Autumn is here and we can start planning some of our autumn year-long nature study observations. There are so many that you can choose from but the trick is to pick one and remember to complete a study in each season.
Have you picked your topics yet?
Here are some ideas from year-long nature study topics we have done in the past:
This edition of the Handbook of Nature Study newsletter is going to inspire you to take more nature walks! All of the authors are enthusiastic about some aspect of taking a nature walk….showing how families can personalize their nature walk experiences and grow closer together in the process. Our wish is that this Nature Walk Ideas edition of the newsletter will help you get started or remind you to keep it going on a regular basis. Enjoy!
Contents of this edition of the newsletter include:
5 articles to inspire and encourage your family
October Study Grid – this month’s theme is “color and texture”
2 printable notebooking pages for your nature journal
Lots of my favorite links to inspire some additional study and fun
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 October. 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.
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.
The change of the season always renews my nature study spirit! With the cooler air and still abundant sunshine, our family has taken back the evening hours for hikes in the woods and at the river. The sunset is coming a few minutes earlier each week so we are not getting in a long walk but there is still time to end our day with some fresh air and some exploring. I know that will end soon so I am savoring each walk. Thank you to all the participants for this edition of the blog carnival.
Alex from Life On A Canadian Island has submitted her entry: Apple Picking-PEI Open Farm Day. This looks like fall has really arrived and is in full swing on Prince Edward Island.
Michelle shares their Fall Fun Grid with you to enjoy. Don’t miss this entry showing how they completed many of the grid activities…and some wonderful nature journal entries too.
Umm Safiya shares their Artsy Fall Page with Pastels, inspired by the OHC Fall Fun Grid to make a fall themed notebook page. Nicely done!
Autumn Flowers – Goldenrod, Aster, and Chrysanthemums
Alex from Life On A Canadian Island shares her Asters and Goldenrod entry with the carnival. What a treat to find two different flowers to study this month.
Shirley-Ann from Under An English Sky has put together her Aster Study for you to enjoy. They did a thorough job studying these interesting flowers and then completing a nature journal too.
Fall Cattail Study
Desiree from Our Homeschool Notebook has written up and submitted their Cattails Update and Pond Study observations for this edition of the carnival. Thanks for sharing such great cattail images.
Michelle from Following Footprints has submitted their entry: A Walk in the Park in the Fall. This so encouraged me to see how simple and lovely their day was just exploring and enjoying nature and each other’s company. I hope it encourages you too!
Umm Safiya has submitted her Whatcha Doing Wednesday entry showing their signs of autumn. Lots of great autumn discoveries to be seen in her neighborhood.
Alex from Life On A Canadian Island has submitted her entry, The Magic of The Forest. Take a visual nature walk with her family…a feast for the eyes!
Cristy from Cristy’s Nature Journal writes about their At The Beach experience using the beach newsletter ideas from last year. They added three new birds to their life list. Wahoo!
Umm Safiya shares their Outdoor Hour Challenge – Nature Study #4 with the carnival. They were on a quest for oaks and they share their discoveries and nature journals too.
Heidi from Home Schoolroom has submitted their Moon Nature Study entry for all to read. I especially love their journals.
Michelle from Following Footprints has submitted their entry Fall Fun Day with Apples. Their family studied apples, made apple crisp, and did some chalk pastel apples. Awesome fun!
Don’t forget to share your blog entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. All entries done in December are eligible for the next edition. The deadline for entries is 10/30/13 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).
Fall fun! It is time to really sink our teeth into some fall nature study and start looking for signs of fall. You can use any of the activities listed below to get your Outdoor Hour Challenge started this week.
Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #8-Using a Magnifying Lens.This is always a great challenge for children to complete…nature study tools make it so much more fun! Don’t forget to pull out the accompanying notebook page for your child to record their findings or they can use a blank page in their nature journal if they wish.
Part of my nature study goals this year was to learn about ten new birds and their calls. I think I was a little ambitious and ten *new* birds is a lot to tackle. I am up to three birds….not sure how I got off on my count but I only have three official birds so far:
Pine Siskin Carduelis pinus
This entry is all about the Pine Siskins which we spotted way back in February during the Great Backyard Bird Count. I created a nature notebook page for the Pine Siskin at that time but never shared it with you. I used the coloring page from the Cornell Feeder Bird Coloring Book (free to download and save on your computer for future use). This is a bird that does not stay year–round in our yard. I had to look carefully to spot this bird because it is very much like the finches we have everyday at the feeders. It looks like a finch with yellow wing bars and a little yellow on its rump.
The call of the Pine Siskin sounds similar to the canaries I have heard. Here is the page on All About Birds with the sounds of the Pine Siskin. It is a sweet little bird and I am anxious to see it once the winter comes. Looking at the migration map, it looks like it moves far north for the summer.
Still working on my nature study goals for 2013…learning ten new birds and their calls during the year. Amazon.com Widgets
I am an Amazon.com affiliate and I recommend books and other resources that I love and use in our family.
Use any of the Outdoor Hour Challenges below to complete an Autumn Tree Nature Study. Feel free to pick and choose any of the suggested activities that you think will fit your area and interests. Spend some time outdoors looking at trees with your children…see the beauty in this time of year!
Color Hunt Printable Cards
Use these color word cards to stimulate a fun nature study related activity. Challenge your child to find something of each color during your Outdoor Hour Challenge time. This can be part of your Autumn Tree Study or any other study you complete throughout the year.
TIPS: These cards can be printed on cardstock or cut and pasted to index cards. If you only have a black and white printer, have your children color the words or the border with markers before going outside.
Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #7-Your Own Field Guide. Use the ideas in this challenge to start your own field guide pages using the trees in your yard or neighborhood. Add to your tree field guide from time to time and as the years go by you will have built a record of many trees right in your own yard! Use the accompanying notebook page to get started or a blank nature journal page for each tree.
Building a library of field guides for your reference shelves is something that you can do as you work through the Outdoor Hour Challenges or as part of creating a homeschool library. You don’t need to invest a lot of money all at one time but choose a topic of interest and search out a good field guide as you can afford it. It is an investment in your family’s growing interest in nature study that will enrich your life for many years to come.
What is a Field Guide?
First of all, what is a field guide? A field guide is a book that helps you identify wildlife like plants and animals or other objects you find in nature like rocks or weather phenomena. It is usually created to cover a specific region or area of the world. The guide usually has photos or illustrations of the object along with descriptions of the subject that help the reader identify it. Field guides are usually arranged to group subjects by color, shape, or habitat. Each guide will have introductory pages to explain how that particular field guide is organized.
Our collection of field guides has grown year by year. I will share three choices that there are for field guides to use alongside the Handbook of Nature Study: Audubon Society Field Guides, Peterson Field Guides, and Golden Guides.
Separate section with thorough descriptions for identification
Vinyl cover for more durable wear or carrying in your day pack
Some topics available in Western or Eastern North American editions
My favorite: Birds
Peterson Field Guides (This link will take you to a list of all the series available.)
Illustrations of typical specimens
Field marks for birds
Leaves, nuts, cones, needles shown for identification in the tree guide
My favorite: Trees
Golden Guides (This link will take you to the list of guides available.)
Compact size and interesting to look at
Illustrations in color
More than a field guide with help in getting the most out of each study
My favorite: Pond Life
Which field guide would I recommend you start with? If you are looking for a field guide to purchase as a starter and to go along with the autumn nature study series we are currently using, I would recommend a tree field guide. For the next three weeks, there is the opportunity to learn more about our autumn trees.
Shrub with thorns, growing 2-9 feet tall.
Flower pink to white and about 2 inches across. Five petals. (not seen during September)
Fruit is a red rose “hip” about 1/2 inch in diameter.
2,500 – 10,000 feet in elevation.
The hips are edible and an excellent source of vitamin C, usually made into a tea or jelly.
This rose is a pretty pink rose that we see along our favorite trail at Taylor Creek. This time of year it is covered in bright red rose hips….which we at first thought were berries until we stopped to take a closer look.
It was an evening filled with smoky air from the Rim Fire at Yosemite. Quiet and all alone on the trail, we enjoyed the peaceful beauty of a late summer walk after dinner.
This time of year you can recognize this shrub by the hips, the leaf shape, and the thorns!
This is the fourth shrub I have recorded in my nature journal this year as part of my nature study goals. One more to go! I am not doing so well on my study of trees….need to get busy.
Note for those that coming up on their spring season, you can use the Spring Cattail Study if you would like!
Additional Activity – Cattail Acrostic Poetry Activity
Just for fun, I have created an acrostic poetry notebook page for you to use to go along with your cattail study. For each letter in the word “cattail”, have your child write a word or phrase that describes the cattail. Use the box on the page for a sketch, a rubbing, or a photo. This is meant to be a fun way to extend your cattail study so you might offer to help your child or you can skip it until a future date.
Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started Ebook, you may wish to completeGetting Started – Challenge #9 Small Square Study. You can use the ideas in this challenge to complete a small square study at your cattail habitat. Use the accompanying notebook page to record your results.
“The asters, like the goldenrods, begin to bloom at the tip of the branches, the flower-heads nearest the central stem blooming last. All of the asters are very sensitive, and the flower-heads usually close as soon as they are gathered.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 507
I love a good flower study! Reading in the Handbook of Nature Study I learned that the aster has both a disc flower and a ray flower…like a sunflower. Aha! I can see it now that I have slowed down to really look at this pretty flower from the aster family, a Shasta Daisy or an Ox-Eye Daisy…not sure which
We happened to be at the beautiful summer garden found at Tallac Historic Site and I was excited to find a whole range of asters to observe. We had been on a quest to find some goldenrod but settled for any flowers in the aster family we could find. (We did find some goldenrod…see last flower photo.)
Can you see the disc and ray flowers?
I think you can really see the disc flowers once the ray flowers wilt back. This daisy helps show the way the different kinds of flowers grow in this daisy flower head. Point that out to your kids the next time you see an aster.
Purple Coneflower
How about this flower in the aster family? The Purple Coneflower is one of my favorites and I grow it in my garden every year….well actually it just comes back to life in the spring so I don’t have to do too much to it.
So now come a bunch of images that show the variety that this flower family can produce. Starting with this really large yellow aster with the long ray flowers.
These were some of my favorites! I love the multi-colored flowers and the Black-eyed Susans all mixed together. I am going to make sure to plant an area of my garden with seeds like these so I can enjoy their beauty all summer long.
Drooping ray flowers really show this flower off at its best! I am going to put this one in my nature journal…watercolors or markers? Not sure yet.
Edit to add my journal—I ended up with colored pencils.
This aster was not in the garden at Tallac but was on the trail around over by Taylor Creek. There was a whole section of them blooming. I love the classic lavender and yellow color combination. This may need to go in my nature journal too.
Eureka! We finally saw some goldenrod in bloom. We had seen lots of dried up goldenrod during our hike but this was the first blooming plant we spied. The goldenrod completed our hunt for all kinds of flowers in the aster family.
NOTE: If you haven’t read the narrative section in the Handbook of Nature Study on the goldenrod plant, you are missing out. Make sure to read the Teacher’s Story for Lesson 132 before you study your goldenrod flowers.
Here we are…the intrepid aster hunters. My oldest and youngest went with me this time and it was great to have them along. They are both a lot of fun.
Mr. B took a break from flower hunting to stack some rocks and strike a pose. Like I said, always a lot of fun with these nature-loving kids.
Don’t miss out on the chance to do your own goldenrod, aster, or chrysanthemum study this month. Pop over to the challenge and print out the free Autumn Garden Nursery Mini-Book printable if you need to make this a quick and easy nature study week.
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