Handbook of Nature Study Archives

Posted on September 24, 2010 by Barb — 16 Comments

Autumn 2010 OHC #2: Birds-Geese and Ducks

Autumn Series #2
Bird Study: The Goose

“And there is not a more interesting sight anywhere in the autumn landscape than the wedge-shaped flock of these long-necked birds with their leader at the front apex.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 133

Inside Preparation Work:
1. Read pages 130-135 in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 34). Take special note of the fact that the northern migration of wild geese takes place in April and May, and the southern journey is from October to December. (Check this website for a map of where Canada Geese live in North America.)

2. Listen to the sound of Canada Geese and Snow Geese. Many times we will hear a goose before we see it flying overhead. Use your sense of hearing to help you identify a goose when the opportunity arises.

Comparison Ideas:

Compare a Goose to a Duck

What do ducks eat and what do geese eat? (Hint: Where do they look for food?)
Compare the duck’s and the goose’s beak, the length of their legs, and the shape of their necks.
Compare the color of their feathers, beak, eyes, and feet.
Do they both swim in the same way? How about flying?
Are there some feathers on the ground to observe and compare?
What does each bird sound like?
Are they friendly, shy, or aggressive?

Outdoor Hour Time:
Take the opportunity during this challenge to find a local duck pond and check to see if there are any geese visiting at this time. You also might try a local farm that may have geese and ducks for you to observe. Use your Outdoor Hour time to observe geese and/or ducks with the suggestions from the Handbook of Nature Study as well as those suggested above. Help your child to find words to compare the goose to some other bird they already know as far as shape, size, and habits.

If you do not have any geese or ducks to observe, you can observe any of your backyard birds and make some comparisons. This activity is one that can be done with any bird at any time. Work on your observation skills a little each week to sharpen your child’s awareness of their own surroundings.

Follow-Up Activity:
Take a few minutes to talk briefly about what you saw during your Outdoor Hour time. If you observed geese and/or ducks, use the gentle reminder questions in the list above to stimulate a little conversation. Your child can also record their observations in their own blank nature journal or use the notebook page from the ebook for convenience. You may wish to pull up the website listed in the preparation work to view more photos of geese to make sketching a little easier. In the Autumn 2010 ebook, there is a printable notebook page for a goose and another more general page for an autumn bird study of any bird.

If you did not observe a goose or duck, you can still complete a nature journal page or notebook page for any bird you did observe. Use your field guide or AllAboutBirds.org to glean more information if desired.

Note: This nature study challenge can be found in the Autumn 2010 ebook.

If you would like to own this ebook, it is part of the Ultimate Naturalist Library for members. You can find more details on how to get your own membership here: Join Us!

Ultimate Ebook Library @handbookofnaturestudy

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Barb — 18 Comments

Autumn 2010 OHC #1: Nature Journals

Outdoor Hour Challenge - Nature Journal Getting Started

Welcome to the New Series of Challenges!

Autumn Series #1
Nature Journal-How To Get Started

“A field notebook may be made a joy to the pupil and a help to the teacher.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 13

Inside Preparation Work:

Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 13-15 (The Field Notebook). In this section Anna Botsford Comstock helps us with a detailed description of her idea of a field notebook or nature journal. She also states that if done properly “they represent what cannot be bought or sold, personal experience in the happy world of out-of-doors”. Make note of any suggestions you want to implement with your children.

Read page 17 in the Handbook of Nature Study (The Correlation of Nature Study and Drawing). Highlight the points that will help you with your nature journals. “Too much have we emphasized drawing as an art; it may be an art, if the one who draws is an artist; but if he is not an artist, he still has a right to draw if it pleases him to do so.”

Decide what kind of nature journal or nature notebook you will be keeping for this series of challenges. Some families prefer a blank journal to record sketches, words, and images. With this series of challenges there are notebook pages provided for each challenge and these can be inserted into a three ring binder. Some families combine blank pages with notebook pages to give variety to their nature journals and keep it in three ring binder as well. If you would like more ideas about nature journals, examples of pages, and links to more resources, you can visit my Hubpage for more information: Nature Journals-Tips for Simple Journals.

Outdoor Hour Time:
For this challenge you are going to spend 15 minutes outdoors with your children in your own yard. Take a walk around your yard or down your own street. Enjoy being outdoors. Look up at the sky, look under rocks, listen carefully for sounds, touch some leaves, sit in the grass, stand under a tree, smell a flower, collect some acorns, and just see what happens. Remember you are building your child’s powers of observation and trying to stir up some interest. Keep your words and attitude positive. If you have younger children you may need start off with just 5 minutes of outdoor time for nature study but you can gradually build up to 15 minutes or more.

“She should say frankly, ‘I do not know; let us see if we cannot together find out this mysterious thing.’ She thus conveys the right impression, that only a little about the intricate life of plants and animals is yet know; and at the same time she makes her pupils feel the thrill and zest of investigation. Nor will she lose their respect if she does it in the right spirit.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 4

Follow-Up Activity:
After you come inside, take a few minutes to follow up on any interest your child has from his observations outdoors. Listen and take note of any future nature study subjects you can cultivate from their comments. Offer to help them sketch something they observed into their nature journal and help them find a few words to describe their outdoor time. Start small and as time passes your child will have more and more to record in their journals. You can use the general notebook page provided in the Autumn 2010 ebook or your own blank nature journal to record your outdoor time.

If you would like, pull out your Handbook of Nature Study and see if the item your child is interested in is listed in the index. If it is, look up the information for yourself and then relate interesting facts to the children sometime during the next week. You can also look up information at the public library and share some books on their topic of interest. Remember it is okay to say that you don’t know the answer to a question they have but you can model how to find the answer as you gain confidence in your own nature study knowledge.

Note: This nature study challenge can be found in the Autumn 2010 ebook.

If you would like to own this ebook, it is part of the Ultimate Naturalist Library for members. You can find more details on how to get your own membership here: Join Us!

Posted on August 27, 2010 by Barb — 6 Comments

OHC Summer Series #11: Queen Anne’s Lace-Year-Long Study

Summer Series #11
Year-Long Study: Queen Anne’s Lace

“If we look straight into the large flower-cluster, we can see that each component cluster, or umbellet, seems to have its own share in making the larger pattern; the outside blossoms of the outside clusters have the outside petals larger, thus forming a beautiful border.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 543.

Train Your Senses

Sight: How are the blossoms arranged? What is its shape? Are there insects on the flower?
Smell: Does the flower have a scent? How about the leaves?
Touch: Is the stem smooth or rough? How does the flower umbel feel?

Inside Preparation Work:
Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 542 to 545 (Lesson 148). Pay special attention to the suggestions in Lesson 148, perhaps choosing a few of the observations to complete when observing your Queen Anne’s Lace. Keep track of the location of your Queen Anne’s Lace so you can revisit it during the seasons to come, observing the changes in this plant over a year’s time.

Outdoor Hour Time:
Spend 15 minutes outdoors this week in your own backyard or a near-by park. The subject of this challenge is Queen Anne’s Lace but keep your eye out for any wildflowers you may observe during your outdoor time. Keep in mind your suggested observation ideas as you enjoy your time outside together. Remember to use your senses to observe your wildflowers.

Follow-Up Activities:
Discuss what you observed during your outdoor time. Try to help your children remember what they discovered using all their senses. This can be just a few words or a complete account of their thoughts. Use the notebook page included with the Summer Series ebook to record a sketch and your observations or use a blank notebook of your own. As part of a year-long study of Queen Anne’s Lace, make sure to file your notebook page away for future reference.

Here is also a notebook page that Jimmie made that you may like to use: Queen Anne’s Lace Notebook page. Here is a link to an entry on my blog that I made in the past about Queen Anne’s Lace: Queen Anne’s Lace.

Suggested Nature Journal Activities:

Wildflowers are wonderful subjects for a watercolor drawing. Try using watercolor colored pencils to sketch some Queen Anne’s Lace or any wildflower into your nature journal.
Using the notebook page in the Summer Series ebook record any observations your child has from their outdoor time.
Take a photograph of your wildflower and include it in your nature journal.
You can also use any notebook pages from the sidebar of my blog.

If you would like all the Summer Series Challenges in one place, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. Here is a link to a complete description:
Summer Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Barb — 2 Comments

Our Evening Primrose Study

This challenge was truly a challenge as we pushed ourselves to find a subject to study in our local area. We could not get our Four O’Clocks or Moonflowers to grow this year in our garden. We are going to try a different spot next year to see if it makes a difference.

In the meantime, we did the reading in the Handbook of Nature Study and went out in our yard in the evenings looking for flowers that attract moths. We didn’t observe much except maybe that the star jasmine has a more intense fragrance at night and it really stands out in the garden because of its white flowers.

We also noticed that the Dusty Millers were sort of glowing in the evenings too with their silvery soft hairs on the stems and leaves.

Sometimes the subject just appears and because you are prepared you can take advantage of the opportunity. This situation happened to us on a recent hike. We were hiking at our favorite spot and came down to the beach at the lake’s edge.

Wow! We couldn’t believe our eyes. We were greeted with a beach covered in wildflowers. The two most predominant flowers were the lupine and what we identified using our field guide….Hooker’s Evening Primrose! Can you believe it? We had never seen this beach covered with these flowers before and we had never seen evening primroses in the wild. The field guide says that these flowers are nocturnal and are fragrant at night.

Here are some photos….courtesy of my oldest son. He has become such a wonderful photographer and being able to share a passion with a child is such a gift.

The beach was a blaze with color, more awesome than even the photo shows.

Isn’t this the most lovely flower? The mix of the purple lupines and the yellow of this flower was stunning. It was a moment to be remembered forever.

This has been another great Outdoor Hour Challenge…thanks to the Handbook of Nature Study and Anna Botsford Comstock’s desire for us to learn about the things we have all around us.

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Barb — 2 Comments

Frogs and The Sounds of Summer: Our Family Study

This post has been a long time coming. We worked on this last week and the week before that knowing we had a frog study as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge. We must be having an unusual year because we have not seen a single frog this summer except when we were at Yosemite on our camping trip. We saw a Pacific Tree frog but did not photo because he hopped right up to my foot and I was actually trying to catch him but he got away. He sure could jump!

On a normal summer evening we can sit out on our back deck and hear frogs in the evening as they croak and rib-bit. We took a walk around our neighborhood and found out that the little wetland area at the end of the school soccer field that usually has cattails and frogs this time of year was dried up. They must have come up with a way to drain the area and it is now not fit for cattails and frogs. I am a little sad.

So did we learn something during this challenge even though we never found any frogs? We benefited from two complete walks looking for frogs in our neighborhood and although we were not “successful”, we did learn more about our local frogs. We took some time to research exactly what kind of frogs we should be looking for in our area. We found that there is a species of frog that is endangered, the California red-legged frog.(Image from Wikimedia Commons)

We also have the Sierra Tree Frog and the Sierran Tree Frog (working on figuring out the difference), as well as the Foothill yellow-legged frog.

We enjoyed learning some more information about frogs from the Handbook of Nature Study too and some of the facts are now filed away for future reference.

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

OHC Summer Series #9: Evening Primrose

Outdoor Hour Challenge Evening Primrose @handbookofnaturestudy

Summer Series #9
Evening Primrose or Other Night Blooming Plant

Train Your Senses

Sight: Observe an evening primrose opening. Look for night flying insects on the primrose. Observe the difference between the leaves at the base and those at the top of the plant. Look for other night blooming plants.
Smell: In the evening, see if you can smell the sweet fragrance of a blooming evening primrose.
Taste: See this LINK for more information. See #6 of Lesson 127 in the Handbook of Nature Study (tasting the nectar).

Inside Preparation Work:

“Then some warm evening, usually about sunset, but varying from four o’clock in the afternoon to nine or ten in the evening, the petals begin to unfurl…..Three or four of these flowers may open on a plant the same evening and they, with their fellows on the neighboring plants, form constellations of starry bloom that invite attention, and night flying insects are often seen on them.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 488

Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 488-491 (Lesson 127). There are garden species of this plant available and many areas of the United States have the evening primrose as a wildflower. Other night blooming plants include 4 o’clocks, Moonflowers, and Night Blooming Cereus. Here is a link that has a list of night blooming flowers.

Outdoor Hour Time:
Spend fifteen minutes outdoors in the evening to observe an evening primrose. If you do not have an evening primrose, try to see if you can find any other night blooming flowers in your area. Use the suggestions from the Handbook of Nature Study to closely examine the parts of this flower, perhaps watching long enough to see the petals unfold. The Handbook of Nature Study also recommends observing a flower blossom indoors so you many wish to collect a specimen to have on hand for your follow-up activity.

Follow-Up Activities:
Make sure to discuss the reason for night blooming flowers during your follow-up activity. Have the child guess what sort of tongue the insect would need in order to gather nectar from the evening primrose. Make time for a nature journal entry using the notebook page from the Summer Series ebook or in your own blank nature journal.

Suggested Nature Journal Activities:

Wildflowers are wonderful subjects for a watercolor drawing. Try using watercolor colored pencils to sketch an evening primrose or any wildflower into your nature journal.
Using the notebook page and/or the coloring page included in the Summer Series ebook, record any observations your child has from their outdoor time.
Press a blossom for your nature journal. Simple instructions can be found HERE.

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Barb — 6 Comments

The Teacher’s Story: Hers and Mine

“All the facts available and pertinent concerning each topic have been assembled in the ‘Teacher’s Story’ to make her acquainted with the subject; this is followed by an outline for observation on the part of the pupils while studying the object. It would seem that with the teacher’s story before the eyes of the teacher, and the subject of the lesson before the eyes of the pupils with a number of questions leading them to see the essential characteristics of the object, there should result a wider knowledge of nature than is given in this or any other book. ”
Handbook of Nature Study, Preface. Written in 1911 by Anna Botsford-Comstock.

Anna Botsford-Comstock never meant for the Handbook of Nature Study to be the complete sum of information about any one topic. Her aim seems to have been to equip the teacher with information so she could ignite some questions in her students. The students armed with good questions would set out to complete a nature study that led to a wider knowledge of what was right in their own world.

The Handbook of Nature Study, if used wisely, can help parents become better nature study guides. This large volume gathers concise information and nature study starters into one book, giving more time to be outdoors with our children rather than preparing lessons from scratch.

I have found that using the Handbook of Nature Study has prepared us for the opportunities that arise….even months later. The photo above was taken on our recent trip to Yosemite. My son noticed this marshy meadow stream and he immediately started looking for tadpoles. There were none, but he did notice some damselflies and dragonflies which we had studied a year or so ago from the Handbook. He could tell me which ones were which by looking at their wings.

On this same hike we encountered our very first ever Yellow-bellied marmot. (He was busy eating flowers!) We only knew what it was because we had done a study of rodents with the Handbook of Nature Study. The Handbook does not cover Yellow-bellied marmots, but we applied what we already knew about other mammals like the woodchuck and squirrel. When we got back home we looked up the marmot and realized that it is a kind of ground squirrel so we were not far off in our observations. The point is that we were equipped with some basic knowledge and then were able to apply some questions from a previous study.

I think Anna Botsford-Comstock would be happy to know that her ideas and her Teacher’s Stories are as valid today as they were way back in 1911.

Posted on June 18, 2010 by Barb — 11 Comments

OHC Summer Series #1: Mosquitoes and World of Smell

Outdoor Hour Challenges
Summer Series #1 Mosquitoes and World of Smell

Train Your Senses

Sight: Begin to learn how long it takes for your eyes to adjust as the evening gets darker. Use your sense of sight to observe mosquitoes or mosquito larvae. Can you observe any birds or bats eating mosquitoes?
Smell: Sit quietly in your yard, perhaps at different times of day, observing any smells of summer that you can recognize. Can you smell more at night when your other senses are not as useful? Can you smell more on a damp night or a dry night? Does a certain smell bring back a memory?
Hearing: Can you hear any mosquitoes or other insects buzzing?

Inside Preparation Work:
1. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 411-415 on mosquitoes. Pay special attention to page 414 where there is a list of places that mosquito larvae can be found. Read through Lesson 105 to equip yourself for your mosquito study.
2. Read in Discover Nature at Sundown pages 14-26. This section will give you some general information about how humans and other living creatures use their sense of smell. We will study several of these living things as part of this series of challenge: moths, evening primroses, mosquitoes, frogs, and bats.

Outdoor Hour Time:
1. This week spend your 15 minutes outdoors at sundown. As you start your Summer Series of Challenges, try to establish a routine of going outdoors in the evening to spend some time observing your backyard or neighborhood as the light fades. Use the suggests above to use your senses during your outdoor time. After reading in Discover Nature At Sundown, you will have some ideas for night-blooming flowers to look for and to smell. Also the book suggests observing sounds on a damp night and a dry night and comparing your results.

2. Also, as part of this challenge, you can try to collect some live mosquito larvae. Here are some instructions:

Look in a pond, along a stream, in a rain barrel or any where else you can find some standing water.
Collect a jar full of water to bring home to observe. Scoop the water rapidly and hopefully you will get some larvae or pupae.
The Handbook of Nature Study suggests putting the jar on your desk to observe the “wigglers”. Use the suggestions from Lesson 105 to study your mosquitoes. Here is a link to a webpage that has more information about mosquitoes: How Stuff Works: Mosquitoes

Follow-Up Activity:
1. There is a notebook activity included with this challenge is to keep track of all the smells of summer that you find over the next few weeks. As a new smell comes to your attention, make sure to write it down in your journal. There is set of free mosquito notebook pages available over on NotebookingFairy.com.

2. If you were successful in collecting and then observing mosquito larvae, record your thoughts in your nature journal or on the notebook page provided in the Summer Series ebook. If you did not find any mosquito larvae, you can record the things you learned about mosquitoes instead.

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Barb — 1 Comment

Poppies: Garden Beauties

“I know of nothing so deceptive as the appearance of the poppy buds, which, rough and hairy, droop so naturally that it seems as if their weight must compel the stem to bend; and yet, if we test it, we find the stem is as stiff as if made of steel wire.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 560

“The poppies shed their sepals when the flowers expand; they offer quantities of pollen to the bees, which are very fond of it. The seed capsule develops holes around the top, through which the seeds are shaken, a few at a time.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 562

Observations suggested in the Handbook of Nature Study:
Look at the bud of the poppy. How is it covered? How many sepals? Can you see where they unite? Is the stem bent because the bud is heavy? What happens to this crook in the stem when the flower opens? Does the crook always straighten out completely?

We used these suggestions to really look at our poppies that are planted in a pot on our back deck. I put the pot near our hummingbird feeder and I quite often see a bee or a hummer stop by for a little something as they go by.

I really do need to plant some more of these beautiful flowers in my garden next year.

If you are interested in using your garden as a nature study focus this summer, please consider using the Outdoor Hour Challenge Gardens and Flowering Plants Ebook. Here is a link for more information.

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

OHC Spring Series #10: Ants

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Spring Series #10Insect Study-Ants

Inside Preparation Work:
Read pages 294-300 in the Handbook of Nature Study to learn more about insects in general. You might like to introduce your child to the development and structure of insects using the information from the Handbook of Nature Study.
Read pages 369-373 in the Handbook of Nature Study for information about the ant. Make some notes after reading Lesson 91 on the Field Observations of Ants so you will have some ideas for observation when you take your children outdoors. This might be a fun challenge to use a magnifying lens!
*Note if you are using the free download of the HNS, The Ways of the Ant are on page 419 and in the Homeschool Freebie version of the HNS, the ant is in the Insects PDF on page 114.
We have used educational ant farms over the years in our home and they are a fascinating way to study ants up close. I highly suggest this as a family activity. Here is a link to the ant farm we have used in the past: Uncle Milton’s Giant Ant Farm.

Outdoor Hour Time:
For this challenge you can spend some of your outdoor time looking for ants. Ask your children if they have noticed ants in your backyard and have them investigate to find some ants to observe. Look under rocks, logs, along sidewalks, under leaves, on the bark of trees, and on garden plants. Use the suggestions you listed in your inside preparation time to learn some more about your ants.

Some Ideas For a Simple Ant Study

Quietly observe ants at work. Count how many ants you can see.
Look carefully to see if all the ants are the same size.
Do you see ants working together to carry something?
Do you see any aphids with your ants?
Do you see any ants fighting?
Do you see any eggs?

Follow Up Time:Talk about the ants you were able to observe during your outdoor time. As always, allow time for a nature journal entry. If you are keeping a simple nature journal of your own, remember that a journal entry can be as easy as a sketch, label, and a date. You can also use the notebook page from the Spring Series Ebook or a blank nature journal page from the sidebar of my blog.

You may be interested in viewing this YouTube video from PBS and NOVA, Lord of the Ants. It is rather long but you can choose to watch just a portion of it if you want to with your children. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKbj3ZDmvdU&feature=channel

If you would like all the Spring Series Challenges in one book, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. The ebook also contains art and music appreciation plans for the winter months as well. Please see this entry for more details:

Spring Nature Study with Art and Music Appreciation

Category: Handbook of Nature Study