Category: weather

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Outdoor Hour Challenge – Summer Weather

Summer Weather Challenge @handbookofnaturestudy
Outdoor Hour Challenge: Summer Weather!

Use the ideas from the Summer Series 2010 ebook to use all your senses in observing your summer weather: Summer Series 2010 – Summer Weather Observations.  

There are lots of ideas in this challenge so pick one that fits your family’s interests. Don’t forget to make a follow-up nature journal page (there is a notebooking page in the ebook).

Special Activity: Photo Challenge

Summer Photo Challenge

Summer Photo Challenge: This printable lists photo topics for your child to find and photograph. You can pick as many of the topics as you wish.

Wildflower Photo Hunt: This printable will list flowers to find and then capture in photos.

Getting Started Suggestion:

If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #1. Take a short walk this week and just enjoy the changing season. Make sure to follow-up with a discussion and then record three things in your nature journal that you want to know more about. Help your children find something to be interested in…even if it isn’t a tree!

 

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Please note that this entry includes Amazon affiliate links.

 

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Outdoor Hour Challenge – Spring Weather Observations

 

Outdoor Hour Challenge:
This week use the ideas in the challenges listed to make some simple Spring Weather Observations. 

 Spring Weather (2010) –Suggested Observations
  • Have your children describe any clouds they see in the sky.
  • Notice how hard the wind is blowing by how things are moving: leaves rustling, trees bending, etc.
  • Notice the wind’s direction. Where is it coming from?
  • Describe the temperature of the air and/or look it up on a thermometer.
  • Notice any precipitation that you may have this week: sprinkles, rain, mist, sleet, snow, fog, hail.

Printable Notebook Page: 
During your seasonal weather observations, take a photo of something that shows your current weather conditions. Better yet, let your children take the images and then print them out for a personalized nature journal entry. This can be done in each season and recorded in your nature journal’s seasonal section.

Printable Notebook Page:My Seasonal Weather.

Nature in Verse by Mary Lovejoy is a whole year’s worth of poetry organized by seasons. You can click the link and scroll to the table of contents. Look for any poems that relate to spring. Read some aloud to your children and perhaps pick a line or two to copy onto a nature journal page.

Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #3.  Make sure to read the pages in the Handbook of Nature Study for this challenge. We all need reminders about how to encourage our children in their nature journals. Along with a sketch, your child can add a verse or two of spring poetry to their nature journal. Keep it simple and light…

 


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First Day of Spring Activities

March 20, 2014

Can you believe we are almost to the first day of spring for 2014? Our winter here in California was so warm and dry and it will be interesting to see how the spring season goes. Will it be warm? Will it rain at all? We will have to wait and see!

Take a few minutes on the first day of spring to record some weather related observations. You can use the printable notebook page below or you can record your observations right into your nature journal on its own page.
First Day of Spring 2012 notebook page

Have you had an unusual weather year so far?
Weather Record Chart
I was thinking our family may start a daily record of the weather just to observe the statistics over time. We have done this in the past and it always proves to be a great way to focus some attention on weather as part of our nature study. This page can then go into a nature journal once completed for future reference. (See this entry: Dry December Leading Into a Dry January.)

Perhaps you are not seeing the start of spring just yet. I know many around the country have had record amounts of snow and long, long days of cold temperatures (like my son in New York).You can use the notebook page below to record any signs of spring.

I invite you to complete one of the ideas above and share your experiences with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. Make sure to send in your entries before 3/30/14.

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November Weather Grid Observations

Have you started your November Weather Grid observations? We have continued to have warm, sunny days – last week with the afternoon temperatures in the 70’s and this week in the 60’s. It is not our typical November weather at all.

 My rain gauge has not had a drop of rain in it all month.

There were only a few clouds to observe this week and we made a point to get out and watch for awhile. I remembered to think of some words to describe them: thin, grey, fast-moving, swirly, like cotton, friendly.

The birds are returning to my feeders a little at a time and I spend some time each day looking out the window at the trees in the backyard for some bird visitors. Mr. B pointed out two Northern Flickers a few days ago…he says, “Hey Mom, there are two really colorful big birds outside my window!”

I found parts of two different butterflies in the yard when we were raking up some leaves. Have you ever tried picking up a butterfly wing? It is so very delicate and when you set it down it blows away in the slightest breeze. Amazing to look at with the magnifying lens.

One day I collected some autumn twigs, branches, and dried flowers from the garden for a “bouquet” that sits on the nature table. Nothing fancy but it makes me happy.

We have still been walking outdoors just about every day, sometimes in our neighborhood and sometimes we take the local walking trail. The trail is dry and covered in fallen leaves…so very dry. I know the rest of November may be cooler and wetter but for now the word to describe our weather is DRY or maybe WARM.

The Kona dog doesn’t mind the weather and takes advantage of the opportunity at our river walks to jump in and swim. The river is low right now so she paddles around or fetches a ball if we have one to throw in for her. The water is too cold for me but for our Labrador it is heaven.

Look for a weather related challenge this week and I look forward to seeing some of your November World observations in the up-coming Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.

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Outdoor Hour Challenge – Autumn Weather Study

Autumn Weather Nature Study
Outdoor Hour Challenge

Use some of the ideas in these autumn weather challenges from the past:
Seasonal Weather – Autumn 2009 -free printable notebook page
Seasonal Weather – Autumn Observations  – with links
Weather Walk – free printable notebook page
Outdoor Hour Challenge #40 Seasonal Weather Study – free printable notebook page
Seasonal Weather – photo challenge with free printable notebook page

Autumn Watercolor – Leaves, Clouds, Acorns, or Anything Else
Bring out your watercolors (or watercolor pencils or watercolor crayons) and create a page for your nature journal as part of your Autumn Weather Challenge.

Watercolor Crayons – Complete Leaf Sketch and Video
Watercolor Clouds


You can also try one of the video watercolor tutorials on my daughter’s blog:
Hearts and Trees – Watercolor and Rubbing Alcohol

Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #1. If you haven’t tried any of the Getting Started suggestions yet this season, give Challenge #1 a try…super easy for every family to just take a walk together and then have a follow-up discussion and offer time for a nature journal page. Keep it light and easy. 

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OHC Blog Carnival

You are welcome to submit any of you blog Outdoor Hour Challenge blog entries to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. Entries for the current month are due on 10/30/13.

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5 Spring Nature Study Ideas

 

1. How about a spring cattail hunt? Find your own patch of cattails and complete some observations using the Handbook of Nature Study. There is even a free Seasonal Cattail Notebook Page to print!

2. Look for signs of spring in your part of the world. What better way to enjoy the early spring time outdoors? Use the suggestions in the challenge and then print the Signs of Spring notebook page for your nature journal.

3. One of the most popular “wildflower” challenges of all time is the Dandelion Challenge from the Spring Series! Everyone loves a good dandelion study and with this commonly found plant your family can enjoy a little flower study too!

4. Here is one that all of you gardeners will enjoy…earthworms! We love digging down into the fresh spring soil and that means lots of earthworms. My boys loved to go on an earthworm hunt while I pulled a few weeds in the garden boxes.

5. Everyone has weather….you can all take some early spring weather observations no matter if there is snow on the ground or you are experiencing rain showers or you have blue skies and white puffy clouds. Print a weather notebook page and have some fun outside recording your weather and observations.

There are lots more spring nature study ideas on the Spring Tab at the top of my blog. Pick one and enjoy a few minutes outdoors this week.

  Have you seen some signs of spring in your neighborhood?

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Outdoor Hour Challenge – Seasonal Weather: Photo and Picnic


Outdoor Hour Challenge:
This week spend your outdoor time enjoying the daily weather. Keep track of your weather for a week, recording the temperature, rainfall, etc. You can use any of the free printables on my Freebies Page. Look there for the seasonal weather pages and the weather chart.

You can also use any of the Seasonal Weather Challenges from the past that are appropriate for your time of the year:

Printable Notebook Page: 
During your seasonal weather observations, take a photo of something that shows your current weather conditions. Better yet, let your children take the images and then print them out for a personalized nature journal entry. This can be done in each season and recorded in your nature journal’s seasonal section.

Printable Notebook Page:My Seasonal Weather.

Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #10.  I realize that this is a cold time of year (or hot for you Southern Hemisphere folks)  for many of you but there are ways to make a “picnic” happen even if you just drive in the car, park under a tree, and enjoy some sandwiches and hot cocoa. Get creative! If you have a picnic, make sure to take a photo to include in your nature journal. I will challenge myself to taking a picnic in the next few weeks with my family and I will post our experiences here on the blog. 

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Watercolor Clouds Nature Journal – Cure for the Winter Blahs


We had plenty of opportunities to observe clouds in the past few days. It has been really cloudy and wet…only a few breaks in the weather where we were able to get outside and breathe some air. I tried to enjoy the rain but it really did just bum me out. I was really glad that this week’s challenge was to pull out some art supplies and make a watercolor entry for the weather in my nature journal.


I collected some water for my watercolor project from the rain gauge. Now that I had my supplies ready I was anxious about actually watercoloring in my journal so I decided to make the painting on a separate sheet of paper and then add the painting to my journal with tape.


I played with my gray watercolor pencil before starting the actual artwork, experimenting with different methods of applying the color to the paper. You should try this if you have a few minutes just to see how different the effects are on your artwork.

If you are interested in this sort of thing, here are the options I used.

  • Left box: Use the pencil to draw the square, then apply water with a brush.
  • Middle box: Dip the tip of the watercolor pencil in water, draw the square.
  • Right box: Use a wet brush on the pencil tip, apply to paper.

All of these squares are made with the same pencil….very different results.

Creating a journal page always cheers me up! Between the journal page and taking advantage of the breaks in the rain to get outside, I was starting to feel not so blah.

One morning we woke to actual sunshine and we decided to take a hike to see our neighborhood waterfall. Kona loves this trail since we can let her off leash. She runs ahead and finds something interesting to sniff, following the scent until she detects another trail to follow. She definitely enjoyed the opportunity to get outside and stretch her legs alongside us on the trail.

We were rewarded for our hiking efforts with the rushing sound of water coming down the hill and over the rocks. We took a few minutes to just enjoy the moment and then we all headed back up the hill, just in time for the rains to return. I realized that without the rain we would have had no waterfall to hike to…..sometimes we need to be reminded of the benefits of all that wet weather.

This will wind down our weather study for the month. Just for fun, I will be keeping our rainfall records as we move through January. We might get a dusting of snow later this week which would be the perfect way to wind up the month.

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Outdoor Hour Challenge – Cloud Observations


Outdoor Hour Challenge:

Special Activity:Watercolor Clouds
If you are able, observe clouds on several occasions and then use watercolors to record some clouds for your nature journal. To make it fun, use melted snow or rain with your paints! We do this a lot when we are out on the trail, using whatever water source we encounter.

Some added help with getting started with watercolors:
Making a Watercolor Wash
Wet on Wet

Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #3.  Make sure to read the pages in the Handbook of Nature Study for this challenge. We all need reminders about how to encourage our children in their nature journals. This week you can record some cloud sketches in your journals or use the notebook page from the ebook to keep a record of your outdoor time.  

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OHC Blog Carnival
You are welcome to submit any of you blog Outdoor Hour Challenge blog entries to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. Entries for the current month are due on 12/30/12.

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You may wish to view my daughter’s Cloud Art Show and see how other painters captured clouds. There are so many ways to show clouds in your nature journal…watercoloring is just one way.

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Weather Grid Nature Study – New Nature Journal Idea

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!