We haven’t had much of a chance to study mushrooms up close in the last few weeks but we did over our summer break. Our trip to Oregon gave us plenty to look at and identify. Identifying mushrooms is really a difficult task.
As part of our biology course, we studied the mushroom’s life cycle and my boys made nature journal entries using some of the photos we had collected of mushrooms in our area.
“Fungi, as a whole, are a great boon to the world. Without them our forests would be choked out with dead wood. Decay is simply the process by which fungi and other organisms break down dead material, so that the major part of it returns to the air in gaseous form, and the remainder, now mostly humus, mingles with the soil.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 715
I think if that is the only thing we learn about fungus/mushrooms from our study we will have accomplished a greater understanding of how the forest ecosystem works. There is great beauty in these living things and a wonderful purpose to their creation.
Our mushroom season will soon be upon us and we will be out and enjoying a whole array of fungus to observe. We will be using the diagram on page 717 to categorize the mushrooms we see as we go along. I am totally inspired by Casey’s study: Extraordinary World: Mushrooms.
Here is a set of our mushroom photos from the last year that I gathered on Flickr if you would like to see what we have in our area of California: Mushrooms
Mushrooms! Fungus! Molds! Ask my children and they will tell you that I am fascinated with these things when we find them during our outdoor time. They even call me very affectionately the “Fungus Lady”.
I found this video during our last study of mushrooms and I would love for you to watch it in order to prepare you for your study of mushrooms. This video is very well done and will help your children understand how a mushroom grows.
You will need to click over to YouTube.com to view this video. Please note: Turn down the sound if the music is too much for you. As always, please preview the video on YouTube and I do not endorse any other video that may come up after this one. There are some questionable videos about mushrooms.
If you do not think you will observe any mushrooms during your Outdoor Time, you can still complete the Inside Preparation work as a way to be ready the next time you do see a mushroom.
Outdoor Hour Challenge
Autumn Series #9 Mushrooms
(See Also Challenge #41)
Inside Preparation Work
Mushrooms and Other Fungi-read the overview starting on page 714 and continuing to page 719. Page 719 shows the parts of a mushroom with labels.
Outdoor Hour Time The ideal study of ferns, mushrooms, and fungi would be to experience them outdoors in their natural habitat. Use your 15 to 20 minutes of outdoor time this week to enjoy a search for some kind of mushroom. Your particular area may not have these subjects readily at hand but let your friends, family, and neighbors know that you are studying mushrooms and with more pairs of eyes looking you may be able to find something to study up close.
Enjoy your time outdoors whether you can find this week’s subject or not. Remember to look at the sky and comment on the weather. Take time to notice your tree from your year long tree study. Collect a few items to take inside to sketch into your nature journal. Just because the topic of this challenge is mushrooms, you do not have to limit yourself to that narrow focus during your 15 to 20 minutes of outdoor time.
Follow-Up Activity
Spend a few minutes once inside to discuss your experiences from your nature walk.Are there questions that need to be answered or items that need to be identified? Make a note of any topics that come up that you can research further in the Handbook of Nature Study or at your local library.
Make an opportunity for a nature journal entry. The diagrams on pages 695 and 719 could be sketched into the nature journal. I have created a notebook page for you to use in your nature journal to record your mushroom observations and it is listed in the free downloads section of the sidebar of my blog.
“Since mushrooms are especially good subjects for watercolor and pencil studies, it would add much to the interest of the work if each pupil, or the school as a whole, should make a portfolio of sketches of all the species found. With each drawing there should be made on a supplementary sheet a spore print of the species.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 718
Spore prints are another idea for an activity following up the mushroom study. I would only do this activity with older students who truly understand that mushrooms can be poisonous.
Here are some instructions you can download: Mushroom Spore Prints or this blog entry.
You can use the provided notebook page to sketch a mushroom that you observed during your Outdoor Time or you can use it to copy the sketch from page 719 in the Handbook of Nature Study, labeling the different parts of a mushroom.
We decided that woodpeckers are very beautiful birds. The two kinds we see most frequently are Acorn woodpeckers and White-Headed woodpeckers and although they are mostly black and white, they are truly lovely to look at.
“The clown-faced Acorn Woodpecker is a common bird of western oak forests. It lives in extended family groups, and all members of the group spend hours and hours storing thousands of acorns in carefully tended holes in trees and telephone poles.”
This tree is at my dad’s house and it has about a zillion holes in it from woodpeckers. He is plagued with woodpeckers pecking on the side of his house.
I found this old nature journal entry made for our backyard woodpecker….makes me smile.
We don’t have as much variety in our feeders or yard at this time of the year. The bird variety picks up as the winter marches on and by the time of the Great Backyard Bird Count, we are in full swing.
No woodpecker sightings this week but we enjoyed watching the birds we did have in our yard.
We had a perfect morning for a weather study as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge Autumn Series. The air was cold, the wind was blowing, and the leaves were raining down all around us. It *felt* like autumn. Note: This morning it was 38 degrees outside..that is cold.
There are still loads of leaves left on the sweet gum trees but as of this morning, the fall color is breaking through. Reds, oranges, burgundy, and every shade in between are all popping out on the trees.
Still a few insect friends in the flower garden…..look at his wings in the sun. Gorgeous and amazing. I think this is some kind of hoover fly.
We came back in to warm up with a bowl of soup and then our weather notebook pages were filled in and filed away in our nature journals.
I love having a specific subject for our nature study….it motivates me to spend time with the boys outdoors each week. Don’t let anyone tell you that high school age boys do not enjoy nature study.
The challenge this week is one that can be done by every participant without regard to location.
This week we will start a year long, four season weather observation study. This challenge will be to make a record of your weather during the current season. I have put together a simple Seasonal Weather Notebook Page. You can use it for your records or you can simply record the information in your a nature journal.
Read pages 790-791 in the Handbook of Nature Study which includes the sections on Thermometer Scales in Use and Distribution of the Temperature and Pressure. Read the sections with a view to finding a few facts to share with your children this week about what influences the temperature and the atmosphere around us.
“The heat received on the earth from the sun is the controlling factor in all weather conditions.”Handbook of Nature Study, page 791
It might even be a good idea to purchase an outdoor thermometer so you can record the temperatures in your own backyard.
Outdoor Time
Pick a day this week to spend 15-20 minutes outdoors observing the weather and recording the conditions using the Seasonal Weather Study notebook page. We will be completing a weather study challenge during each season in the coming year and the more detailed you get in your observations, the easier it will be to compare the weather from season to season.
Follow-Up Activity
Spend a few minutes discussing what you experienced with your children. Find out if they have any questions about the weather that you can research together this week. The Handbook of Nature Study on pages 812-814 lists numerous specific weather related activities that will help demonstrate weather concepts for your children. Please complete any of the activities that interest your family and that you have time to complete. For your nature journal this week, fill out the Seasonal Weather Observation notebook page. If you prefer to record you observations into your nature journal and not on a notebook page, look to the sample blank chart on page 807 of the Handbook of Nature Study for a basic record keeping idea.
“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; and the readings of the barometer, thermometer, and the weather maps if any are available.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 806
My oldest son and I had the opportunity to take a long walk together and enjoy the oaks and pines along the walking trail. He has such long legs that he ends up way in front of me most of the time but that gives me a chance to snap a few photos as we walk. He stops every now and then to let me catch up…..yep, I feel like an old lady.
Oaks make me happy. I love the variety of oaks with their different shapes and here in California we have quite a few to study. Last year we kept track of a Live Oak growing in our backyard. We also have quite a few scrub oaks in the back of our property.Here is a previous post on our oaks: Oak Challenge Entry
There is nothing like the smell of warm oak leaves in the sun.
Oak galls fascinate me and the boys think they are pretty interesting as well. Oak galls are basically abnormalities on plants caused by insects. We noticed that there are not as many as usual this autumn and we wonder what that means.
I love the shape of oak trees and this one at my dad’s house is a big old oak. I took an informal poll of my three boys and asked them which they preferred: oaks or pines? Two oaks and one pine…..I think if I had to make a quick answer without thinking too much I would pick oaks as well.
We have noticed how different the acorns are from different kinds of oaks.
We had a wet morning to observe the oaks in our backyard but I really like the way the wetness brought out the texture in the bark.
Here are leaves from one of our oaks. We are assuming the red parts are the new growth. We will have to keep checking to see if we are right.
I really like using the Peterson Field Guide-Western Trees book for our tree identification. The color plates show the leaves, the buds, and the acorns. Once you get an idea of which oak you think you have, there is a reference to a page number to read the narrative account along with a photo and range map. You can find the tree guide listed on the Autumn Series Squidoo lens (scroll down to the additional resources section).
We made leaf prints last week with our oak leaves and they are included in our nature journals for this challenge.
These challenges are helping us stay motivated to get outdoors which is always a good thing.
All of the photos above were taken last week on our quest for goldenrod. Turns out after reading up and doing some investigation and actually helping another OH Challenge family to identify a mystery flower, I learned that this is not goldenrod but rather rabbitbrush.
We spent quite a bit of time looking at and comparing photos with our field guide and on Calflora.org. Turns out to be something new to us….Rabbitbrush.
We had a sample of the flower and that really helped us when it got right down to making a firm identification.
We decided to turn to the chrysanthemum for our formal nature study this week and we talked about composite flowers and made a journal entry.
I think we were still successful and learned so much about our local wildflowers. We spent a glorious afternoon on a perfect autumn day together outdoors as a family.
Hat Tip to Alex for the new Flickr tool to make the mosaic with photos. Thanks!
Trees are such a part of our life and there are quite a few growing in our yard that delight us during the different seasons. In the past, we chose an oak and then the sweet gum tree to study for a complete year.
We talked it over and decided that our new year-long tree study as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenges will focus on a Tuliptree in our front yard. I was leaning more towards studying the Chinese pistache that is actually in our neighbor’s yard but so close to the fence line that it might as well be in our yard.
The boys campaigned for the Tulip tree and since the whole point is to get them enthusiastic about a tree, we will go with their choice. The photo above shows the top of the tuliptree and to the right of it is our magnolia. The tuliptree is much taller than any other tree in the front yard and gives us lots of shade in the summer.
We talked about the tree for a few minutes before we headed out the door to spend our Outdoor Hour Challenge time observing our new tree friend. We talked about how the robins like to sing from the top of the tree, how the seeds are like helicopters, and how tall the tree is growing. One son added that he likes the tree but it is one of the biggest producers of leaves and soon it will mean lots of raking and composting. I shared how I remembered the blossoms on the tree and the humming of the bees last spring. We already knew quite a bit about our tree so we were anxious to see if we could learn anything new.
We took photos of our Tulip tree and gathered a few leaves to put into the flower press. A journal entry was made so we can compare with our winter study.
Most of the leaves are shaped like this……
But there were some that were shaped like this……
We were wondering why the leaves on the same tree are shaped so differently…..any guesses?
Many of the leaves have fallen already and there are quite a few turning yellow-orange-brown as well.
This is the fruit that turns to the seeds….great helicopter seeds that fall by the thousands.
How about that bark? It has the fluffy green lichen and the flat bright orange lichen as well.
We actually had a squirrel friend spend some time in our tree this afternoon.
This was a great start to our new tree study and this tree will be easy to keep track of since I can see it from my bedroom window. I love watching the shadows of the branches and leaves on the blinds. It makes a great swishing sound in the summer when the breeze blows and during winter storms it has a sway and a creaking sound as it bends in the wind.
We will try to spend some time this week watching as the leaves start to really fall and before you know it, this tree will be bare. 🙂
This series of challenges has greatly encouraged so many of us to look at the changing season with new eyes.
Goldenrod is a showy yellow flower that is included 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. If you do not find any goldenrod, an alternative autumn flower study could be the aster. You will find information in the Handbook of Nature Study on the aster starting on page 506. You could also study the chrysanthemum using Lesson 131 in the Handbook of Nature Study. Chrysanthemums are available in abundance right now at your local garden nursery in a wide variety of colors.
Inside Preparation Work
Read Lesson 132 (pages 503-506) in the Handbook of Nature Study. These few pages will give you some great ideas for sparking your child’s interest in goldenrod. It is suggested to also read through Lesson 131 on Composite Flowers since the goldenrod is a perfect example of a composite flower to study. Use the illustrations on page 505 to help your children understand a little better what you are looking for as far as disc and ray flowers. (If you still have a sunflower blooming, you can also use it to demonstrate a composite flower.)
Outdoor Activity
Take a “field excursion” to look for goldenrod. In my research I discovered that there are over a hundred species of goldenrod in North America and they can be found in meadows, pastures, and alongside roads and in ditches. Their brilliant yellow color will alert you to their little “golden cities”.
The Handbook of Nature Study suggests on page 506 to notice where you found the goldenrod growing. Did you find more than one kind of goldenrod? How many insects did you find visiting the goldenrod’s flowers? Did you find any galls growing on the goldenrod?
Anna Botsford Comstock says to not worry so much about identifying a particular species since they are difficult to distinguish.
If it is appropriate, choose one sample to take home for further study during your follow-up time. I made a simple nature notebook pagefor you to use if you wish.
If you are studying an aster or a chrysanthemum for this challenge, I urge you to still read about the goldenrod and take the outdoor time with your children to enjoy the season. There is an Aster Nature Study here on my blog for more ideas.
Follow-Up Activity
Allow time for discussion and a nature journal entry. If you were able to bring home a sample of goldenrod, take the time now to really look for the parts that are discussed in the Handbook of Nature Study. Use Lesson 132 on page 505 to guide your detailed observations of the flower heads. There are suggestions for sketches within the lesson.
If you have a membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study, you can use the Autumn Photo Project activity in the printables section of your membership along with your autumn goldenrod study. Print the page out and take a camera along with you to snap a few of the suggested nature photos. This will keep your whole family involved as you take a walk together.
This is the version of the Handbook of Nature Study that I recommend using along with the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Please note this is an affiliate link to Amazon for a book that my family owns and has used for over a decade.
This week’s challenge is a continuation of an annual tree study for some of you but a new challenge for many.
Our family is going to be choosing a new tree to observe and get to know from our backyard. I prefer for my boys to pick a deciduous tree so there will be lots of changes to observe, but you are welcome to choose any tree that you and your children are interested in getting to know better.
Inside Preparation Work
Read the section in the Handbook of Nature Study discussing seasonal tree work. You will find it on pages 622-626. This week the challenge includes making a seasonal observation of a tree. Lesson 172 on page 623 includes five suggestions for studying your tree during autumn. If you are just joining the challenges, pick a tree from your yard, your street, or a near-by park to observe over the course of the next year. I would suggest printing out the Seasonal Tree Notebook Page and taking it with you so you have the option to complete it during your outdoor time.
Outdoor Time
Take your 10-15 minute outdoor time to choose a tree to observe over the next year. You can take photos of your tree to put in your nature journal or you can sketch the tree in your journal. You may also choose to complete the Seasonal Tree Notebook Page during your outdoor time.
Follow-Up Activity
Allow your child a few minutes to tell you about their outdoor experience. Talk about the tree you chose to observe for you seasonal tree study. Check in the Handbook of Nature Study to see if your tree is listed there and make sure to do the reading about that particular tree over the next few weeks. There should be some suggestions for observations that you can follow. File your page away so you can compare it during your next Seasonal Tree Study.
We are hoping to take some time to go walking and find a tree to study this week. The photo above was taken a couple of years ago and it reminds me of the warm autumn day we had hiking and taking in the fall color of the aspen trees.
This is what it really is all about for our family-building memories and experiences that shape who we are and how we feel about our Creator.
This is an affiliate link to a product I have used and highly recommend.
