This week we are going to be on the lookout for interesting tree silhouettes in our own yard and neighbourhood. Here is the link to the previous challenge: Winter Wednesday – Tree Silhouettes
In this challenge, be sure to look for the list of four ideas to use when completing this challenge with your children. You can also work on your Winter Tree Study and your Four Seasons Tree Study.
Homeschool Nature Study: Outdoor Hour Challenge
Special Activity: My Tree is a Living World This may be a great week to revisit this activity: My Tree is a Living World
You might also like to see how Tricia’s family enjoyed this winter tree silhouettes challenge. They did a blind contour drawing. They also noticed how paying attention to winter tree silhouettes made them notice the backyard birds!
Getting Started With The Outdoor Hour Challenge In Your Homeschool
Getting Started Suggestion: If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #4.Use the ideas in the challenge to start a focused study of trees with your children. Use the accompanying notebook page to record your outdoor time and your focus area.
If you do not own the Getting Started in the Outdoor Hour Challenges guide then hop on over to our shop and grab your free copy! We would love to have you join our membership for full access to the new year’s nature study plans as well as access to the curriculum with detailed lesson plans for each weekly challenge.
Join Our Homeschool Nature Study Membership for Helpful Tips Year Round
Connect With Our Homeschool Community On Social Media
Did you enjoy this Outdoor Hour Challenge? Be sure to tag us on Instagram @outdoorhourchallenge and use the hashtag #outdoorhourchallenge so we can see and comment!
In addition to this winter tree silhouette challenge, our nature study homeschool members enjoy so much more! Membership includes three sets of Winter Handbook of Nature Study curriculum, additional nature study resources and ideas plus a calendar FULL of easy, daily nature study prompts. This Week’s Outdoor Hour Challenge comes from:
Outdoor Hour Challenge Winter Tree Silhouettes
Did you enjoy this Outdoor Hour Challenge Winter Tree Silhouettes? Be sure to tag @outdoorhourchallenge on Instagram and use the hashtag #outdoorhourchallenge so we can see and comment!
There are so many simple ways to study nature in your homeschool this winter! From nature walks to indoor studies, use this guide as a starting point for making memories together.
Simple Ways to Study Nature in Your Homeschool This Winter
Getting outside for a walk on the first day of winter may be one of the most refreshing activities you could do with your children. The temperatures drop and we huddle inside more and more, especially on the shortest day of the year!
“The most obvious work of nature has been the preparation for winter. A wide range of observation should be used to impress the truth: the trees and shrubs have lost their leaves, and stored the provisions for spring in the buds and branches; many softer plants die down to the ground, storing the food in roots, others in bulbs, and still others in tubers. The question may be asked for each plant that comes up for observation – How did it get ready for winter?”
1. Take a walk this week and spend a few minutes looking at the plants in your yard and neighborhood. Look for bushes and trees without leaves, stopping to note that these plants are many times not dead but just waiting for spring to begin a new growth cycle. Don’t go into too much detail but allow time for quiet observation.
2. After your outdoor time, spend a few minutes discussing how plants get ready for winter. You can bring out the following points:
Some plants (Annuals) have seeds that survive the winter even when the plant does not.
Other plants (Perennials) have roots that survive the winter and start to grow again in the spring.
Deciduous trees shed their leaves, conserve food, and have buds that are waiting until spring to open and grow.
3. Make a nature journal entry recording anything of interest from your outdoor time.
Alternately, make plans to get outside for a brisk nature walk and then to follow up with a nature journal page recording all of the interesting things you found while outside.
Animals in Winter Homeschool Nature Study
“The same thought should be applied to the animals. Most of the birds have gone south because of the cold, and also because their food is gone; the frogs, turtles, and toads are going to sleep all winter down in the mud or earth below the frost; the caterpillars are waiting in their cocoons for the warm spring sunshine; most of the other insects have laid their eggs for the next season, while a few of them have crawled into warm places to wait; the squirrels have gathered a store of nuts, and will soon be asleep in the old tree-trunks; the cats dogs, horses, and cows have grown a fresh coat of hair and fur. Nothing is forgotten; each is ready in its own best way.”
This will be another easy week of nature study that will blend easily with other Outdoor Hour Challenges. Take the opportunity to spend some time outdoors noticing the way that animals prepare for winter. Make this one an investigation!
You might prepare with a little discussion about the various animals and birds that live in your local area. Some ideas to get you started:
migrating or visiting birds
squirrels gathering nuts
insects in cocoons
changes in color of various animals as they prepare for the white of the snow time
Bundle up and spend fifteen minutes outdoors enjoying the December world. A good nature walk is pleasurable for everyone and allows you and your children to appreciate God’s beautiful creation. The best times I can remember with my children are the times we just took it slow and easy, looking for the little things that most people pass by.
Look for signs of animals and think about ways they prepare for winter. You can also make bird and animal observations, noting their behavior. How are they staying warm? finding food? sheltering from the weather?
Encourage everyone to use all of their senses on this walk:
Did they see something colorful or unusual?
How does the air feel on your skin?
Is there a particular fragrance to the air?
Can you listen carefully for a minute or two to distinguish any particular sounds?
Another idea is to ask your children to find differences in the landscape, comparing your neighborhood habitat on this winter day to what they remember about the first day of summer. This is a little harder and you may need to help them get started with a few of your own observations.
More Outdoor Hour Challenge Ideas:
Turn over a rock and see what’s underneath.
Look up in the branches of the trees and see if you can find any birds or other critters.
Sit quietly by the edge of a pond or stream and see what comes along.
Breathe the air and enjoy the day.
Follow Up Indoor Winter Nature Study Activities:
After your outdoor time allow time for a nature journal entry. Use the notebook page or the journal idea from the December Newsletter to record your observations of anything that your child finds interesting. I also have a December World Notebook Page included Homechool Nature Study Membership or you can use one of the journaling pages included in the free membership sample, below.
Maybe this week you could use a different art medium in your journal…many of us get stuck in a rut. Offer colored pencils, thin markers, watercolors, or pastels.
You could also try offering modeling clay as an alternative to drawing the subject this week and then take a photo of the finished product to include in the nature journal.
In Homeschool Nature Study membership, each challenge gives you step by step instructions to get started with simple weekly nature study ideas…even in the middle of winter! This may just be what your homeschool week needs to get you through the cold winter days of January, February, and March.
Each challenge is written for you to complete in your own neighborhood or backyard and you can adapt each challenge to fit your local area with suggestions I offer with each topic. Don’t be discouraged if you look at the list of topics and think you don’t have that particular subject close at hand. I will guide you through finding a replacement to still offer you a weekly dose of nature study.
The winter homeschool nature study challenges were written for families with children of all ages. In addition to the regular challenge, I have bumped up the nature study for older or more experienced children, complete with their own set of notebooking pages. You will be able to use these studies with your whole family and pull it out from year to year and have a nature study resource for all levels.
Outdoor Hour Challenges for Winter – Bring the Handbook of Nature Study to Life in Your Homeschool!
Membership includes all you need for using the Handbook of Nature Study and enjoying learning together as a family. See a sample membership Winter Homeschool Nature Study by signing up with the form, below.
Membership includes all of this plus MORE!
notebook pages and coloring pages
Upper Level notebook pages for advanced or experienced students
Charlotte Mason style exam questions
Complete list of supplies needed
Detailed instructions for each challenge, including links and printables
Nature journal suggestions
Alternate ideas to adapt the challenges to your local area
Members also enjoy:
Bird in Snow video art lesson
First Day of Winter Walk and Observations Page
December World Notebook Page
Winter Weather Observations Journal Page
Window Observations Journal Page
December Words and Poem Journal Page
Special Outdoor Hour Challenges
Snow Study!
Red and Green Outdoor Hour Challenge
Moon and Moon Names
Study on Magnets and the Compass
And more challenges from all of the courses pictured above!
Get Your Free Sample Of Membership: Winter Homeschool Nature Study Download
Most importantly, when you get outside for your winter homeschool nature study, take along a good attitude and leave yourself open to whatever the experience brings. Allow your children to direct you to things they find interesting and then share in their excitement.
Here are 100+ ideas to use in creating your backyard habitat! This list is for all of us to use in creating a backyard habitat designed to attract birds, bees, and butterflies. I’ve heard from so many of my readers that they think their backyard space is boring or nothing out of the ordinary.
So this week, I’m going to challenge you all to get outside and prove yourselves wrong!
100+ Ideas To Use In Creating Your Backyard Habitat: Attract Birds, Bees and Butterflies
Every space has something to observe, and the list below will help you start thinking differently about whatever your outdoor space is currently looking like at the beginning of spring.
As part of the process in creating a backyard habitat, the first step is to make an assessment of what you already have and then decide how you can improve it. Challenge your children to check off as many things as they can from the list below.
Last year’s garden was filled with lots of living things.
Flowers (garden or in a pot): petals, pollen, roots, leaves, stem, fragrance, shapes, colors, seeds
We need to train our eyes and hearts to be open to the opportunities that arise in our everyday travels.
Wildlife Habitat Plan with 25 More Ideas – With Requirements For Certified Wildlife Habit!
Homeschool Nature Study Members can enjoy this Wildlife Habitat Plan (with Requirements for a Certified Wildlife Habitat!) with prompts for 25 more ideas for your backyard habitat!
What would you add to the list?
More Resources For Homeschool Nature Study
Enjoy these ideas for even more inspiration:
How to Make Your Backyard a Natural Habitat for Wildlife – Here are some simple ways you can make your backyard a natural habitat for wildlife. You will love having the opportunity to have nature come to you in your very own backyard. Involve your whole family in the project and spend some time outdoors!
Attracting Birds to Your Yard – Here you will find all sorts of ideas for attracting birds to your yard for homeschool nature study and birdwatching.
Homemade Suet Recipe for Your Backyard Birds – Enjoy a homemade suet recipe and see how our homeschool family studied and learned about which type of food attracts a variety of backyard birds!
Nature Study Calendar included in Membership!
For even more homeschool nature study ideas, join us in Homeschool Nature Study membership! You’ll receive new ideas each and every week that require little or no prep – all bringing the Handbook of Nature Study to life in your homeschool!
Do you wonder what animals, birds and insects do in the winter? This hibernation winter nature study helps answer those questions and features a hibernating or migrating printable!
Mammals in general tend to be shy of humans. In the winter, it is even more difficult to observe mammals. Outdoor Hour Challenge founder, Barb McCoy, suggests the following:
1. Read chapter nine in Discover Nature in Winter. The chapter suggests looking for signs of mammals instead like tracks and scat. Highlight ideas for your family to try this week while you are outdoors and looking for mammals.
2. Our family is going to review the chart showing different animal tracks on page 182 and 183. We might try sketching some of the tracks into our nature journal as a reference for future outdoor time. In our area, we often come across animal scat as we hike and we are going to familiarize ourselves with the various kinds of scat by studying the illustrations in this chapter.
For families wanting to participate that do not have the Discover Winter in Nature book, I will list a few simple nature study ideas that you can try with your family.
Keep a record of animal tracks you have observed in the snow or mud. Record your findings in your nature journal along with a drawing, the date, the weather, the time of day, and the type of animal if you have identified it at this time.
Compare a dog’s and a cat’s footprints in the snow or mud.
Research an animal that hibernates and record what you learn in your nature notebook. You can also sketch your animal and what its tracks look like.
More Winter Activities for Your Homeschool
There are still so many nature studies to enjoy in winter!
A fun Hibernating or Migrating sorting study and printable by Stef Layton!
…Most of the birds have gone south because of the cold, and also because their food is gone; the frogs, turtles, and toads are going to sleep all winter down in the mud or earth below the frost; the caterpillars are waiting in their cocoons for the warm spring sunshine; most of the other insects have laid their eggs for the next season, while a few of them have crawled into warm places to wait; the squirrels have gathered a store of nuts, and will soon be asleep in the old tree-trunks; the cats dogs, horses, and cows have grown a fresh coat of hair and fur. Nothing is forgotten; each is ready in its own best way.”Nature Study by Months
America’s Prairies and Grasslands Resource is a great book for your Nature Study. Learn about the Great Plains, animals, and free worksheets.
If you live in the prairies of North America or are interested in learning more about this rich and valuable habitat, you can read all about them in America’s Prairies and Grasslands-A Guide to Plants and Animalsby Marianne D. Wallace. This book describes the unique habitat with words and beautiful pictures.
Where are America’s prairies and grasslands?
In the United States you will find prairies and grasslands in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. And the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan make up the Great Plains.
Using America’s Prairies and Grasslands in Your Nature Study Activities
I love the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock but she wrote the book featuring plants and animals of her local habitat in upstate New York. Many of us live in very different habitats and to supplement our nature study we draw on other resources that discuss plants and animals we see in our neighborhoods.
America’s Prairies and Grasslands will appeal to many families because it helps us look deeper into things we see every day and maybe don’t appreciate.
America’s Prairies and Grasslands Overview
This book uses maps to show where different prairies and grasslands are located in the United States. Visual spatial learners will benefit by looking at the maps or even recreating them in their nature journals. When I was homeschooling my boys, I always appreciated the opportunities to draw connections between different academic subjects and using geography alongside your nature study will make it more meaningful.
A great way to use this book is to go through each of the six major grasslands one at a time: tallgrass prairie, mixed-grass prairie, shortgrass prairie, Palous prairie, California Valley grassland, and semi-desert grassland.
For each of the six grasslands, you can do the following steps.
Read the narrative.
Look at the map.
Look at the two page colored illustration.
Pick a plant or animal to learn more about using information in the back of the book, your own nature library, or online resources.
Wrap up your study with a nature journal page.
Take a week for each grassland or if you live in a particular grassland, why not stretch it to an entire school year by taking a plant or animal each week? Use the index in the back of the book to see just how many topics you find of interest to your family. Check the Homeschool Nature Study websiteusing the tabs at the top to find any Outdoor Hour Challenges for selected topics to use alongside the America’s Prairies and Grasslands book.
Learning About The Animals of the Great Plains
The Great Plains is home to numerous interesting animals including: bison, black-footed ferrets, pronghorn, grouse, prairie dogs, elk, big horn sheep, bears, turkeys, and mountain lions – just to name a few!
Learn About Other Habitats and Biomes
Use these resources to learn about the various habitats and biomes!
Homeschool Nature Study Members have unlimited access to the printable library. You can download the Habitats and Comparing Habitats worksheets to learn about other habitats around the world.
Seashore Activities and Worksheets – A trip to the beach can be a fun family time experience. When you add a few purposeful seashore observations, the trip can transform into beautiful long lasting memories.
Our High Desert course is included in membership and gives you a deep dive into the animals, plants and the vast variety of this habitat. It also includes advanced studies options for high school students. Here are some topics included:
Bitterbrush
Sagebrush
Greater sage
Grouse
Succulents
Mountain Lion
Coyote
Pocket Gopher
Bristlecone Pine
Elk
Turkey Vulture
Juniper
Snowberry
Golden Mantled ground squirrel
River Otter
Join the Homeschool Nature Study Membership
There are so many benefits to joining. You will access our full range of curriculum, our interactive learning calendar as well as a homeschool nature study challenge for each week!
Autumn is a wonderful time of year for discovery, picnics, and tree studies! We created an Autumn Willow Tree Printable for you to enjoy before winter settles.
What is a Willow Tree?
Did you know there are more than 200 different species of willow trees? But all willows have a few things in common: abundant watery bark sap, which is heavily charged with salicylic acid, soft, usually pliant tough wood, slender branches, and large fibrous often stoloniferous roots – which means they grow along the ground.
Willow wood is used to make baskets, furniture, toys, and fishing nets. The wood is too soft for lumber, but it is popular for wickerwork. In ancient times, people chewed willow bark to treat fevers and rheumatic pains. The bark contains salicylic acid, which is the basis for modern aspirin.
Autumn Willow Nature Study and Printable for Members
If you do not live near Willow Trees, print the Under the Fallen Leaves worksheet.
Autumn Willow Tree notebooking page: Use this page to record your autumn willow observations. This can be the start of a year long/four seasons study of willows for your family. I will be reminding you each season to make some notes about your willow tree.
Under the Fallen Leaves notebooking page: Take a few minutes to look under the leaves in your yard or a near-by park. What do you see there? Create a sketch and describe what you saw, felt, and smelled during your outdoor time.
There are so many benefits to joining. You will access our full range of curriculum, our interactive learning calendar as well as a brand new homeschool nature study challenge post each week!
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.
Cattails 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!
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.
It’s a great time to join Homeschool Nature Study! We offer a multitude of science activities, hands-on learning ideas, seasonal nature studies, crafts, free resources for all ages – join the #outdoorhourchallenge community and enhance your homeschool science lessons!
Our family loves going on a good mushroom hunt! You can read in the Handbook of Nature Study about this fascinating nature study topic and then set off on your own fungi hunt. Remember to create a sense of adventure as you set out to look for mushrooms, building anticipation for finding even just one mushroom to observe.
Did you know, mushrooms are grown in all 50 states? The majority of commercial mushroom growers are located in Pennsylvania. 63% of all white mushrooms are grown in Pennsylvania. Mushrooms require less water than other crops which makes them “energy efficient”.
Tip for Finding Mushrooms
My original mushroom challenge suggested that you let your friends and family know that you are looking for mushrooms and they can let you know if they come across any in their travels. Some of our best mushroom studies came from tips I got from my dad who found several interesting species of mushrooms on his property.
Archive Outdoor Hour Challenge – Click the link above to see the mushroom study suggestions in the original challenge.
“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
More Facts About Mushrooms
Mushrooms are a good source of Vitamin E as well as protein.
Most children recognize the red cap mushroom with white spots in Super Mario, the Fly agaric. However this mushroom is not safe to eat. It is highly toxic.
Cook with Mushrooms
Bring the Autumn Mushroom Nature Study into your kitchen for a fun night of cooking! Try out different mushrooms from your farmer’s market or local grocery store. Mushrooms are great in spaghetti sauce, soups, scrambled eggs, and stir fry. Try adding them on hamburgers and pizza! This Whole Foods graphic is helpful if you’re not familiar with cooking mushrooms.
Watercolor Mushrooms
“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
Homeschool Nature Study Members can print the Mushroom Coloring Page from their dashboard.
Mushroom Nature Craft
Victoria shares, “It is time to brighten up our spirits as well as our gardens with these brightly coloured plant pot mushrooms. With only a handful of supplies you can create something to beautify either your outside or inside plant pots. So get outside, hunt down the perfect twigs and lets get crafting.”
This season plan some outdoor time to enjoy studying feathered creatures in your neighborhood. We have provided a Bird Feet Observation Worksheet to go along with your Autumn Bird Nature Study. Also you will learn more about woodpeckers. Take some time to follow the links in the archived challenge to view a variety of woodpeckers and determine which ones live in your neighborhood.
After your outdoor time, no matter which feathered friend you found to study, follow up with the Bird Nature Study notebook page found in the Autumn Notebook Bundle.
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.
Homeschool Natures Study Members can download the Bird Feet Observations Worksheet and the Autumn Bundle which includes many pages to incorporate fall learning all season!
Watch Live Bird Cams
If you live in a city or find it hard to observe birds, try watching live cams. Cornell Lab offers a great variety of Live Bird Cams! From ospreys, owls, condors, hawks, to regular videos at bird feeders, you can watch many different types of birds. The National Audubon Society also offers free live cams, however you do watch them on YouTube.
Paint Autumn Birds
We love when Nana paints birds! You can paint these wonderful creatures to continue your Autumn Bird Study! Be sure to read: Fall Bird Study for Your Homeschool.
Even More Bird Nature Study Opportunities!
Finding more time to admire the avians? We have a variety of helpful resources to add to your bird study. Click on one of the images below.
Tree squirrels are some of the most entertaining critters to inhabit our neighborhoods. This Outdoor Hour Challenge will help you and your little squirrel hunters observe local squirrels more closely as you note their behavior and features. Squirrels are not shy so you should be able to spot them and make some observations with ease. Enjoy this Squirrel Nature Study by taking along a pair of binoculars to get a closer look!
Archive Outdoor Hour Challenge – Click the link above to take you to the original challenge.
“The squirrel’s legs are short because he is essentially a climber rather than a runner; the hips are very strong, which insures his power as a jumper, and his leaps are truly remarkable.”
“The squirrel has two pairs of gnawing teeth which are very long and strong, as in all rodents, and he needs to keep busy gnawing hard things with them, or they will grow so long that he cannot use them at all and will starve to death.”
“During the winter, the red squirrel does not remain at home except in the coldest weather, when he lies cozily with his tail wrapped around him like a fur neck-piece to keep him warm.”
Handbook of Nature Study, pages 234 and 235
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.
Squirrel Nature Study – Handbook of Nature Study Lesson #57
Homeschool Nature Study Membership
It’s a great time to join Homeschool Nature Study! We offer a multitude of science activities, hands-on learning ideas, seasonal nature studies, crafts, free resources for all ages – join the #outdoorhourchallenge community and enhance your homeschool science lessons!
By Barb McCoy, founder of the Outdoor Hour Challenges with The Handbook of Nature Study. Updated and new resources added byStef Layton.
