Rock Study: Calcite, Limestone, Marble Nature Study
Most families that have been taking time for nature study have no doubt started an official or unofficial rock collection. I know when my boys were young, they would fill my pockets with rock treasures on our nature walks and then insist I take them home for our nature table. So many rocks!
I must admit that I still collect rocks! You may wish to read this entry that shares 5 ways to organize rock collections: 5 Ways to Display Rock Collections.
Use this week’s Outdoor Hour Challenge to learn a bit about rocks that you may already have in your collection. Or use the information and videos in the original challenge to build enthusiasm for a rock hunt soon.
If you have access to the ebook, there is a general rock activity on page 39 that everyone can use: Rocks Up Close printable. Take this notebook page along with you this week during your Outdoor Hour Challenge and see how many things you can find.
Newsletter Resources: Members also have access to the two newsletters in the archives that feature rock nature studies: January 2013 and February 2016.
Alternate Study: Members can download and print the Under a Rock Notebook Page. Find a rock, turn it over and then observe what you can find underneath. This is a fun activity with or without the notebook page.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
To many of us, a desire to learn about rocks does not come naturally. Rocks can seem ordinary and we don’t take time to really notice them.
Possible Reasons for Lack of Interest in Rocks
¨ Little interest in rocks because they seem commonplace
¨ Limited knowledge about rocks and how to identify them
¨ Lack of physical subjects to examine
We stub our toe on them when hiking and we work hard at digging them out of our gardens, generally they just seem to be in the way. But, upon closer examination, those same rocks we see as annoyances can become an interesting topic for a lifelong nature study interest. Collecting rocks and minerals as we go about our normal business and when we travel can become a source of awe and wonder at their beauty and structure. So how do we go about offering a “hard” study like rocks and minerals?
How to Overcome the Obstacles
¨ Develop interest over time – Use all of your available resources to make rocks more interesting. Does your child find volcanoes fascinating? Did they find some cool rocks on their nature walk? Have they looked at rocks with a magnifying lens? Do they want to make jewelry with rocks? Find ways to pull in lots of different ways of learning about rocks.
¨ Build Up Knowledge – Kids like to be armed with facts so a field guide or books from the library on rock topics can be a source of fueling a new interest in the topic. Finding a mentor in your local community that collects rocks or visiting a rock and gem show can be a huge help in generating a spark of interest in rocks and rock collecting.
¨ Start a Collection – A rock collection that contains both rocks from your nature walks and rocks you perhaps purchase from nature shops while on field trips or vacations will over time give your family a great reference tool. Keep track of where you find or purchase the rocks with labels either on the rock or in a boxed collection.
Look for the upcoming Outdoor Hour Challenge for calcite, limestone, and marble. Remember the thoughts above when you read through the challenge and see if you can find a way to make the study interesting and fun for your family.
Going on a fungus hunt is one of my favorite things to do! As I was planning this entry, I was so enthusiastic about it that I dropped everything and convinced my husband to go wandering in the woods with me to look for mushrooms. It had snowed a bit a few days before and it was cold as we hiked along, but we were rewarded with finding several different kinds of fungus to look at and take photos of for my nature journal.
If your family is new to mushroom hunts, you might want to give a little instruction ahead of time about whether you should touch or pick the mushrooms you find. As a rule, I don’t pick mushrooms but get down on my knees to look at them closely. I take a few photos and let them stay where they are as part of the habitat.
You can use this Outdoor Hour Challenge as a means of learning the different shapes of mushrooms. See this post from the archives that focuses on mushroom cap shapes: Mushroom Nature Study with Cap Printable.
Also, there is a new Fungi Photo Hunt printable activity in the Member’s Library if you’re interested in using that idea during your outdoor time this week.
If you have access to the ebook, there are two notebook pages to choose from for your nature journal.
Newsletter Resources: Members also have access to the two newsletters in the archives that feature fungus/mushroom studies: March 2013 and November 2016.
Alternate study: Within the lesson is the suggestion to read Lesson #198 in the Handbook of Nature Study on mushrooms. I would suggest using the lesson ideas from Lesson #198 to observe any fungi you find for this challenge.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
Now available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships:
1. Fungi Photo Hunt: Download and print this activity for your family to use as part of a fungi hunt. The suggestions on the printable will help guide your family on a fascinating and fun nature study featuring fungi of all kinds. Our family recently took a fungi hike and we found five different kinds to take photos of and we are anxious to go again soon!
2. Autumn Changes Notebook Page: Autumn is a perfect time for your family to get outside and note the changes you see and then follow up with a nature journal page. Autumn provides plenty of colorful and interesting things to observe and sketch for this notebook page.
(See the end of this post for more information on how you can become a member.)
Print a complete list of printables available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships by clicking the button above.
Members also have access to the Nature Planner pages in their library.
Print out this month’s page and use it to stimulate your weekly nature study time.
We had a rather large crop of prickly lettuce in our yard this summer, so I can say from firsthand experience that it’s an interesting topic for a nature study lesson. Do you have a child that likes to use a compass? The lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study suggests using your compass as part of your observation of the prickly lettuce plant.
The prickly lettuce is also a great subject for a lesson on thorns, spines, and prickles. Make sure to observe the prickles and talk about how this protects the plant from being eaten by animals.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
To refresh your memory, here’s a list of my nature study goals for the year 2020 along with our efforts towards reaching those goals.
Goal 1- Keep a nature journal. I shared earlier this year how my life has been full of so many unexpected responsibilities and this has impacted my ability to stay current with my nature journaling. But now that things have slowed down just a bit, I’m back on track to “catching up” with a lot of the pages I imagined creating when I was crazy busy with life. I’ve been sharing a few images of my nature journal pages on Instagram, but here are a couple that I hope inspire you in your efforts.
Goal 2 – Add to our backyard habitat. This really has been a focal point of our outdoor life in 2020. I’ve found such comfort in being outside digging in the ground and walking in the garden. We tackled a huge section of lawn and transformed it into a wildflower and sunflower garden that attracted birds, bees, butterflies, and toads over the summer and even now into the autumn. I’ll be sharing the process in future posts.
Here’s a short list of what we did to add to our wildlife garden so far in 2020.
Replaced grass with natives and wildflowers.
Planted bushes that have flowers for pollinators and berries for the birds to eat.
Added two crabapple trees.
Moved a bird bath where we could keep it full every day.
Added more nesting boxes – attracting swallows, western bluebirds, chickadees, and wrens.
Added more large rocks and moved a stump for shelter.
Goal 3 – Take local hikes. Using a local hiking guide, we’ve been on a couple exciting new hikes this summer. I really need to share blog entries for both (add them to my writing schedule). I must admit that at first, we were hesitant to get out and hike during the COVID-19 pandemic. But, once we gave it a try, we realized that we could safely be outdoors and for the most part we observed others being as cautious as we were by wearing masks and staying distanced.
Goal 4 – Make notes in my field guides. I find such joy in recording in my field guides the dates and places I observe subjects. The problem is that I don’t do this consistently, either because I don’t take the time, or I don’t have a pen to mark it down. So, I took a morning and paged through my wildflower field guide and at least made a check mark next to all the wildflowers I can remember seeing in real life. If I remembered where I saw the wildflower, I noted that as well. Now I am keeping a pen inside each of my field guides so there is no excuse for not keeping notes when the time comes.
Goal 5 – Continue to participate in Project Feederwatch and the Great Backyard Bird Count. We participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count back in February and we are eagerly waiting for November 14, 2020 when we start counting feeder birds again as part of Project Feederwatch.
Goal 6 – Visit a new national park. This sadly may be a goal we do not reach this year because of all the COVID-19 restrictions. We had a road trip all planned out for June 2020 to Olympic National Park (in Washington state) but we had to cancel all of those reservations. I’m not going to give up on those plans and since I have all my notes and itinerary still in my planner, I can easily book another trip when we can travel more freely and into Canada. Yes, our trip even included a jaunt up into British Columbia! Another change since making this goal is that we sold our rather large travel trailer. We may need to wait until we find a new smaller trailer that fits our needs as we ease our way into retirement.
All in all, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of working towards and reaching our nature study goals this year. I’ve now made a few notes in my planner to work on fully accomplishing the goals we can achieve by the end of the year.
Did you make goals for 2020? Were you able to reach some of them?
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Many families live in areas where you can readily find milkweed growing. Autumn is a fantastic season to start a milkweed study because the pods and seeds are so amazing and fascinating to most of us.
As an added bonus, the sample challenge from the More Nature Study – Autumn ebook is the milkweed study. You can take a look at what the challenge looks like in the ebook by downloading the sample.
What makes the jewelweed plant so special? A hint is found in its other common name, touch-me-not. With just a touch, the jewelweed catapults its seeds out for dispersal! Would you like to see a video? Here is a link: Jewelweed Pods Exploding.
Use the lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 134) and the Outdoor Hour Challenge in the Autumn Ebook to learn about this interesting, beautiful, and useful plant that you may have growing in your area.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
Topics in this ebook include:
Swallows and swifts
Catfish
Jewelweed
Prickly lettuce
Cockroach
Field horsetail
Catbird
Calcite, limestone, marble
Chicken
Turkey
Hedgehog fungi
Sapsucker
Brooks
If you have a membership, you may also look at additional wildflower ebooks available in the Ultimate Naturalist Library.
Sitting on my desk is a small vase of flowers I collected a few weeks ago. Although they’re all dried up now, they are a fond reminder of an afternoon spent walking and collecting a few blooming things with my daughter.
This inspires me to share an idea with you readers. Why not go out on a crisp autumn day and collect a few flowers, weeds, and grasses from your neighborhood to enjoy in a vase?
You may be able to sneak this catfish study in before your weather turns cool. I know plenty of families that know just where to go to catch a catfish but just in case you don’t, use the links in the study for more information and the awesome narrative story in the Handbook of Nature Study to glean some facts about the catfish.
Some young boys have the patience to sit and fish for hours. My oldest son loved to go fishing in the Mokolumne River and he would many times catch a big, fat, smelly catfish. He would be so proud of himself. Most times he would catch and release because he really didn’t like cleaning fish.
After your indoor preparation, use your outdoor time to find a pond, creek, or river to visit as part of this study. Build appreciation for the habitat and look for ways to learn about fish when the opportunities arise in the future.
If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
You can use this link to see our 
View the original challenge here: 
View the original challenge here: 
