rocks Archives

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Barb — 5 Comments

Quartz Study – Rock Collecting Gone Crazy

Our quartz study has stretched on for weeks. We have had numerous rock collecting hikes and each time we come home we develop new questions to be answered. The supply of quartz in our area is seemingly endless. Once your eye starts to look for it…you see it everywhere.

Our family lives in the gold country of California. The gold rush started practically in our backyard. We drive by the American River every day…as the crow flies it is about 3 miles from our house. This area is full of old gold mines and many people still today make a living by mining and panning for gold (or using a sluice box). Where there is gold, there is quartz.

We collected milky quartz for the most part at the river, along with a variety of other “pretty” rocks. I have a special place for pretty rocks in my heart. It may be the hunting for them or the spotting of a particularly nice rock that keeps me coming back for more.

Mr. A shares my love of rocks and we enjoyed an afternoon this week at the river with the Kona dog. Kona likes sticks more than rocks so we occupied her with fetching sticks while we looked for something interesting along the rocky shore.

The sound of rushing water always seems to welcome a good thoughtful sit..even on an uncomfortable rock. This day we sat and enjoyed the warmth of the sun after a freezing morning. Our jackets were slipped off on the hike back to the car which was nice.

At home we started off with a magnifying lens, looking carefully at the surface of each rock. This can quite addictive once you get started and there really is a lot to see.

We noticed a colorful collection of sand on the surface of one rock and we had the bright idea to place it on a slide and look at it under the microscope.

We are still not sure if the shiny gold is actually gold or pyrite….probably pyrite flakes.

We placed a little sand on a microscope slide…our rocks all had small amounts clinging to the nooks and crannies.

Now this is where the study becomes even more interesting! We spent the next hour or so taking turns finding things on the slides to share with each other. It was like discovering a new dimension.

We now have a larger collection of quartz and pretty rocks, a growing understanding of what “sand” is after looking at it under the microscope, and an appreciation that we don’t know everything about everything. 🙂

Amazing world down there…who would have thought?

It is not too late to do your own study of quartz using the Outdoor Hour Challenge. You may be as amazed as we were.

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Barb — 2 Comments

OHC More Nature Study Book 2 – Quartz Study

“Quartz is the least destructible and is one of the most abundant materials in the crust of the earth as we know it. It is made up of two elements chemically united—the solid silicon and the gas oxygen.” Handbook of Nature Study

More Nature Study Book #2
Rock Study – Quartz Crystals
Inside Preparation Work:

Read pages 754-755 in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 213). This short lesson is packed with information and the lesson suggestions will give you some careful observation ideas.
If you can locate some quartz samples to have on hand, do some close up observations of quartz. Even little ones can describe with words their quartz sample. Compare quartz with some other rocks in your collection.
If you do not have samples, make sure to view the images of quartz with the additional links provided below.

Outdoor Hour Time:

If the weather allows, take your outdoor time in a place that has rocks to pick up and handle. Be on the lookout for quartz crystals. Do not be discouraged if you can’t find quartz in your neighborhood but take the opportunity to observe and describe any rocks you see.
Collect a few rocks to bring home and either start or add to your rock collection.

Follow-Up Activity:

After your Outdoor Hour time, take a few minutes to follow-up your outdoor time. Bring out your quartz samples and compare them to other rocks you may have collected. Set up a rock observation spot on your nature table. See the image above for ideas.
Give time for a nature journal entry or ebook users can complete the quartz notebooking page and/or the coloring page to follow up this study.
Advanced study: Research more about quartz on Geology.com. Use a printable Mineral Chart for additional information and identification. Learn the identifying marks of quartz. Record your information in your nature journal or a notebook page.

Additional Links:

Definitions: Crystal, Luster, Hardness, color, transparency/diaphaneity, and streak
YouTube: Smoky Quartz Part 1 and Part 2

You can see how our family completed this challenge here in this post:
Quartz Study – Rock Collecting Gone Crazy.

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Barb — 5 Comments

Perfect Winter Hike – Looking for Color

Just another day of perfect December hiking and taking in the challenge to find some color. Our winter nature study is shaping up to look more like fall….warm temperatures and dry, dry, dry. We looked at each other after lunch today and everyone was in agreement. We needed to be outside.

I quickly filled the backpack with water, snacks, and camera then we were out the door. The parking lot at the trailhead was about half full of vehicles and most of those were trucks with horse trailers, a few with bike racks. We opted to hike since the Kona dog wanted to take a swim at the river. It was that warm.

The trail starts off on a downward slope and if you look in the distance you can see our landmark “lollipop” tree (farthest hill with a single tree). We aim for that tree and know that the river is somewhere over there. It is an easy hike with several trail options. We took the Long Valley Trail down to the river and the South Fork Trail back up.

Along one section of the trail we observed lots and lots of goldfinches having a seed feast. Amazing yellow color in real life…our first real color of the hike. We also stopped to observe another little bird who sat on the cattails in the ditch. It was a new bird and we took the time to really look with the binoculars, noting shape, size, color, eye-stripe, beak shape, tail shape, and song. (We identified back at home as a Bewick’s Wren=new to our life list!)

The river was running high and we had the place to ourselves, except for some barn swallows swooping overhead and a couple of fellow travelers on horses. This is a gorgeous section of the river all lined with oaks in the winter sunshine.

Kona took a swim right off the bat and I decided to rest on the rock overlooking the river. She splashed and retrieved sticks for the next half hour. One man in a canoe and one woman in a kayak went past. I was happy to be dry up on my rock but I waved a friendly wave as they floated past.

I soaked in the sun, watching the water rush by, and contemplated the beauty.

I was grateful. My heart felt refreshed or maybe just cleansed of the everyday.

The view from my rock spot was enjoyable and it is easy to get lost in your thoughts as the water rushes by you. So much power and so much potential…wondering where the water will end up at the end of its river journey. I even thought for a few minutes about the rocks just under the surface of the water, the rocks the kayaker succeeded in navigating around on her trip down the river. We all need to know where the rocks are.

Here is my favorite image of the day showing the winter color of my world. The shore of the river is always changing but these multi-colored rocks keep the river from eroding the banks away except in the highest storm waters. What are your favorite colors found in the rocks? The green? The pinkish orange? The speckled? The white? I put one in my pocket and now it is sitting on my shelf as a reminder of my winter color walk afternoon to the river.

We had to drag Kona away from her beloved stick fetching and started back up the hill towards home. Along the way we watched two birds in flight over the rolling hills…stopping to hover over some prey. We used the binoculars but were unable to really identify this second new bird of the day. We noted behavior, wing shape, size, color. At home we identified this new bird as the White Tailed Kite. How exciting is that?

It was a very good day.

My December nature journal entry in progress…notes and things I want to remember about this month….to be continued as the month rolls along.

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Barb — 8 Comments

Hiking On A Winter Day – California Style

We had the opportunity to hike down at the river, sunny skies and warmer temperatures were just too good to pass up. The Kona dog went swimming and brought us a bunch of sticks to throw for her to fetch. She was one happy dog!

This sign is for rafters, not hikers. There are stretches of the river that flow through “private” areas and you are not supposed to be loud and rowdy there but then when you hit public lands you can have water fights and swim and holler as much as you want. There were no rafters on the river this time but in the summer there is raft after raft of water lovers floating down this section of the river.

Hiking still means climbing on things for my teenage boys. This time it was an old oak tree lying on its side. It is a sad sight to see one of these old oaks giving in to the elements. I know it is home to creatures and soon it will melt into the floor of the woods but it still makes me sad.

Down at the river the boys made Andy Goldworthy style rock piles again but in the end my rock sculpture was the best…..

What do you think? At least it didn’t fall over before I could take a photo….just friendly family competition/fun. It is not as easy at it looks to stack rocks, big and small, into something that looks nice.

Hiking back up from the river I spotted this little mushroom growing in the moss on the side of a tree.

Here is another one that we thought was interesting. My boys call me the Fungus Lady for a reason. 🙂

Seriously, our part of the world is not a winter wonderland but it can get cold. I decided that it is pleasantly warm enough afternoons that it makes our cold winter mornings bearable. I have never lived anywhere else and I just don’t know how I would cope with really long, snowy winters. We have days at a time where it is cold and we get a few inches of snow but it melts and the sun comes out and we see green. Our green season is really from about this time of the year until the end of May…..they our state turns “golden”. I like “golden”.

Shhhh…don’t tell anyone. Barb is admitting that she doesn’t care for winter as much as summer.

154 days until the first day of summer but I’m not counting.

I am going to have to postpone our winter snow study until we actually get some snow. We are working on our winter tree study though so stay tuned for that this week. We also took another fabulous hike to a different part of the river today…I know….we are spoiled but loving it.

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Barb — 2 Comments

Miscellaneous Nature Study Using The Outdoor Hour Challenges

NOTE: If the challenge is included an ebook, it is noted directly after the challenge. If you have an Ultimate Membership, you will be able to pull up the ebook and print any notebook pages, coloring pages, or other printables for your nature study.

The links above are Amazon affiliate links to resources I own and love.

Mushroom, Lichen, Moss, Fern Challenges
Bracket Fungi -Autumn Nature Study Continues
Ferns – More Nature Study Spring
Field Horsetail – Autumn 2015
Hedgehog Fungi – Autumn 2015
Moss and Lichen
Moss Observation Notebook Page
Molds, Puffballs, Morels
Mushrooms -Autumn ebook
Extraordinary in the Ordinary – Mushrooms
Mushroom Cap Shapes Notebook Page
Scarlet Cup -Winter Nature Study Continues
Stinkhorn Nature Study -Autumn Nature Study Continues
Parts of a Mushroom Notebook Page

Newsletters With a Mushroom, Lichen, Moss, or Fern Theme (If you have a membership, you have access to all archived newsletters.)

March 2013 – Mushroom, Lichen, and Moss study grid printable. Mushroom coloring page. Types of lichen.
March 2016 – Lichen and moss nature study ideas. Lichen Study notebook page. Lichen vocabulary.
November 2016 – Mushroom Cap notebook page. Nature study ideas for fungi.

Weather Challenges
Autumn Weather – Autumn ebook
Autumn Weather Challenge #1
Autumn – Signs of Autumn
Cloud Observations
Fall Seasonal Weather Challenge -with free printable notebook page
Fall Color Walk – More Nature Study Autumn
Seasonal Weather with Four Seasons Notebook Pages
Snow– Winter Wednesday
Spring Splendor Walk – More Nature Study Spring
Spring Weather – Spring ebook
Summer Weather – More Nature Study Summer
Weather Record Chart – printable notebook page
Weather Study with Weather Sounds Printable Notebook Page
Weather Walk – Four Seasons free printable notebook page
Winter Weather -Winter ebook
Winter Wonder Weather– More Nature Study Winter

Seasonal Challenges
December World-free printable notebook page
November World– Autumn ebook
The Winter World

Newsletters With a Weather Theme (If you have a membership, you have access to all archived newsletters.)

December 2011 – Know Your Own Backyard in December notebook page. December World study grid.
January 2012 – January World study grid.
February 2012 – Know Your Own Backyard in February notebook page.
March 2012 – Know Your Own Backyard in Early Spring notebook page. Early Spring study grid.
April 2013 – April study grid.
May 2013 – May study grid.
July 2012 – Beat the Heat study grid. Know Your Own Backyard When Its Hot notebook page.
December 2012 – Weather study ideas. Weather nature table ideas. My Weather notebook page.
September 2013 – Fall Fun grid study. Fall Time Field Trip notebook page.
November 2013 – Weather Observation study grid.
January 2014 – Winter Fun study grid.
February 2014 – February Fun study grid.
March 2014 – Lion or Lamb notebook page.
June 2014 – Summer Fun grid study printable.
February 2015 – Winter nature study ideas.
March 2015 – Calendar of Firsts for nature observations. Printable nature calendar.
December 2015 – Weather chart printable. My Seasonal Weather notebook page. Weather Study big grid printable.
October 2016 – Weather nature study and nature journal ideas.
December 2016 – Silent Autumn Nature Walk notebook page.

The links above are Amazon affiliate links to resources I own and love.

Reptiles, Amphibians, Invertebrates, Fish
Banana Slug – Creepy Things ebook
Black Widow – Creepy Things ebook
Catfish – Autumn 2015
Common Shiner – Summer Nature Study Continues
Crayfish –Spring Nature Study Continues
Earthworms– Spring ebook
Fish Nature Study and Definition Copywork Page
Frogs – Summer ebook
Frog Field Guide Notebook Page
Goldfish Nature Study-free printable notebook page
Johnny Darter – Summer Nature Study Continues
Leech – Creepy Things ebook
Lizard, Gecko, Anole Study –Autumn Nature Study Continues
Millipede – Creepy Things ebook
Newts -Spring Nature Study Continues
Snakes-Spring ebook
Snails -More Nature Study Spring
Sphinx Moth – Creepy Things ebook
Spring Peepers -Spring Nature Study Continues
Sunfish – Summer Nature Study Continues
Tarantula – Creepy Things ebook
Trout and Salmon –Autumn ebook
Turtles and Pondweed-More Nature Study Summer

You may also want to read my review of this awesome resource: National Audubon Society First Field Guide to Reptiles.

Additional Links You May Find Helpful:

Newsletters With a Reptile, Amphibian, Invertebrate, or Fish Theme (If you have a membership, you have access to all archived newsletters.)

April 2013 – Reptiles and Amphibians study grid.
July 2013 – Fish grid study. Fish Study – Trout notebook page.
October 2015 – Reptile Study notebook page.
August 2016 – Invertebrate nature journal and nature study ideas. Snail Study notebook page.
May 2017 – Fish study grid. Fish nature study and nature journal ideas.

The link above is an Amazon affiliate link to a resource I own and love.

Rock Related Challenges
Calcite – Autumn 2015
Crystal Study– Winter Nature Study Continues
Feldspar Study– Winter Nature Study Continues
Granite Study and Other Igneous Rocks – More Nature Study Book Summer
Limestone – Autumn 2015
Magnets and Compass – More Nature Study Winter
Marble – Autumn 2015
Mica Rock Study – Autumn Nature Study Continues
Quartz Study -More Nature Study Winter
Rock Observation Challenge – free printable chart
Rock Study Using a Magnifying Lens – free printable notebook page
Rock Collection Ideas – free printable activity
Rock Study and printable game activity
Salt Study – Winter ebook
Sand and Soil -More Nature Study Summer

Newsletters With a Rock Theme (If you have a membership, you have access to all archived newsletters.)

January 2013 – Rock study grid. Rock collection ideas.
February 2016 – Rock nature journal and study ideas.
March 2017 – Rock nature study and nature journal ideas.

Sky and Stars
Moon and Moon Names– More Nature Study Winter
Moon and Craters Nature Study-free printable notebook page
My Backyard At Night Notebook Page (free printable)
Night Sky Study- Cassiopeia – Autumn Nature Study Continues
Orion Study – Winter Nature Study Continues
Winter Sky and Stars – Winter ebook
Winter Sky– Winter Wednesday
Year-Long Big Dipper Study -free printable notebook page

Newsletters With a Sky or Star Theme (If you have a membership, you have access to all archived newsletters.)

August 2013 – Night sky study ideas. Night Sky study grid.
July 2016 – Sky and stars nature journal and nature study ideas. Big Dipper study notebook page.

The link above is an Amazon affiliate link to a resource I own and love.Pond, Beach, and CreekStudy
Cattail Seasonal Nature Study -free printable notebook page
Pond Seasonal Study -free printable notebook page

Newsletters With a Pond, Beach, or Creek Theme (If you have a membership, you have access to all archived newsletters.)

August 2011 – Pond and marsh study ideas. Summer Pond Study notebook page. Pond study grid.
June 2012 – Beach and tidepool nature study ideas. Beach grid study printable. My Seashore Study notebook page.
July 2013 – Year long pond study ideas.
February 2016 – Creek nature study in four seasons. Creek Study notebook page.

Miscellaneous Challenges
Brook – – Autumn 2015
Small Square Study – Winter ebook
Small Square Study – free printable notebook page
Winter Berries –Autumn Nature Study Continues
Winter Colors – Winter Wednesday

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Barb — 3 Comments

Gold Country: Some Random Things to Share

Our part of the world is best known for being the place that gold was discovered in California back in 1848. We live very close to the South Fork of the American River and in fact, we spend much of our outdoor time in or around the water of this river. My parents live even closer to the actual gold discovery spot and have remains of an old town where the Chinese workers came to work in the mines and along the river.

The river was used for hydraulic mining which destroyed much of the habitat and you can still see remains of ditches dug for diverting water and piles of river rock where the soil was washed away looking for gold. The scars remain even today.

So much history left behind for us to explore and experience today.

This is an abandoned mine that we discovered on our regular hiking trail. This was taken a month or so ago and we were just there yesterday and it looks very different. The water level has dropped inside the mine and you can step inside a little to check it out. The water is not raining down inside as heavily either. The plants around the opening are getting green and somewhat covering up the entrance.

We took a hike to a different part of the river two weeks ago and it had lots of rocks that looked like this with the quartz encased in the other rocks.

This short video gives you an idea of what the rock and the river is like where we are. In the beginning of the video you will hear my husband’s narrative….please know he was trying to be silly. Don’t miss me almost falling into the river at one point… the rocks are hard to walk on especially when you are taking a video.

We had packed along our gold pans and the boys tried their hand at finding some gold. No luck this day.

The water was really cold and they decided there is a definite skill to panning. We wondered about the gold miners back in the 1800’s and how they must have remained motivated by either their success or the success of others around them. It is back breaking work.

On another hike, we saw this guy alongside the river on the North Fork getting ready to start using his sluice box for gold mining. Here is an easy explanation of how a sluice box works. My husband has used one before and he says it just is an easier way to sift through the gravel looking for flakes of gold. He took a geology class where they actually did gold dredging in this river and he was surprised that there still is quite a bit of gold if you take the time to look for it.

I bet you don’t see this very often. We have one place that we like to hike to along the river because it has a perfect spot for skipping rocks when the water is low. We went there the other day and for the first time we saw these signs posted everywhere. I have to do some research because as far as I know, this place is on Bureau of Land Management land which seems like an unlikely place for someone to post a mining claim. Anyone know how that works?
Edit: Here is a link to answer my questions: BLM FAQ

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little glimpse into the gold country around our house. It is something that interests my boys so we might just need to tackle a geology course and use mining as the basis for our study. We already have a ton of rocks that we have collected over the years to study and identify. I should look at it as a project.

Category: rocks