Our week has been marked by frosty temperatures…which make for beautiful early morning treasures. Now each morning when I go out to check the bird feeders and the bird bath I need to bundle up with gloves and hat…my nose still gets frosty cold.
Using the December Newsletter Weather Grid Study, our family has been trying to notice the weather and its effects on the plants and wildlife. This doesn’t seem much like a formal study but just part of our everyday routine to notice the temperature, the clouds, the forecast.
Reading Angie’s entry for the up-coming blog carnival, I noticed that her son had cut the Weather Study Grid into squares to adhere into his journal. I love this idea! So thanks to Angie’s family I have a cool new way to record the grid study in my nature journal.
It seemed like such a natural way to customize my nature journal page. Once I had the squares cut out, I had the idea to print a few of my weather related images from the month in wallet-sized photos and then add those to my page.
After that, I added a few more of my thoughts about our weather study and voila! This is a perfect nature journal entry for this part of our weather study. Using these simple steps you end up with a journal page that anyone can make!
You can read more about this week’s weather nature study challenge here: Weather Grid and Weather Sounds. Don’t miss the free printable in that entry to record you personal weather words. You can get the weather grid by subscribing to this blog (box on the sidebar) and then in the next entry in your email box (or Google Reader) there will be a download link. The download link will be available until the end of December 2012.
Grab your own GBBC button and makes plans to participate in the bird fun!
“Come, little leaves,” said the wind one day,
“Come over the meadows with me, and play;
Put on your dresses of red and gold;
Summer is gone, and the days grow cold”
-from Songs of Autumn
I love Google Books…you can find so many wonderful books that are in the public domain to use in your homeschooling and nature study. I have had one ebook downloaded and on my desktop just waiting to use with our nature journals…and to share with you.
Nature in Verse by Mary Lovejoy is a whole year’s worth of poetry organized by seasons. Whether you read these aloud or use them as copy work in your nature journals, this downloadable ebook is a gem.
Poetry is another way to use the words you find as you spend your time outdoors. Not everyone likes to take a stab at poetry but if it is your interest or you are a linguistic learner (or your child is a linguistic learner), it is fun to listen to poetry and to play with words. See last week’s challenge for more ideas on using poetry in your nature journal.
We attempted to write some poems for our nature journal but it just didn’t happen this week. We did have fun manipulating words and it was sort of a silly time for the two of us…I cherish those times with my son just as much as any poem we could have written.
Just the act of slowing down and gathering words, giving our children more words to describe their outdoor experiences, and then taking time to share word pictures is a gift they will carry with them into their adulthood.
“The habit of storing mental images can’t be overrated. It can comfort us and refresh us. Even in our busiest times, we can stop and take a mini-vacation in our own piece of nature to be refreshed and gladdened by ‘the silence and calm of things that can’t speak or feel.’…..anyone who tries hard to really see can have it, and parents can train their children to do this.” Charlotte Mason, volume 1 page 50
Sometimes I just like to record words that come to mind and after they are written in my nature journal they end up sounding like poetry…free form style. Some people collect items for a nature table and some of us like to collect images and words to remember an experience.
This week we found some thistles during a walk with the Kona dog. They always look so pretty but I know that if I touch them they are rather dry, hard, and the thorns will give a good poke. We took some photos and then I drew some autumn thistles in my nature journal along with some words. My words record the experience of seeing some goldfinches hanging upside down to glean some seeds from the thistles. How do they do that without getting stuck by the thorns? They seemed very happy and content as they enjoyed the thistle seed meal.
So whether you actually write a poem or just play with words in your journal, I encourage you to give it a try. Start with a simple sketch and then perhaps a word or two to express your feelings about the subject. Remember that a journal is a personal expression for you and your child….no need for perfection.
“As soon as a child is old enough, he should keep his own nature notebook for his enjoyment. Every day’s walk will give something interesting to add–three squirrels playing in a tree, a blue jay flying across a field, a caterpillar crawling up a bush, a snail eating a cabbage leaf, a spider suddenly dropping from a thread to the ground, where he found ivy and how it was growing and what plants were growing with it, and how ivy manages to climb.” Charlotte Mason in Modern English, volume 1 page 54
I am submitting this entry to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival and if you have any entries you would like to submit, you can send them to this email address: charlottemasonblogs@gmail.com. The official blog carnival site is not working so you will need to send them directly to this email.
Now that one complete challenge each month is to use the grid study…we are making better use of it as we go about our weekly outdoor time. This week we had tennis plans with some friends at the park and we combined this with some time observing the oak trees that surround the courts.
I brought our tree field guide, our journal supplies, and the tree grid to help us glean more from our observations. There is a picnic bench right under the great big oak that you see in the top image. It is very different from the other oak we observed last week in our backyard. This one has a bunch of large trunks coming up from one spot and reaching out to make a crown.
These acorns are much larger than the ones we have on the California Black Oak tree in our yard. We also noticed that there are two growing together, opposite each other. This was a clue to the identify of the type of oak once we pulled out our field guide.
Here is a photo of the trunk with the bark and woodpecker holes. Which reminds me that I need to add the woodpeckers we saw to our bird list for October. We keep a running list each month of the birds we see and now that we have three year’s worth of data it is interesting to compare.
Under the main tree we saw this new oak sprouting….which technically isn’t part of the tree but we thought it was interesting. Looking at the image now it also shows the dry, brown leaves of this oak tree.
My tree pages using the tree grid and bookmark from the October Newsletter. (Amazon link to journal below)
So then we pulled out our tree field guide (A Field Guide to Western Trees-Peterson Field Guides) and tried to determine just what particular oak we were enjoying at the park on a glorious October afternoon. Turns out it is an Interior Live Oak. We were interested in the fact that the leaves can either be smooth (like ours) or they can be “sharp-toothed”.
So for my nature journal pages for our tree study, I am using the Tree Grid and bookmark from the newsletter, my tree poetry from last Friday’s Using Your Words challenge, and then I will add some additional observations and maybe an image I print our from our photos.
We still have some tasks left from the Tree Study Grid to complete but there is plenty of time in the month to work on them. We have had some debate about which tree is “closest to our house”….it might even mean getting out a measuring tape to have an official closest tree.
I have a nature study group trip this week and I have been gathering some things to take for all of us.
I thought you might like to see what I pack for our group…nothing too exciting.
Colored pencils and Number 2 pencils with erasers
Scissors (for cutting the grids)
Tape
Pencil sharpener (can’t see it in the photo)
Assorted field guides (which I put in my daypack)
A couple of magnifying tools
Clipboards with the study grid (we are going to work on insects on this trip)
Even though we are going to be working on insects, I decided to bring in a few other field guides. We have quite a few lizards right now and I know some of the boys are going to want to chase those. I also always bring a bird field guide since that is one that we always seem to need.
I have gleaned some wonderful ideas from all of you as I watch you work with your grid studies….so many ways to use this simple idea. I hope that showing you a glimpse into our tree grid study will encourage you to give it a try this month or any other month you feel like studying trees.
Outdoor Hour Challenge:
Ready for a simple nature study challenge this week? Let’s use Challenge #2 Using Your Words to enjoy our outdoor time as we notice trees in our own backyard and neighborhood. Spend your fifteen minutes observing a tree up close and then follow up with some words. Your children can share their special words orally and then write them down if they wish.
Poetry and Nature Study Activity:
This week the challenge is to record your special words about trees in poem form for your nature journal.
Tree Poetry:Use this notebook page to record the words from your outdoor time. Choose one or more of the suggestions to get you started with your very own poem.
Getting Started Suggestion:
This week’s challenge comes directly from Challenge #2 Using Your Words. If you own the ebook, then you have a custom notebook page you can print to use in your nature notebook.
Completing a nature journal and then looking back over all the finished pages gives me such a sense of contentment.
The journal is built page by page with thoughts and information from my outdoor time, each entry personalized and precious.
The trouble is that I use generic sketchbooks for my nature journal and the covers are not all that attractive. This is my new journal and it doesn’t inspire much creativity.
How to Make a Personalized Nature Journal Cover with Watercolors
1. Take watercolor paper and cut it to cover the front of the journal.
2. Watercolor the paper, let it dry, and then adhere it to the front cover with double backed tape or glue.
Tip: I ended up using both tape and glue and then wrapping rubber bands around it until it dried.
3. Paint a title or other embellishments onto a separate sheet of watercolor paper and then let them dry.
4. Cut around the embellishments and adhere with tape or glue to the water colored cover.
Here is one last view of my very full nature journal. Look at all those memories filling it up!
I think the last step for me before I put this up on the shelf with all my other nature journals is to tie a ribbon around it just to keep it all together and to look pretty.
This is a perfect project for a warm summer’s afternoon when you feel like playing with watercolors.
I would love to see your covers…send me a link in an email!
I really like to play with watercolors in my nature journal…it is a wonderful way to brighten up a rather ordinary idea for a journal page.
I try to periodically record random thoughts and ideas in my nature journal….keeping a record of what activities we have been doing or things we have observed that don’t necessarily merit a whole journal page. Lists are an easy nature journal technique and even the most beginning of journalers can do a list.
So combining both ideas into this Watercolor Block Nature Journal suggestion seemed the perfect blend of color and simplicity.
Start by using your favorite watercolors. When I want to be super fast, I pull out my Prang Semi-Moist Watercolors. I also recommend using a larger flat brush which makes it easy to make big splotches of color.
Freehand some color blocks using colors to match your particular season or subject. Make some blocks tall and some wide. You don’t have to put as many blocks as I did if you want to make it even simpler or if you are doing this activity with a young child.
Let the page dry and then record your thoughts. I use Prismacolor Markers in my nature journal (I wrote a review of these markers HERE). I made sure to use one of the color blocks for the month and year. You could even sketch something in one of the blocks if you want to since this is your nature journal. I love to do make some doodle-style frames for my color blocks with swirls, dots, and dashes. Be creative and have some fun!
Note:
If you are reading this in a reader or an email, the Amazon links for the watercolors and Prismacolor Markers may not show below. You will need to click over to the blog to see which ones I use.
The spring world just begs to be sketched in our nature journals. The colors of the flowers as they blossom in the warming sun just cry out to us to observe them closer, to see their intricate details. As I gather a few of our early spring flowers to record in my nature journal, I am struck the with the varying shades of green that appear in the leaves of these springtime beauties.
Each stem and leaf is a different shade of green, or they are even a mixture of greens that need our careful scrutiny if we are going to get them just right in our journal. Some leaves are olive green, some are emerald green, and some are dark green. I invite you to look at your garden greens and see if you don’t notice it too.
I count myself a very careful observer of nature. I spend lots of time in my garden enjoying the many varieties of plants, bushes, and trees, but I didn’t even notice the reddish edges on this leaf until I brought it inside to sketch into my nature journal. This illustrates the value of slowing down and taking the time to keep a nature journal…you are blessed with better powers of observation.
This is true in adults and also in children. We can help train our children to have better observation skills in all areas of their life if we use nature journaling as a skill-building tool.
Out of sheer self-indulgence I decided to make a couple pages in my journal with all the different greens I have in my colored pencil collection. I made small little sample splotches of color for each of the greens in my watercolor pencil and regular colored pencil sets. I labeled each color patch with the name on the pencil or in some cases the number on the pencil. This way I can use it as a reference whenever I need to find just the right green for a sketch. The color palette of spring is very different than that of autumn or winter.
Note to self: I think I have a lot of shades of green pencils…no need for any more.
Now I am ready to make some nature journal entries!
You may be interested in seeing my fall color palette. I did a similar nature journal entry last fall with my fall colors nature journal.
You may wish to include this nature journal idea as part of your Spring Wildflowers study.
When we started our front yard remodel in 2010 I had no idea how much joy this space was going to bring to our lives. Each week it is a new palette of colors. The plants are really filling in this spring and new critters are moving in as well. Here are some glimpses into our garden and then a nature journal entry tutorial for you to give a try.
Butterfly bushes, Yarrow, and Lavender – April 2012
Lavender is the main blooming plant on display right now. The bees love it and so do we!
Along with the lavender is the forsythia, which contrasts so well with the lavender.
The poppies are just beginning to show signs of flower buds and they are just waiting to tip their “hats” and show their blazing orange colors.
This is something new this week….a critter is making a home under my big rock! They have pulled the landscape material back and exposed a little space to hide in right there alongside my front path. I wonder who it is?
I still really enjoy watching our butterfly “fly” around in the breeze. It adds a little bit of whimsy to our front yard.
Nature Journal Tutorial- Window Frame
This project may at first appear to be a little complicated but I encourage you to give it a try. The finished project is so fun to look at and remember your nature time.
Supplies:
Nature Journal
Pen
Watercolor pencils and brush
Begin by sketching a frame that includes both pages in your nature journal.
Sketch your subject. I chose this butterfly bush sample to sketch. Just for fun I made it extend outside the frame.
Now you can add water to your sketch, a title, and a little detail sketch if you wish. Add some fun lettering along the one side…add a date (which I did after taking this photo) and you are finished.
When I released the very first Outdoor Hour Challenge ebook, there was also a set of free notebook pages that was offered by my friend Tina Joyce. Since then the files were somehow deleted from Lulu.com and it was not until this week that I was able to get them uploaded to my file share site.
Thanks so much Tina.
You should now be able to download each page for free.
Nature study in winter can be a challenge. February is always a hard month to get through as we anticipate the coming spring. My free printable is all about learning age-appropriate activities for nature study with a special focus on advanced study. I show you how to adapt nature study to all ages of children and to get the most out of your time outside. I hope it encourages everyone from beginners to experienced nature study families.
I have teamed up with five other bloggers to bring you some mid-winter encouragement to get outdoors for some refreshing nature study. Each of us has put together a free printable download for your family. We are encouraging you to visit each blog and take advantage of the opportunity to get a variety of stimulating ideas to use in your family.
No strings attached…just free downloads. If you feel encouraged, please leave us a comment, give us a Facebook like, share on Twitter, or pin this post on Pinterest. We appreciate your help in spreading the word about our Nature in Your Notebook Printables Link-Up.
You are invited to subscribe to my blog and receive my free monthly nature study newsletter too!
Here are my partners…a great group of women bloggers!
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