The last time we studied salmon we were in California and we lived very near a creek where the kokanee salmon spawned every autumn. We had such a tremendous experience and reading back over the entry I remember the excitement of the day spent with my boys.
I know that many of you won’t have direct access to salmon or trout, but the best part of any nature study is the time you spend with your children outside.
Take the time this week to read about the trout in the Handbook of Nature Study and then get outdoors for some fresh air with your children. Visit a stream, visit a fish hatchery, or get creative!
You can also use this free resource here on the Handbook of Nature Study.
I hope you’re enjoying the autumn series of Outdoor Hour Challenges posted here on Fridays. Please note that all of the challenges along with corresponding notebook pages are available to Ultimate Naturalist Members at the Handbook of Nature Study.
You can see all of the ebooks available by clicking the graphic above. This includes 20 ebooks, 76 archived newsletters, and over 75 other printable notebook pages and activities.
Continuing our use of comparisons, take your fifteen minutes outdoors this week to either find two different cones to compare or to compare a tree with cones to a tree that does not have cones.
These simple suggestions will get you started with your Outdoor Hour Challenge time and the idea is simple enough for all family members to participate.
Click the link to the archive challenge and see more suggestions for both observations and a nature journal follow up page. If you have access to the Autumn 2010 ebook, there is a notebook page for you to use after your outdoor time.
This is a challenge I am personally looking forward to completing in my new habitat. There are many cones to investigate!
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We’ve only lived here in Central Oregon since May so we haven’t experienced all of the seasons yet. The November World Outdoor Hour Challenge suggested comparing the things we see this week with another season. I guess that means I would need to compare my November habitat to that of summertime. We had such a glorious summer season with lots of time spent outdoors so this should be fairly easy.
The river behind our house runs year round but there is a small slough that was filled up with water in May and almost dried up in mid-summer. Right now it has lots of water and at times is covered in a sheet of ice. When we moved in last May, we could pull our kayaks out to this slough and make it out to the main river, but by the end of June it was landlocked again. We’ve been keeping track of the amount of water as it rises higher with the rains and snow.
The green grasses of early summer are all gone, either from the cattle grazing or from it turning brown in the freezing temperatures. There are small patches of yellow-gold, tall grass still showing in areas and we read that this is what the winter elk will be eating because it will be sticking up out of the snow. I am anxious to see if the elk come back….they left in late spring when the deer showed up.
Most of the trees in our area are evergreens so they look pretty much the same as in the summer. There are lots of cones on the ground and the squirrels have been very busy gathering them up. We will have up to five gray squirrels in our yard at a time scurrying around under the feeders and up in the trees.
The river willows are all barren but are still very pretty with their reddish-orange colored twigs. The leaves are gone but there are buds forming with the spring time leaves sleeping inside.
The beavers are cutting the willow limbs and dragging them down to the river. We’ve been trying to find where they are taking all of the willows but have been unsuccessful. We think it may be easier to spot their activity once the snow is blanketing the ground and we can see tracks or other signs of their movements. I am thoroughly enjoying the investigating of the beavers…it’s a bit like finding treasure when we see some tracks or cut willows.
The Canada goose are back on the river. We often see up to 12 at a time as they float in the eddy near our house. I’m not sure if they will be winter residents or not. You know I will be watching! (The image above is my best attempt at sneaking up on the geese and getting a photo.)
All in all, November has been a really good month for being outdoors for our family. There were some cold, snowy days but we are finding that even on a snowy day, if you bundle up right, getting outside is a refreshing experience and makes my attitude more positive.
If you want to follow along with the next series of Winter Outdoor Hour Challenges, we will be starting them up again in January. Make sure to subscribe to my blog and you will receive a new Outdoor Hour Challenge right in your inbox every Friday. There is no commitment to do every one. Winter can be a hard time to keep nature study going with your family but I guarantee you if you get them outside, even for fifteen minutes once a week, you will see the benefit in better attitudes (including yours!) Click the link above for more information on the nature study plans for the complete year using the Outdoor Hour Challenge.
If you’ve been following along with the Autumn Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges, you have been using comparisons to learn more about the topics. This week is no exception. Here are some of the ideas for using comparisons to learn about your seasonal weather.
Compare a sunny day and a rainy day by looking at the temperature, clouds, and wind speed or direction.
Compare weather on the same day by making observations both in the morning and then later in the afternoon or evening.
Compare your autumn landscape to what you remember about the summer or winter or spring.
Make sure to click over to the original challenge for more observation ideas. If you have the Autumn ebook, you will find several notebooking pages to use for this challenge.
Even if you just take 15 minutes to go outside and check the weather and have a breath of fresh air, you can feel successful with this week’s Outdoor Hour Challenge.
Use the discount code NATURE5 to receive $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership!
Now that there is no longer a newsletter with a planning page, I decided that I am creating a printable page for you to use instead. Keep track of the month’s Outdoor Hour Challenge topics, be inspired to create a nature journal page, jot down notes for future study, and use the list of archived suggestions to go deeper into a particular topic.
New printables are now posted in the Member’s library!
Members have access to two brand new printable notebook pages.
Squirrel Watch Activity: Use the ideas on the page to take a fun look at squirrels. There is also a place for you to draw a squirrel.
Know Your Own Backyard – Window Observations: This time of year it can be a challenge to get outdoors. Use this page to record your window nature observations.
Print a complete list of printables available to Members for easy reference:Printables for Members
Before the whole month of November slips away, let’s make time to observe what nature is doing at this time of year. Start off by completing the reading of pages 1 and 2 in the Handbook of Nature Study as a refresher. Take a few minutes to think about how keeping a regular nature study period each week has benefited your family. Ask your children what they have learned so far this autumn season about the birds, insects, and plants in your neighborhood. This may give you encouragement to keep participating in the Outdoor Hour Challenge as the weather turns colder and wetter.
Use the ideas in this challenge to get outside and find something of interest to note about your November World. Complete the notebook page in the ebook, from the linked challenge, or create a page in your own blank journal.
November is such a month of change and transition…don’t miss getting outside to view it for yourselves!
Use the discount code NATURE5 to receive $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership!
With the change of the season, it’s time to make your autumn observations for Queen Anne’s Lace. Whether you’re just starting a year-long study of this pretty wildflower or you’re continuing from the summer season, you will find the suggestions in this challenge a great help in learning about this common wildflower. (Some call it a weed, but I prefer to think of it as a wildflower!)
If you don’t have any Queen Anne’s Lace to observe in person, choose two other neighborhood weeds to study and compare using the ideas in the challenge linked above.
If you own the ebook, there are two different notebooking pages for you to use for your nature journal entry.
I recently used one of the challenge ideas and collected a number of autumn weeds and seeds for a “weed bouquet”. This might be a wonderful idea for an autumn nature walk that combines observing weeds and seeds and then culminates in a lovely bouquet for your nature table. You can see my entry here: Weed Bouquets and Autumn Time.
If you would like to own this ebook, it’s part of the Ultimate Naturalist Library for members. You can find more details on how to get your own membership here: Join Us!
Our neighborhood is mostly evergreens with a few deciduous trees mixed in. The view from my back window is over a slope leading down to the river and it has very few trees and lots of shrubs and grasses. The grasses are what most people would call “weeds” and in between those grasses there are a few wildflowers like yarrow and asters. The river is lined with willows, the shrubby kind and not the trees. For what it’s worth, I find the view from any of my windows beautiful and refreshing.
As the winter snows have already started, I’m seeing fewer and fewer short plants as they get buried and mashed down by the snow and ice. There are still a few plants surviving so I took the opportunity a week or so ago to cut some of the autumn weeds for a bouquet to have indoors. It was pretty late for gathering much but I still managed to create a bouquet that makes me happy. Once again, it is a matter of perspective in determining whether a plant is a weed or something amazing to look at as part of an autumn bundle in a vase.
My winter weed bouquet from years past.
My husband and I debate about the definition of a weed, an on-going discussion in our family. I say a weed is something growing where you don’t want it to grow, like in a flower or vegetable garden or in the middle of your manicured lawn. But, if the plant is growing, like most of those in our yard, in a natural landscape, I try to leave it as part of the habitat.
In my eyes, my autumn weed bouquet is as pretty as any flower shop bunch of roses.
Invite your children to gather some of your autumn weeds to be indoors as part of your nature display.
Now that there is no longer a newsletter with a planning page, I decided that I am creating a printable page for you to use instead. Keep track of the month’s Outdoor Hour Challenge topics, be inspired to create a nature journal page, jot down notes for future study, and use the list of archived suggestions to go deeper into a particular topic.
New printables are now posted in the Member’s library!
Members have two new printables to use this autumn.
Autumn Insect Study Notebook Page: Use this page to record any autumn insects you discover during your outdoor time.
Myrmecochory: Research the term myrmecochory and then write a summary of what you learned for your nature notebook. (Look for a blog entry that talks about this interesting topic soon!)
Print a complete list of printables available to Members for easy reference:Printables for Members
Horses are a favorite topic of study for many children. Can you arrange to visit a stable to observe a horse up close? Perhaps there is a horse at a nearby farm stand or apple orchard that you are visiting this season. Be on the lookout for a horse to see in person.
Even if you complete this as a preparation for a future horse visit, you will learn a lot from the lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study.
We are currently working through the Autumn 2010 ebook. For a complete nature study schedule for the next year, please click over and read this entry: Plans for October 2017 through August 2018.
