and share their work with your friends and family.
This is our fifth year of participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count in our Northern California home. It is the highlight of our February nature study and has led to our becoming better birders every year.
Things We Learn With The Great Backyard Bird Count
Learning to identify our backyard birds-an obvious skill that comes directly from recording our observations.
Refining our skills as observers-knowing the difference between male and female specimens, subtle differences between species like the House finch and the Pine siskin.
Careful record keeping-counting and tallying each bird for the best data to share with the GBBC
Better at understanding changes over time-comparing numbers of birds from year to year, anticipating migratory birds, knowing a new bird
Learning to use our binoculars better and to take better bird photos
Becoming part of an online birding community-reading other family’s experiences and lists, seeing their photos
Value of contributing to a citizen science project- realizing our small part in this really important big project as a partner with Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Our2013 List of Birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count
Western Scrub Jay 2
Oak Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Spotted Towhee1
White-crowned Sparrow 4
Dark Eyed Junco 6
House Finch 15
House Sparrow 4
California Towhee 1
American Robin 20
Anna’s Hummingbird 2
Mourning Dove 4
Lesser Goldfinches 2
Northern mockingbird 1
Steller’s Jay 1
Pine Siskin 4
Not the impressive numbers we usually have and a few of our old favorites are missing like the woodpeckers and flickers and Cedar waxwings. We did have two new birds this year which was a thrill. The Steller’s jay and the Pine siskin are newcomers to our GBBC list.
I of course spent lots of time running from window to window to try to capture some of our backyard bird visitors….this is normal behavior from me at all times but especially during the GBBC. But this time I didn’t get an really super images so I will indulge you with my Mourning dove and California towhee….some of our regular year-round residents.
Did you count birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count?
Feel free to share your GBBC entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival this month or you can leave a comment here in this entry with the most exciting or interesting bird you saw during the GBBC.
Don’t forget that everyone who enters the OHC Carnival this month is entered to win a DVD from Crowe’s Nest Media – either the Monarch Butterfly or the Backyard Bird DVD! They are both wonderful resources for your nature study that your children will want to watch over and over again.
Our February Blog Sponsor….Thanks to the Crowe Family for providing such wonderful DVD’s and study guides for our science and nature study!
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I can attach it to my purse or keys using the clip provided and this way I always have at least one reusable bag to use at all times.
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