The change of the season from summer to autumn is noticed by the changing of the air and the bursting forth of colors in the deciduous trees. You can’t help but revel in the oranges, burgundies, and yellows of autumn leaves!
Did you get outside and take note of your neighborhood trees?
Our road is lined by mostly evergreens but a few of us are lucky enough to have aspens on our property to enjoy. We’ve been watching our trees, anticipating a change in color as the nights have turned colder, hoping the cold snap will give us a colorful display.
Aside from the leaves, I really love the bark on the trunks of the aspens. But, for autumn we will focus on the leaves and then take a look at the trunks in the winter.
As the third quarter of 2018 comes to a close, it’s time to evaluate my nature goals. I can rejoice in my achievements and set a plan in motion for the goals yet to be achieved. You can read my original goals here: Nature Goals 2018.
3rd Quarter 2018
Continue to use the Nature Observer journal to keep a record of my nature study experiences. Focus more on sketching. Accomplished
Keep a record of the wildflowers that grow in my local habitat. Note the day they start to bloom and where we see them for future reference. Accomplished
Visit the High Desert Museum each month, each time focusing on a different exhibit. Partially Accomplished
Visit the nature center at Sunriver. Ask about volunteering. In addition, make note of their garden and the native plants they have growing there as a reference in planning our backyard garden.Postponed until next year
Take 3 new hikes. Partially Accomplished
Get the kayaks out in a new place locally. Accomplished
My constant and daily routine of writing in my Nature Observer Guided Journal continues to help me see the beauty of the world around me, no matter the weather or circumstances. The value of this kind of daily journal is becoming clearer and clearer to me as I make my way through 2018. Even if I only jot down a sentence or two along with the weather, I can see patterns and season markers that give me insight into my local habitat.
I did continue to keep track of our wildflowers, recording a list in my Nature Observer Guided Journal. This is why I love this journal so much! I can adapt the pages to fit my current interests and very easily be reminded to add to the list.
These lists will be ongoing in my journal as a way of keeping track of bloom time and new flowers observed.
We visited the High Desert Museum in July with our daughter to see the History of Rock Climbing exhibit. Fabulous! It covered not only the history, but there was some actual climbing equipment to check out and my favorite part of it all was a portion of a John Muir journal describing his climb to the brink of Yosemite Falls.
In August we visited the museum with my sister and her husband. We attended the Raptors of the Sky exhibition together because both of us absolutely love these large birds. The event is held outdoors and it allows the raptors to fly really close to you in the audience. A few times I thought they were going to actually brush my hair with their wings because they came so close! My favorite bird in the exhibition was the barn owl with his wings flying noiselessly through the air. I highly recommend working this into your schedule if you ever visit Central Oregon.
Our goal to hike this summer was hindered by the serious escalation of the arthritis in my hips. In a matter of months, I have gone from being able to hike 5-6 miles at a time with a moderate amount of pain to not being able to walk much more than a mile with a lot of pain and quite a bit of help from my husband. I’m going to be having a bilateral hip replacement in October to relieve the pain and hopefully change my life for the better. But in the meantime, I’m not able to do very much in the way of hiking. Most of what I do now could be considered a moderate stroll.
Taking that into account, my son planned a short, fairly flat hike to Benham Falls one afternoon. I thoroughly enjoyed the outing as we walked along the Deschutes River and ended up at the falls. We sat and took in the sights and sounds for a while before turning around and heading back.
We were also able to visit Crater Lake National Park as a day trip with our other son. He drove us there and we found a place to have a picnic lunch right on the rim of the lake. We walked along the rim for a little easy hike. In addition, we took the Castle Crest trail to look for wildflowers but because it’s really late in the season, we found just a few to enjoy. My slower pace really helps me see what is along the trail’s edge…trying to look at the positive.
We’ve had the kayaks out on the Little and Big Deschutes multiple times this summer, but we also made an effort to find a new place to paddle. My husband and I had an afternoon up at Little Lava Lake where we saw the headwaters of the Deschutes River, a new aquatic plant called water smartweed, and many of the local peaks: Mt. Bachelor, South Sister, and Broken Top.
Now for my 4th Quarter Goals-taking into account my surgery in the middle of October
Finish up the year in my Nature Observer Guided Journal.
There’s no better way to begin your autumn nature study than with a look at the deciduous trees in your neighborhood. This week, read in the Handbook of Nature Study about autumn trees and then use the suggestions in the lesson to help your family take a good look at a tree.
Archive Outdoor Hour Challenge – Click the link above to take you to the original challenge.
Make sure to click the link below to read the entire Outdoor Hour Challenge with helpful links, nature study ideas, printable notebooking pages, and suggested follow-up activities.
Use this printable notebook pageto record your seasonal tree notes and a sketch. Be sure to note on your planning calendar a reminder to create a page in each of the seasons!
Four Seasons Tree Photo Project – This is another awesome tree entry with loads of ideas for a yearlong study of trees along with a printable activity.
This Outdoor Hour Challenge is part of the 2018-2019 Plan here on the Handbook of Nature Study. We’ll be using the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock to discover new things about the world around us. Join us each Friday for a different nature study topic. Make sure to subscribe to this blog to receive the weekly challenge right in your email box.
If you want to become a member here on the Handbook of Nature Study, you can click the Join Us button for more details. Benefits include those shown above including access to ebooks, notebooking pages, archived newsletters, and new ebooks and printables published during your membership.
Additional Autumn Tree Ideas
Watercolor Leaf Tutorial and Video – In this post from the archives, I share how to use watercolor crayons to create a beautiful autumn leaf painting.
I’m excited to share some new printable pages with you!
Prairie Wildflowers and Animals Clipart and Coloring Pages: This set of five pages can be used in many ways. There is a page of clipart that you can use to decorate a prairie nature study page, three pages of various subjects for prairie nature study that can be used as coloring pages or printed on cardstock to create small cards for your nature table, and a page that explains how to use the pocket printable in a lapbook or in a nature journal.
Sea Star, Newt, and Jelly Fish Nature Notebook Pages: These three pages have been requested by families and I had time to create them this month. I hope they help make your study of these topics a little easier.
Deciduous Trees in my Yard Notebook Page- This fun page has a space for you to draw a map of your yard and then mark where you have deciduous trees growing.
Note: If you have any subjects you would like me to create nature notebook pages for, please let me know in a comment here on the blog or in an email: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com
Print a complete list of printables available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships by clicking the button above.
FYI: There will no longer be a monthly printable planning page. Please note that members have access to the complete year’s plan in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships. Non-members can follow along by subscribing to this blog and each Friday the Outdoor Hour Challenge will come into your email inbox.
This week we’re going to do the first of our seasonal weather observations using the Handbook of Nature Study. Make sure to read the pages noted below in the Handbook of Nature Study under the section “How to Keep a Daily Weather Map”. There are more pages in the Handbook devoted to weather but this section will give you detailed suggestions for observing and then recording the weather with your children.
Archive Outdoor Hour Challenge – Click the link above to take you to the original challenge.
“Few schools are able to have a working barometer, but observations of temperature and sky should be made in every school.”
Let us make it a daily habit to give a thought to weather conditions, the wind directions; the presence or absence of dew during the hours of evening, night, or early morning…”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 806
Make sure to click the link below to read the entire Outdoor Hour Challenge with helpful links, nature study ideas, printable notebooking pages, and suggested follow-up activities.
Use this printable notebook page to record your seasonal weather observations. Be sure to note on your planning calendar a reminder to create a page in each of the seasons!
Observing the weather does not need to be complicated and even looking out the window to note the sky conditions will build an appreciation and connection between what your children observe and the weather.
A complete list of printables currently available to members can be viewed here:
This Outdoor Hour Challenge is part of the 2018-2019 Plan here on the Handbook of Nature Study. We’ll be using the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock to discover new things about the world around us. Join us each Friday for a different nature study topic. Make sure to subscribe to this blog to receive the weekly challenge right in your email box.
Note this is an Amazon affiliate link to a product I own and love.
If you live in the prairies of North America or are interested in learning more about this rich and valuable habitat, you’re going to be excited about the featured book for this month’s nature book club link-up.America’s Prairies and Grasslands-A Guide to Plants and Animalsby Marianne D. Wallace describes that unique habitat with words and beautiful pictures. I’m eager to share this incredible resource on prairie wildlife that our family has used and loved.
You can look for it at your public library or it’s available from Amazon (Note that I’m an Amazon affiliate and there are affiliate links in this entry).
Using America’s Prairies and Grasslands in Your Nature Study
I love the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock but she wrote the book featuring plants and animals of her local habitat in upstate New York. Many of us live in very different habitats and to supplement our nature study we draw on other resources that talk about plants and animals we see in our neighborhoods.
America’s Prairies and Grasslands will appeal to many families because it helps us look deeper into things we see every day and maybe don’t appreciate.
This book uses maps to show where different prairies and grasslands are located in the United States. Visual spatial learners will benefit by looking at the maps or even recreating them in their nature journals. When I was homeschooling my boys, I always appreciated the opportunities to draw connections between different academic subjects and using geography alongside your nature study will make it more meaningful.
How to Use This Book for Nature Study
A great way to use this book is to go through each of the six major grasslands one at a time: tallgrass prairie, mixed-grass prairie, shortgrass prairie, Palous prairie, California Valley grassland, and semidesert grassland.
For each of the six grasslands, you can do the following steps.
Read the narrative.
Look at the map.
Look at the two page colored illustration.
Pick a plant or animal to learn more about using information in the back of the book, your own nature library, or online resources.
Wrap up your study with a nature journal page (see below).
Take a week for each grassland or if you live in a particular grassland, why not stretch it to an entire school year by taking a plant or animal each week? Use the index in the back of the book to see just how many topics you find of interest to your family. Check the Handbook of Nature Study websiteusing the tabs at the top to find any Outdoor Hour Challenges for selected topics to use alongside the America’s Prairies and Grasslands book.
I’ve created this set of six notebooking pages to use with your prairies and grasslands studies.
Member’s Benefit: Members here on the Handbook of Nature Study will have unlimited access in their printable library. (See how to purchase a membership here: Ultimate Naturalist Library.)
Prairie Wildlife Study with Printables
Member’s Benefit: In addition, members here on the Handbook of Nature Study have access to several notebooking pages in their printables library that will be helpful in a study of prairie wildlife. Learn more about purchasing a Ultimate Naturalist Library membership here: Join Us!
***New! Prairie Wildflowers and Animals Clipart set
***Look for the pages for bison, pronghorn, coyotes, elk, rattlesnakes, and deer.
Want to study a different habitat?
This book is one in a series of books that teach about the various habitats of the world. I own several of them and use them as references in my nature writing. Here are the other habitats you can read about: deserts, forests, mountains, seashores, and wetlands.
Make sure to subscribe to my blog to follow along with our weekly nature study activities.
Here are the co-hosts, their choices of books, and activities for the month:
Notebooking Pages based on The Prairie That Nature Built from Jenny at Faith and Good Works
Nature Journaling based on Wildflowers of Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks: A Guide to Common & Notable Species from Eva at Eva Varga
Online Nature Book Course based on The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush from Dachelle at Hide The Chocolate
Choose an engaging nature book, do a craft or activity, and add your post to our monthly link up.
The link up party goes live at 9:00 a.m. EST on the 20th of each month and stays open until the last day of the month. Hurry to add your links!
You can link up to 3 posts. Please do not link up advertising posts, advertise other link up parties, your store, or non-related blog posts. They will be removed.
By linking up with us, you agree for us to share your images and give you credit of course if we feature posts.
For families that are not following along with the Outdoor Hour Challenges, you may wish to still complete some autumn season observations. These activities take a few minutes, usually include a lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock, and create an opportunity to learn a little bit about your habitat in a simple and relaxed way.
Here is a list of ideas to get you started with a year-long study in a variety of topics.
Maybe you just want a quick autumn nature study idea this week to use with your children. Why not try the Signs of Autumn nature study activity?
You can download the notebooking page and read the suggested activity here in this entry from my archives: Signs of Autumn.
Most of my readers that responded to my question about their favorite season for nature study, responded that autumn was the best time for them to be outdoors. I would love to help you with your nature study plans with the long list of Outdoor Hour Challenges found in any of my autumn ebooks. You can read more about those topics by clicking over and reading this entry: Autumn Nature Study Ebooks
Goldenrod was the topic from last week’s Outdoor Hour Challenge. Who knew that such a common yellow flower could not only be prettier up close, but also fascinating as a wildflower? Using Lesson 132 in the Handbook of Nature Study, I gleaned a few new interesting facts that helped me appreciate our local goldenrod so much more.
In the Handbook of Nature Study, Anna Botsford Comstock says not to worry about identifying a particular goldenrod if you do observe some in your neighborhood because there are just so many different varieties. I attempted to nail down our goldenrod and decided it’s probably Western goldenrod or Euthamia occidentalis.
The problem here in my local area is that the rabbitbrush is blooming at the same time and it’s also a very yellow low growing plant that you could easily mistake for goldenrod. (See this entry from a few years ago where I made the same mistake: Goldenrod Afternoon.)
But now I know to look for the different leaves and flower shapes, but I do have to look carefully when I’m driving by a field to decide which flower it is that’s blooming.
I’m lucky enough right now to have a goldenrod plant growing in my front rock garden. I almost weeded it out earlier in the summer but now I’m glad I left it to grow! I enjoy seeing it from the window and I hope that it spreads a little to add some yellow flashes of color to my landscape.
The Handbook of Nature Study encourages us in our nature study to look for insects that can be found on the goldenrod. So far, I’ve only seen a few stray bees.
Look for the free notebooking page for this nature study linked in that entry!
I used these field guides in addition to the Handbook of Nature Study to learn more about my goldenrod.
I’ve written two wildflower nature study ebooks that you may be interested in using with your family. They are both in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships here on the Handbook of Nature Study.
Join us each Friday for a different nature study idea!
Like much of the West Coast, we’ve been plagued with wildfire smoke off and on for the last month. It rolls in thickly, making it impossible to truly enjoy being outdoors for very long. But, the minute it clears out, we are trying to squeeze in the last of the late summer activities.
Creating memories of a summer spent outside with family and friends is high on our priority.
Sometimes we plan an outing and sometimes we get invited on a spur of the moment trip. This was the case with a day trip to Crater Lake National Park. Our son unexpectedly had the day off and he phoned us up and asked if we wanted to accompany him to see Crater Lake on a day that the skies were blue and clear. It took us about ½ a second to respond, “Yes!”
We try to eat outside on our patio as much as possible. The last Outdoor Hour Challenge in August was to have a late summer picnic. We’ve had several in the past few weeks but I haven’t taken a photo. The image above is our typical summer meal with a little grilled chicken, salad, and some beans. I’ve actually perfected my baked beans recipe this summer as the perfect accompaniment to any grilled dish.
We have a place we discovered this summer that’s very close to our house that offers a variety of nature experiences. It’s along the Fall River where we can hike, picnic, and just sit and enjoy an afternoon in the sunshine among the wildflowers. There’s also a nearby fish hatchery with amazing rainbow trout of all sizes to observe. These will be summer memories that will warm my heart during the long winter.
We are nearly finished building our bbq shed with the help of our sons. It’s the perfect spot to enjoy a summer evening playing cornhole or just watching the dark descend on the mountains in the distance.
Our main focus this summer was to landscape our backyard, or at least get the hardscape down and build a few berms. My husband has worked his little heart out creating a beautiful space for us to enjoy that far exceeded our summer goals. He surprised me at how much he has accomplished and even got an aspen planted in the far corner of the property. I’m going to love watching it change colors with the season.
There is so much more to share but I will end there in the hope that you will be inspired to get outside with your family during the next month. I invite you to follow me on Instagram to see more of our outdoor experiences here in Central Oregon.
Follow me here:Instagram – outdoorhourchallenge.If you would like me to take a look at one of your images on Instagram, use the hashtag #outdoorhourchallenge.
Want to join in the Outdoor Mom post?
Answer all or just one of the prompts in a blog entry on your own blog or right here on my blog in a comment. If you answer on your blog, make sure to leave me a link in a comment so that I can pop over and read your responses.
During our outdoor time this month we went…
The most inspiring thing we experienced was…
Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)…
In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting…
Archive Outdoor Hour Challenge – Click the link above to take you to the original challenge.
Goldenrod is a showy yellow wildflower that is included in the Handbook of Nature Study. There are many varieties of goldenrod all over North America, so you may have some in your local area. This is the perfect beginner’s nature study that starts with a pretty flower and a super interesting lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study.
Anna Botsford Comstock encourages us to engage our child’s imagination as we hunt for “golden cities” in our neighborhoods and to look for insects. This makes it a subject that appeals to a wide range of children as they take a look to see if they can discover this flower and possibly some creatures to observe. Make sure to read the pages in the Handbook of Nature Study that will help you build an interest for this week’s topic.
Make sure to click the link below to read the entire Outdoor Hour Challenge with links, ideas, free notebooking pages, and suggested follow-up activities.
This Outdoor Hour Challenge is part of the 2018-2019 Plan here on the Handbook of Nature Study. We will be using the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock to discover new things about the world around us. Join us each Friday for a different nature study topic. Make sure to subscribe to this blog to receive the weekly challenge right in your email box.
Note this is an Amazon affiliate link to a product that I have used and loved for many,many years.
