Our habitat here in Central Oregon is filled with lots of rabbitbrush. Use a field guide or the link below to determine if you have access to rabbitbrush in your neighborhood.
There is a range map found here: USDA rabbitbrush. Look for rabbitbrush in grasslands, open woodlands, dry open areas with sagebrush, among junipers, and at the edges of ponderosa pine forests. Bloom time is from July to October.
Note: If you don’t have rabbitbrush, you can substitute a study of goldenrod this week.
Please note that I will not be posting the complete challenge here on the blog, but you will find the detailed challenge in the Forest Fun ebook that’s available both in the Ultimate Naturalist and Journey level memberships. Sign into your account and download the ebook for the details, more links, a coloring page, and notebook pages.
We are working through the Forest Fun ebook which is a brand new series of nature studies featuring things you might find in the forest. It’s not too late to join us by purchasing an Ultimate Naturalist or Journey level membership.
Topics in this ebook include:
Rabbitbrush
Skunk Cabbage
Azalea
Common Raven
California Quail
Western Tanager
Black Bear
Moose
Porcupine
If you don’t have a membership yet, you can click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 24 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!
Ultimate and Journey Level members can click this graphic to go directly to the library to download a copy of this new ebook. Make sure you are logged in and if you are having trouble with your password, please leave me a comment or send me a direct email to receive my assistance. Email: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com
New Ebook is Now Available to Members!
The Forest Fun ebook is now ready for you to download and use with your family. It will be a part of the 2019-2020 plans here on the Handbook of Nature Study. I’m excited to have a new set of challenges to complete along with you!
There are nine brand new Outdoor Hour Challenges for you to complete as part of your nature study lessons with your children. These Challenges are not based on information in the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock but you will be using internet links and field guides to glean information about each topic.
This 47 page digital ebook has 9 challenges and supplemental activities that will help you learn about some common things you’ll find in a forest, especially the forests of the western United States.
There are multiple custom notebooking pages for each of the topics. You can choose from simple notebook pages or more advanced notebooking pages.
Here are the specific topics included in this ebook:
Rabbitbrush
Skunk Cabbage
Azalea
Common Raven
California Quail
Western Tanager
Black Bear
Moose
Porcupine
How do you get the new Forest Fun ebook?
Members of the Ultimate Naturalistand Journey levels have access to the new ebook in their library. You need to click the “Members Area” button at the top of the website, sign into your account, and the ebook is there to download and save for your family to use when desired.
If you don’t have a membership yet, I’m offering a $5 off discount code that will be good towards your Ultimate Naturalist membership.
This post is LONG overdue. I’ve had such a crazy last few months that it was hard to put my “Outdoor Mom” thoughts together. I felt more like an indoor kind of mom because of my surgery, recovery, weather, and then having a mom who needed my care. Things just got pushed aside.
Although I never lost the desire to be outdoors, even in the thick of my recovery from double hip surgery, I kept my eyes outside on the birds and wildlife that came my way. Then when I was sitting in the hospital day after day with my mom, I would look out the window and take quick walks around the edges of the parking lot to find something refreshing to observe.
My nature journal has been neglected until the past few weeks when finally things have settled down a bit and I can take those few minutes a week to record my reflections and thoughts.
Outdoor Mom – May 2019
During our outdoor time this month we went…
While in California, my daughter and I took a long hike along the American River. It was very green and there were already many wildflowers along the trail. We must have seen a hundred butterflies as they fluttered across our path and landed on flowers.
It was warm and we were so glad we made the decision to hike early to beat the heat and the crowds. It makes my heart happy that my grown children enjoy a hike with their mama when we can make it happen.
Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)…
We managed a kayak/canoe paddle down the river one afternoon in the bright sunshine. We didn’t encounter a single other person on the whole trip. Don’t get me wrong, we enjoy having the river to ourselves but it makes us wonder why we rarely see anyone on this section of the water. On this particular day, we were joined on our paddle by mallards, swallows, Canada goose, red-winged blackbirds, and a heron. All of us are hoping to get together for many more kayak trips over the next few months.
One last image…or two…or three…
I haven’t shared beautiful wildflower photos in a long time. So, to make up for that, here are some from our hike that I love!
Some variety of white lupine
Variety of pink allium
Fiddleneck
Indian pink
Chinese lanterns
Follow me here:Instagram – outdoorhourchallenge.If you’d like me to take a look at one of your images on Instagram, use the hashtag #outdoorhourchallenge.
Want to join in the Outdoor Mom post?
Answer all or just one of the prompts in a blog entry on your own blog or right here on my blog in a comment. If you answer on your blog, make sure to leave me a link in a comment so that I can pop over and read your responses.
During our outdoor time this month we went…
The most inspiring thing we experienced was…
Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)…
In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting…
Get Ready for Wildflower Season – Outdoor Hour Challenge Ebooks
Are you ready for wildflower season? It’s coming whether you’re ready or not! The Outdoor Hour Challenges will be taking us outdoors from now until the autumn season and it’s so nice to have a library of wildflower nature study ideas at your fingertips for all those wildflowers you may encounter.
I’m especially proud of the three newer wildflower focused ebooks I’ve created in the past few years.
Fireweed
Salsify
Forget-Me-Not
Paintbrush
Common silverweed
Henbit
Cow Parsnip
Columbine
Chicory
Cocklebur
Fireweed
Salsify
Forget-Me-Not
Paintbrush
Common silverweed
Additional Wildflower Challenges
I’ve written Outdoor Hour Challenges for every wildflower listed in the Handbook of Nature Study. You can find them under the “Garden” tab on my website. That’s dozens of wildflowers to choose from!
You can have access to the ebooks in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships.
In addition, there are many other summer related challenges available in the summer ebooks.
“Why do we call a plant a weed? Is a weed a weed wherever it grows? How did this weed plant itself where I find it growing? Of what advantage is this weed?”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 513
When Anna Botsford Comstock uses the term “weed”, she many times means what we would commonly call a “wildflower”. If you look in the Table of Contents in the Handbook of Nature Study, you will see a long list of “weeds” that are subjects of complete lessons in this nature study volume.
From my personal experience, I have this conversation every spring with my husband over whether a dandelion is a weed or a wildflower. He has given me the gift of dandelions in our yard, even though he really wants to weed them out. I love their happy color and have observed many an insect benefiting from our leaving a few dandelions at the edges of our yard. (Read about my “wild side” here: Wild Side #1
and Wild Side #2)
This week click over to read the original challenge from the Garden ebook and then pick a weed to observe, looking carefully for its seeds. This activity can be done periodically as the seeds develop during the summer season. Make it a weed and seed hunt!
We’re continuing to work through the Garden Flower and Plants ebook over the next few weeks. If you own this ebook or have access to it in your Ultimate Naturalist Library, you’ll want to get it out and read the first few pages that outline how the ten week series of garden challenges work together and can be done in any order that makes sense to your family. The ebook has planning pages as you choose, observe, and then learn more about each garden flower you study.
If you would like to purchase a membership so you have all of the challenges at your fingertips and the custom notebooking pages too, click over to read all the details and download a sample: Garden Flower and Plant Challenges.
You may wish to look at the June 2013 Newsletter if you have a membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study.
There’s a lot of great information on wildflowers in this post that I wrote last year. Click over to find helpful hints for your seeds and weeds study:
Ultimate and Journey Level members can click this graphic to go directly to the library to download a copy of this new ebook. Make sure you are logged in and if you are having trouble with your password, please leave me a comment or send me a direct email to receive my assistance. Email: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com
Outdoor Hour Challenge Wildflower Nature Study Set #3
This 44 page digital ebook has 5 challenges and supplemental activities that will help you learn about some common wildflowers.
There are custom notebooking pages for each of the five wildflowers featured. In addition, there is a general notebook page for recording information for each of the plant families introduced in this ebook.
I have included two wildflower related activities from the archives: Wildflower Photo Hunt and the Wildflower Big Grid Study.
Five coloring pages
There is enough material in this ebook to provide 5 weeks of wildflower study or more depending on how long you take to complete each challenge.
One of the resources in this ebook is a chart that coordinates each study with the Botany in a Day book.
Here are the specific flowers included in this ebook:
Fireweed (Evening Primrose Family)
Salsify (Aster Family)
Forget-Me-Not (Borage Family)
Paintbrush (Figwort Family)
Common Silverweed (Rose Family)
Note: If you don’t have the specific wildflowers listed above in your area, there are suggestions for studying an alternative flower or you can focus on the plant family instead. This ebook will work no matter where you live if you want to just focus on the plant families and use a local field guide to look for flowers you can observe during a nature walk in your own habitat.
How do you get the new Wildflower Nature Study ebook?
Members of the Ultimate Naturalistand Journey levels have access to the new ebook in their library. You need to click the “Members Area” button at the top of the website, sign into your account, and the ebook is there to download and save for your family to use when desired.
If you don’t have a membership yet, I am offering a $5 off discount code that will be good towards your Ultimate Naturalist membership.
Discount Code: wildflower5
How To Get Started With This New Ebook!
Make sure you have a membership to the Handbook of Nature Study website! Click the Purchase Now button above or the Join Us button on the website. If you don’t already have a membership, use the discount code above for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership. If you are a member, sign in to your library and download the book.
You may wish to subscribe to the Handbook of Nature Study blog so you can receive the prompts in your email box each Friday.
Don’t forget about the other two wildflower nature study ebooks available in your Ultimate and Journey level memberships!
I’m excited to share some new printable pages with you!
Prairie Wildflowers and Animals Clipart and Coloring Pages: This set of five pages can be used in many ways. There is a page of clipart that you can use to decorate a prairie nature study page, three pages of various subjects for prairie nature study that can be used as coloring pages or printed on cardstock to create small cards for your nature table, and a page that explains how to use the pocket printable in a lapbook or in a nature journal.
Sea Star, Newt, and Jelly Fish Nature Notebook Pages: These three pages have been requested by families and I had time to create them this month. I hope they help make your study of these topics a little easier.
Deciduous Trees in my Yard Notebook Page- This fun page has a space for you to draw a map of your yard and then mark where you have deciduous trees growing.
Note: If you have any subjects you would like me to create nature notebook pages for, please let me know in a comment here on the blog or in an email: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com
Print a complete list of printables available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships by clicking the button above.
FYI: There will no longer be a monthly printable planning page. Please note that members have access to the complete year’s plan in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships. Non-members can follow along by subscribing to this blog and each Friday the Outdoor Hour Challenge will come into your email inbox.
If you live in the prairies of North America or are interested in learning more about this rich and valuable habitat, you’re going to be excited about the featured book for this month’s nature book club link-up.America’s Prairies and Grasslands-A Guide to Plants and Animalsby Marianne D. Wallace describes that unique habitat with words and beautiful pictures. I’m eager to share this incredible resource on prairie wildlife that our family has used and loved.
You can look for it at your public library or it’s available from Amazon (Note that I’m an Amazon affiliate and there are affiliate links in this entry).
Using America’s Prairies and Grasslands in Your Nature Study
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 talk about 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.
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.
How to Use This Book for Nature Study
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 semidesert 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 (see below).
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 Handbook of 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.
I’ve created this set of six notebooking pages to use with your prairies and grasslands studies.
Member’s Benefit: Members here on the Handbook of Nature Study will have unlimited access in their printable library. (See how to purchase a membership here: Ultimate Naturalist Library.)
Prairie Wildlife Study with Printables
Member’s Benefit: In addition, members here on the Handbook of Nature Study have access to several notebooking pages in their printables library that will be helpful in a study of prairie wildlife. Learn more about purchasing a Ultimate Naturalist Library membership here: Join Us!
***New! Prairie Wildflowers and Animals Clipart set
***Look for the pages for bison, pronghorn, coyotes, elk, rattlesnakes, and deer.
Want to study a different habitat?
This book is one in a series of books that teach about the various habitats of the world. I own several of them and use them as references in my nature writing. Here are the other habitats you can read about: deserts, forests, mountains, seashores, and wetlands.
Make sure to subscribe to my blog to follow along with our weekly nature study activities.
Here are the co-hosts, their choices of books, and activities for the month:
Notebooking Pages based on The Prairie That Nature Built from Jenny at Faith and Good Works
Nature Journaling based on Wildflowers of Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks: A Guide to Common & Notable Species from Eva at Eva Varga
Online Nature Book Course based on The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush from Dachelle at Hide The Chocolate
Choose an engaging nature book, do a craft or activity, and add your post to our monthly link up.
The link up party goes live at 9:00 a.m. EST on the 20th of each month and stays open until the last day of the month. Hurry to add your links!
You can link up to 3 posts. Please do not link up advertising posts, advertise other link up parties, your store, or non-related blog posts. They will be removed.
By linking up with us, you agree for us to share your images and give you credit of course if we feature posts.
Goldenrod was the topic from last week’s Outdoor Hour Challenge. Who knew that such a common yellow flower could not only be prettier up close, but also fascinating as a wildflower? Using Lesson 132 in the Handbook of Nature Study, I gleaned a few new interesting facts that helped me appreciate our local goldenrod so much more.
In the Handbook of Nature Study, Anna Botsford Comstock says not to worry about identifying a particular goldenrod if you do observe some in your neighborhood because there are just so many different varieties. I attempted to nail down our goldenrod and decided it’s probably Western goldenrod or Euthamia occidentalis.
The problem here in my local area is that the rabbitbrush is blooming at the same time and it’s also a very yellow low growing plant that you could easily mistake for goldenrod. (See this entry from a few years ago where I made the same mistake: Goldenrod Afternoon.)
But now I know to look for the different leaves and flower shapes, but I do have to look carefully when I’m driving by a field to decide which flower it is that’s blooming.
I’m lucky enough right now to have a goldenrod plant growing in my front rock garden. I almost weeded it out earlier in the summer but now I’m glad I left it to grow! I enjoy seeing it from the window and I hope that it spreads a little to add some yellow flashes of color to my landscape.
The Handbook of Nature Study encourages us in our nature study to look for insects that can be found on the goldenrod. So far, I’ve only seen a few stray bees.
Look for the free notebooking page for this nature study linked in that entry!
I used these field guides in addition to the Handbook of Nature Study to learn more about my goldenrod.
I’ve written two wildflower nature study ebooks that you may be interested in using with your family. They are both in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships here on the Handbook of Nature Study.
Join us each Friday for a different nature study idea!
Archive Outdoor Hour Challenge – Click the link above to take you to the original challenge.
Goldenrod is a showy yellow wildflower that is included in the Handbook of Nature Study. There are many varieties of goldenrod all over North America, so you may have some in your local area. This is the perfect beginner’s nature study that starts with a pretty flower and a super interesting lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study.
Anna Botsford Comstock encourages us to engage our child’s imagination as we hunt for “golden cities” in our neighborhoods and to look for insects. This makes it a subject that appeals to a wide range of children as they take a look to see if they can discover this flower and possibly some creatures to observe. Make sure to read the pages in the Handbook of Nature Study that will help you build an interest for this week’s topic.
Make sure to click the link below to read the entire Outdoor Hour Challenge with links, ideas, free notebooking pages, and suggested follow-up activities.
This Outdoor Hour Challenge is part of the 2018-2019 Plan here on the Handbook of Nature Study. We will be using the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock to discover new things about the world around us. Join us each Friday for a different nature study topic. Make sure to subscribe to this blog to receive the weekly challenge right in your email box.
Note this is an Amazon affiliate link to a product that I have used and loved for many,many years.
