Autumn Cattail Nature Study
Kids and cattails are a great combination for a fun autumn nature study and your autumn search for cattails can begin this week! When the original autumn cattail Outdoor Hour Challenge was posted years ago, I asked my boys if they knew where any cattails were growing. Amazingly, they knew a couple places around town where they were growing so we were off on a cattail adventure. Read the lesson material in the Handbook of Nature Study and use the suggestions in the linked post below to make a detailed autumn study.
Potential Year-Long Nature Study
This could be the start of a year-long study of cattails in which you observe a designated patch of cattails once each season to watch the changes. As the year progresses, the complete life cycle story of not only the cattails but the rest of the critters that live around them begins to emerge. Such a valuable nature study lesson!
Autumn Cattails Nature Study – Handbook of Nature Study Lesson 131
Archive Outdoor Hour Challenge – Click the link above to take you to the original challenge and a free printable notebook page for your family to use each season for your cattail study.
“The cattail is adapted for living in swamps where the soil is wet but not under water all the time….They usually occur in marshy zones along lakes or streams; and such a zone is always sharply defined by dry land on one side and water on the other.”
Handbook of Nature Study, Page 502
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.
Autumn Cattails Nature Study – Handbook of Nature Study Lesson 131
Link to the notebook page: Seasonal Cattail Notebook Page
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.
Links to our family’s past cattail studies for inspiration:
Our Cattail Study – This archive post brings back happy memories of nature study with my boys. I also share in this entry a few hints for water coloring a cattail.
Beautiful Cattails – This entry will inspire additional nature study topics that go along with your cattail study.
Please note these are Amazon.com affiliate links to books I own and love. 
We loved doing this study when my girls were young. One of our favourites!
It is a favorite around here too! We went on a search the other day to look for cattails but were unsuccessful. Maybe today when we are in Bend we will spot a few. Thanks for commenting Shirley!
The link to the cattail notebook page doesn’t work. Did you take it down already? It was only 2 days ago.
It should work now….not sure what happened with that. I appreciate your comment. Thanks!