I just added this month’s free printable notebook pages to the library for members. Remember the Ultimate and Journey levels of membership receive access to all of the monthly printables.
Wildflower Study – This notebook page will be a great addition to any wildflower study you complete with your children.
Silent Autumn Nature Walk– Plan on taking a silent (or as silent as possible)
These new printables are free if you are a member of the Ultimate Naturalist or Journey level memberships. You need to log into your account and then check the “Other Releases” section for brand new printables to enjoy along with the Outdoor Hour Challenges in 2015.
Enjoy!
Take a look at the Autumn Nature Study Ideason the newly organized tab at the top of the website. I hope it helps inspire some fresh ideas for your family.
Read pages 535-536 (Lesson #145) in the Handbook of Nature Study. Note the description of the habitat in the “leading thought” section of the lesson. This will help you when you go out and look for your own little patch of pearly everlasting.
Go on a summer wildflower hike! Take along your sketch book and a field guide to help you identify and then record any wildflowers you find during your outdoor time. Look for pearly everlasting along your paths, remembering the white flowers and dusky green stalks and leaves.
Take a close look at any wildflower leaves you find during your outdoor time. Notice the shape and texture of the leaves, comparing two plants if possible.
Follow-Up Activity:
Create a nature journal entry for pearly everlasting using your personal observations or information from a field guide or this internet link: pearly everlasting. Here is another great source of information on the pearly everlasting. There is a notebook page for you to use included in the ebook.
Advanced study: Research the pearly everlasting as the host plant for butterflies: Pollinators.
Advanced study: Use this website to research aster family wildflowers in your area: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Use the drop down menu on the left sidebar to pick your state to narrow your search to asters you may see in your local area. You can even pick the bloom month to narrow your search even more. Complete nature journal pages for each flower you research.
If you want to purchase the Summer Nature Study Continues ebook so you can follow along with all the notebooking pages, coloring pages, and subject images, you can join the Ultimate or Journey Membership Levels. See the Join Us page for complete information. Also, you can view the Summer Nature Study Continues – New Ebookannouncement page for more details.
Read pages 568-571 (Lesson #157) in the Handbook of Nature Study. Read through the suggested lesson activities and pick a few to use while in your garden looking at a larkspur (delphinium).
If you have never worked through the Outdoor Hour Challenge on Flower Parts, this would be a great supplement to your larkspur study. Use the information and links in that challenge to learn the plant part names and then start to use them in your study of flowers. This challenge is in the Garden Flowers ebook if you have a membership to the Handbook of Nature Study.
Outdoor Hour Time:
Find a flowering larkspur to observe either in your garden or at your local garden nursery. Use the suggestions from the lesson to help your child see the way an insect pollinates this beautiful flower.
Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
How does the bee hold on to the flower?
Where does it thrust its tongue?
Advanced study: Make note of all the flower parts while closely looking at a larkspur blossom.
Follow-Up Activity:
Create a nature journal entry featuring the larkspur (or delphinium). There are two notebook pages included in the ebook, one for a larkspur study and one for a general summer flower study.
If you want to purchase the Summer Nature Study Continues ebook so you can follow along with all the notebooking pages, coloring pages, and subject images, you can join the Ultimate or Journey Membership Levels. See the Join Us page for complete information. Also, you can view the Summer Nature Study Continues – New Ebookannouncement page for more details.
It doesn’t get much better than this on a hot summer July day in my neck of the woods. It is times like this that I count my blessings.
We had a glorious day up at the lake….a short last minute idea to go for a hike and then have a picnic dinner. This lake was the bluest I have seen in a very long time….three shades of blue-turquoise, blue-gray, and deep blue.
We hiked a new trail for us and it was surprising that we had it all to ourselves. We had planned to hike from a popular trailhead but there were no parking spots left, which is what happens when you show up at around 2 PM. We decided to park on the highway, walk down the road leading to a closed campground, and then see what adventure would come our way. It was far better than expected!
The trail we found wandered around and out onto a peninsula overlooking Lake Tahoe and Emerald Bay. The sun was hot but there was a breeze and in the shade it was comfortable. We sat out at the point for a long time just drinking in the views. There were several birds flying overhead and I could identify the call of the osprey and the song of the chickadee.
After that hike, we drove back down to Taylor Creek and hiked down to the water. This is my favorite little aspen grove and right now it is very green and filled with wildflowers. The cow parsnip is thick and smells fragrant…giving the hike a wonderful smell to remember. The insects were busy working in the flowers…mostly bees.
Play I Spyand you will see the crayfish that was scuttling along the creek bed. The water wasn’t very deep or moving very fast and we actually saw five different crayfish on this trip. They are strange creatures!
Here is another little wild friend that we stopped to watch along the trail. This squirrel (actually a chickaree) actually climbed up the tree with that cone in his mouth and then he sat eating the seeds up on the branch. Adorable!
Then we found a whole patch of Ranger buttons.…the insects were loving this flower!
Down on the beach it was covered in Hooker’s primrose and lupine….almost unreal how beautiful it was in the fading light. We walked and found a place to sit as the sun was setting…watching the shadows getting longer and longer.
This shows the lupine better….maybe this one will need to get printed out and put up on my wall. I love this place, feels like home. Do you know what I mean? Do you have a place that just feels like it was meant for you?
One last wildflower, this time a pink one, Checkermallow
So ends our most excellent summer day at the lake up in the mountains….sigh. Can’t wait to do it all again sometime!
I managed to create a Five Senses Nature Journal page as part of my Once a Month Nature Journal Project. This is a super simple idea for a quick nature journal page that you and your children can do very easily this month!
Go create your own summer day filled with goodness….enjoy!
Read pages 479-482 in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson #124). Please note that the HNS says that this plant is edible but I do not encourage anyone to eat any part of this plant.
Use these links to learn more about the May apple and its distribution in the United States: Mayapple or May Apple.
Out to the woods you go to look for the umbrella-like leaves of the May apple! This is an excellent plant to watch throughout the spring and into the late summer to follow its progression from the spreading of its leaves, the flower, and then the development of the fruit.
There are many great ideas in the lesson for suggested observations. Make sure to note a few before you head out for your Outdoor Hour time. Make lots of observations in the field and then record your findings in your nature journal.
If you don’t have a May apple to study, find another blooming wildflower to observe up close this week. Remember there is a Spring Wildflower Study notebook page included in the ebook.
Follow-Up Activity:
Write as many interesting facts as you can about the May apple plant in your nature journal or on the notebook page in the ebook.
Learn more about leaf shapes and then draw the leaf of the May apple in your nature journal. Use this link: Leaf Types.
Advanced Study: Research the common names for the May apple plant and then the traditional uses of the parts of the May apple.
Join us for this spring series of challenges every week here on the Handbook of Nature Study.
If you want to purchase the Spring Nature Study Continues ebook so you can follow along with all the notebooking pages, coloring pages, and subject images, you can join the Ultimate or Journey Membership Levels. See the Join Us page for complete information. Also, you can view the Spring Nature Study Continues – New Ebookannouncement page for more details.
I hope you enjoyed seeing my spring wildflowers and now you can go out to find your own! You might want to use the printable photo hunt below to get you started.
There are new printables for you to use with your family if you are a member of the Ultimate Naturalist or Journey level memberships. You need to log into your account and then check the “Other Releases” section for brand new printables to enjoy along with the Outdoor Hour Challenges in 2015.
Read pages 558-560 in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson #153). Make sure to study the diagram so you can help your child see all the inner and outer petals of the bleeding heart blossom.
This is another week to look at garden flowers or wildflowers, especially bleeding hearts. If you have access to bleeding hearts, gather some to bring indoors for observation as suggested in the Handbook of Nature Study lesson.
If possible, observe the flowers when insects are visiting, noting the method of gathering nectar.
Advanced Study: Use the suggestions in the Handbook of Nature Study to observe carefully the bleeding heart.
Follow-Up Activity:
Reread the lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study. Make sure to write a description of this flower in your nature journal with as much detail as possible.
Use watercolors or colored pencils to draw a stem with the flowers.
Join us for this series of challenges every week here on the Handbook of Nature Study.
Look for the new spring challenges to post starting April 3rd!
If you want to purchase the Spring Nature Study Continues ebook so you can follow along with all the notebooking pages, coloring pages, and subject images, you can join the Ultimate or Journey Membership Levels. See the Join Us page for complete information. Also, you can view the Spring Nature Study Continues announcementfor more details, list of topics, and a sample.
Read pages 461-463 in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson #117).
Here is a very useful page with information about the hepatica including images of the different colors: US Forest Service. It also shows the range of the hepatica.
Advanced Study Video:Hepatica. Please note I do not endorse any medicinal uses noted in this video.
Outdoor Hour Time:
Take an early spring nature walk looking for the first signs of spring and wildflowers. Hepatica will be found early in the season.
Make note of the habitat where you find the hepatica blooming.
This is a flower to study in the field, noting the leaves, buds, and blossoms.
Advanced study: Sketch the flower parts in your nature journal from direct observation.
Advanced study: Mark your hepatica plant in the woods so you can return and make summer and autumn observations. I suggest tying a string around the stem and noting in your nature journal where the plant is with a simple diagram or map.
Follow-Up Activity:
Create a nature journal entry for the hepatica. Use as much detail as you can showing the flower’s shape, color, and size. Note the habitat and the conditions in which the flower blooms. Note the date of the first flowers. Sketch the leaf.
Advanced study: Compare the hepatica and the spring beauty (or other early spring wildflower) if you have both flowers in your area. You can find images of many early spring wildflowers on this page: Spring Wildflowers.
Join us for this series of challenges every week here on the Handbook of Nature Study.
If you want to purchase the Winter Nature Study Continues ebook so you can follow along with all the notebooking pages, coloring pages, and subject images, you can join the Ultimate or Journey Membership Levels. See the Join Us page for complete information. Also, you can view the Winter Nature Study Continues Ebook Announcement page for more details.
Here in my part of the world we have experienced a warmer than normal February. This means we are looking at early spring conditions and lots of wildflowers already. For those of you who live where you are buried in snow or are having super cold days, forgive me! My kids live in New York state and they have been frozen most of February and I understand how long your winter seems to be this year.
Look at my wildflower photos as a breath of spring that will be coming your way before too much longer.
The above flower is one of our normal early wildflowers and it greeted us alongside our normal hiking trail. This pretty flower is the Hound’s tongue.
We also have this beauty starting to bloom along the trail and it always marks the beginning of our wildflower season. The Sierra shooting star is one of my very favorites and is going to be featured in my nature journal later this week!
Now we are jumping to a different habitat…the California coastal trail near Muir Beach in Marin County. We had the chance to visit there last weekend and I snapped this pretty yellow flower during a hike.
Here is another flower we saw quite a bit of on our day at the coast.
We also made it to Muir Woods and we had a great hike under the redwoods. The redwood sorrel was everywhere…getting ready to bloom I think. Look for an entry on Muir Woods National Monument soon here on the blog.
There is nothing so wonderful as a month of early spring wildflowers to enjoy with family and friends. As the season progresses we will no doubt enjoy many more days wandering the trails looking at flowers. I know the names of quite a few flowers but there are some that I need to learn so my field guide will be in my pack and my nature journal will get some new entries as I continue to become friends with the wildflowers of California.
