Outdoor Hour Challenge
Wildflower Photo Hunt
Printable Activity: Wildflower Photo Hunt
Use the printable list for your photo hunt…plus use the ideas on the page to create a nature journal with the photos when you are finished. If at all possible, let your child take the images!
Printable Wildflower Photo Hunt Activity
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Download a FREE sample of A-Z Animal Notebooking Pages from NotebookingPages.com.
Outdoor Hour Challenge
Wildflower Color Hunt
This week we are going to go on a wildflower color hunt! Use the printable from the May newsletter as a check list as you go on your nature outing with your family. Cross off each color of flower as you find it and take a photo of your favorites for your nature journal.
The printable Wildflower Color Hunt is available during the month of May 2016 in the free newsletter. If you don’t already subscribe to the Handbook of Nature Study, you can do so during the month of May and receive the newsletter download link in your subscription thank you email. All newsletters are available as part of every level of membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study. See the Join Us page for more information on how you can gain access to the Ultimate Naturalist Library of ebooks, newsletters, and exclusive printables.
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Download a FREE sample of A-Z Animal Notebooking Pages from NotebookingPages.com.
Take a look at the two new printables available in the Member’s Library for both the Ultimate and Journey level memberships. There is a simple Northern mockingbird notebook page and also a set of notebook and coloring pages for the buttercup and the poppy (4 pages in all). For a complete list of member’s printables, click the button below for a printable list.
Please note that Ultimate Naturalist and Journey level members have access to members only printables each month in addition to the newsletter printables. You will need to log into your account and then go to the “Other Releases” section. You can download a complete list of printables available to members here: Printables Current List May 2016.
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Note: If you are following the Ambleside Online’s nature study rotation, this month’s newsletter is perfect for the theme: Garden Flowers and Weeds.
Contents of this edition of the newsletter include:
Resources for your Nature Library: I have started to build a nature library store on Amazon that will feature by category my favorite nature study books and resources. Take a look and see if there is anything you would like to put on your wish list for your family’s nature study library: Handbook of Nature Study Nature Library Suggestions on Amazon.com. Note this is my affiliate store to items I personally recommend and have read or seen in person.
Please note that Ultimate Naturalist and Journey level members have access to members only printables each month in addition to the newsletter printables. You will need to log into your account and then go to the “Other Releases” section.
Need help getting started with your nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study? Check out the fresh “Getting Started” page here on the website!
You may also wish to purchase a set of wildflower, weed, and garden flower notebooking pages from NotebookingPages.com. This set includes every flower in the Handbook of Nature Study and will be a set you can use for many years to come. Please note I am an affiliate for NotebookingPages.com and have used this product with my family and highly recommend them to you!
Use code discount5 to save $5 on any purchase $10 or more from the NotebookingPages.com Shop. (This does not include membership purchases.)
“She who opens her eyes and her heart nature-ward even once a week finds nature-study in the schoolroom a delight and an abiding joy….She finds, first of all, companionship with her children; and second, she finds that without planning or going on a far voyage, she has found health and strength”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 3
It has been a great month of outdoor activity here in our household. I tend to forget how much better I feel when I get outside and walk/hike regularly. It is a cleansing of the everyday anxieties that is only found with fresh air and physical activity. I would love to share some highlights of the month so far with you.
It is always so exciting to find and identify a new wildflower! We were on a hike at a very well known trail and there it was…a new flower. I took some photos and then later used my field guide to find out what the name and some interesting facts. This is Johnny-Tuck or Butter and Eggs (Triphysaria eriantha). When we were looking at it closely to make some notes of what it looked like, I noted that it reminded me of owl’s clover and sure enough it belongs to the owl’s clover group. I love the connections that we can learn to make over time between similar flowers and plants.
This has been a wonderful year for all my favorite wildflowers with the amount of rain we have received it has been a bumper year for flowers. Above you can see the special plant that lines one section of our local trail. This Hairy lacepod (or fringepod) is actually blooming right now and developing these jewel-like pods with lacy edges. I enjoyed showing this plant to a friend of mine who has come to appreciate the diversity of plants in our area. [Thysanocarpus curvipes]
We took three different hikes to the American River this month so far. The section above is on the South Fork of the American River and you can see the lupine blooming in the foreground.
This image is from our hike on the North Fork of the American River, again with lupine in the foreground. Two different areas but equally as wild and beautiful.
This image is from a little close to home…my frontyard! I have been working in the yard and enjoying the living creatures that visit each day. This honeybee has his pollen baskets full! That is really the color of the flower on the California lilac…so amazing and perfect to brighten the sides of my front steps.
This is taken from my front deck where I spend a lot of time each day as I sip coffee or read, enjoying the view and sunshine. This Outdoor Mom has come alive alongside the plants and insects this month….feeling more myself than in a long time. I am going to be taking an unexpected trip to the East Coast soon and I hope to carry on with some unique outdoor experiences as I visit my children.
I also hope to work a bit in my daughter’s garden as it comes alive with her New York spring weather. We planted spring bulbs last fall and they are already making a showing…perhaps we will add some summer bulbs on this trip. The image above shows a couple of her garden friends….the chickadee and the ground hog!
Here is a photo from my husband’s travels this month. Taken from his regular walking spot on the river at daybreak. He takes this loop trail a few times a week and he always sends me an image. The water is very high in this picture from all the rain and snow we have experienced in the last six weeks. Such a welcome change from the years of drought!
I’m looking forward to the rest of the month and the Outdoor Hour Challenges that will fill my time. Join me every Friday for more nature study fun!
Whether your family spends a few minutes a week outside or hours at a time, share what is going on in your world.
How Do You Join?
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.
Please note that Ultimate Naturalist and Journey level members have access to members only printables each month in addition to the newsletter printables. You will need to log into your account and then go to the “Other Releases” section.
Need help getting started with your nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study? Check out the fresh “Getting Started” page here on the website!
We are going to anticipate the start of the spring season with a challenge from the archives.
Outdoor Hour Challenge: Signs of Spring
Note: The first day of spring for is March 20, 2016….that is this coming Sunday!
Take some time to go outdoors and look for any signs of spring you can find. If you click over to the challenge linked above, you will find a free printable notebook page to use with your nature study this week.
If you own the Discover Nature Close to Home
book, you can use the information found on the bottom of page 78 to learn more about From Flower to Seed. This section talks about wildflowers and their bloom times. If you are a member here on the Handbook of Nature Study, check your library in the printables section for a Wildflower Bloom Time notebook page. You can use this same idea for a spring wildflower bloom list if you wish. You can access the notebook page by clicking the “members area” button at the top of the Handbook of Nature Study website.
I had a friend ask me the difference between a common mullein and a lamb’s ear. I just happen to have both growing in my yard so it didn’t take me long to pop out and take a few images. The images above are both of the mullein plant and the second year winter seed stalk. The rosette shape of the plant with its blue gray soft and fuzzy leaves grows low to the ground in the first year. Later on it will have leaves that are more upright along the stalk.
The image directly above this is of the lamb’s ear in winter. It grows in more of a clump with no marked rosette. The leaves are also a soft gray-green color and are fuzzy, perhaps not quite as thick as the mullein. In winter you can really see how different the plants are.
If you are observing these two plants in the summer or autumn, you can really tell the difference by the flower stalks. The mullein grows super tall and has yellow flowers and the lamb’s ear has a short stalk and purple flowers.
Here is the lamb’s ear blooming in the spring. You can see it is a low growing purple flower.
This is the tall yellow flowering stalk of the common mullein.
Hopefully this helps you distinguish the two plants….a lot of similarities and some really big differences too!
Here is a website I found with some more of the technical differences: Differences Between Lamb’s Ear and Mullein.
One of my favorite winter nature study activities is to take a hike and look for weeds left from the summer season. They are usually brown and stiff, sticking up out of the landscape even when there is a snow pack. Create a winter weed bouquet for your nature table and use the two challenges below to go a little deeper in your seed study. Create some anticipation for the spring and summer season by talking about how plants are just waiting for the right conditions to spring forth new life again.
Weeds and Seeds Study – This challenge has a free printable notebook page for you to use as part of your seed study.
Winter Wednesday – Winter Weeds – from the Winter Wednesday ebook.
After reading through each challenge linked above, choose one or two things to keep in mind during your Outdoor Hour Challenge time. Enjoy your fifteen minutes outdoors as you look for weeds and seeds. Make sure to show interest in any item your child finds to observe or bring home to your nature table.
Outdoor Hour Challenge
Field Horsetail
Inside Preparation Work:
Outdoor Hour Time:
Follow-Up Activity:
If you want to purchase the Autumn Nature Study 2015 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 Autumn Nature Study 2015 announcement page for more details.
Outdoor Hour Challenge
Prickly Lettuce
Inside Preparation Work
Outdoor Hour Time:
Follow-Up Activity:
If you want to purchase the Autumn Nature Study 2015 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 Autumn Nature Study 2015 announcement page for more details.
