winter wednesday series ebook Archives

Posted on March 7, 2014January 14, 2022 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Winter Birds

Outdoor Hour Challenge:
This week take some time to observe your neighborhood birds and document in your nature journal a bird you have noticed during the winter at your birdfeeder or in your yard. This is such an enjoyable nature study topic for the whole family. View from your window if you need to and use some of the ideas in the following challenges:

Winter Bird Study from Winter Wednesday – see this post for ideas to use without the Discover Nature in Winter book.
Winter Bird Challenge-focus some of your time on learning about bird migration using a field guide with migration maps
Bird Nature Journal Ideas – use some of these ideas to record your birds in your nature journal

Bird Themed Nature Table Ideas:
Use some of the ideas in this printable to find items for your children to have access to on your family’s nature table.

Bird Themed Nature Table Printable

Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #5. Use the ideas in this challenge to start or continue your family’s list of birds observed. If you have the ebook, there is a printable notebook page in the back to keep track of your Running List.

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Winter Insect Nature Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge:
This could be the most challenging of all winter nature study topics…winter insects. Don’t give up before reading the challenges and some suggested activities.

Winter Wednesday – Winter Insects
Gall Dwelling Insects

You may wish to see one of our winter insect studies: Winter Insects.

Special Activity:Insect Study Notebook Page

I am reposting the Insect Notebook Page for you to use with any insect your observe or research as part of this Outdoor Hour Challenge.
Insect Study Notebook Page Printable

Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #7. Use the ideas in this challenge to start your own personalized field guide to your backyard and neighborhood. Keep it simple and start with a common insect to your area.

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Barb — Leave a comment

Winter Weed Gallery – Our Weed Study

Winter Weed Study – Outdoor Hour Challenge

When you spend a lot of time outdoors during the winter months, you are bound to notice the various shapes and sizes of winter weeds. Maybe it the lack of other nature study subjects or the more subdued color palette of the winter landscape, but weeds are hard to miss.

These particular images were taken at Yosemite National Park during our last visit in January. The stalks are still standing tall and the fruits are still visible on many of the plants. I am pretty sure this is Common Cowparsnip.

What a lovely pattern found in the winter Cow Parsnip.

This set of images comes from our hike at Lake Tahoe last month. The winter weeds are clearly seen emerging from the snowy landscape.

This is a different plant and had far more seeds left attached to the stalks.

Rather pretty isn’t it? Focusing on winter weeds is one way to see the beauty even in the winter scene. I hope this encourages your own winter weed study…one that you can fit in while taking a short walk.

Have you looked for some winter weeds to study?

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Barb — 1 Comment

Ponderosa Pine Cone Study

We have been on the lookout for tree cones for the past few weeks (as part of the Winter Tree Cone Study) and picked the Ponderosa Pine as our subject for a tree cone study. There are many Ponderosa Pines in our neighborhood and they are easy to spot because of their size and trunk pattern. Our family has done a thorough tree study of the Ponderosa Pine in the past but this time we focused just on the cone.

Here is a close up of the cone showing it’s scale pattern and the sap too.

Here is a cone that the squirrels have taken apart to find the seeds hidden inside. This is a common sight along our local walking trail. It seems where there are Ponderosa Pines, there are squirrels.

I completed the tree cone observation page for my nature notebook. I included an image and some facts about the Ponderosa Pine cone. You can find the printable notebook page here: Winter Tree Cone Study.

Flexible scales
Egg shaped cone
Tipped with slender 1/8 inch prickles that can curve out
Seed is 3/8″ and the wing is 1″
Red and gray squirrels eat the seeds. California quail also eat the seeds.
Overall cone length is 3-6″

All information is from my Peterson Western Trees field guide.

You can read more about our Ponderosa Pine tree study here: Our Pine Tree Study.
We share more about our cone study here: Pines, Evergreens, Cones, and Needles.

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Winter Tree Cone Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Tree Cone Study

This week we are going to look at tree cones. Such a simple nature study that children love! Use the challenges listed below for ideas on getting started with your family’s cone study.

There are a couple challenges you can use for this nature study:
Winter Wednesday – Tree Cones from 2009
Pine Cones – Autumn #9 from 2010

You may also be interested in reading this entry from The Teachable Heart:
Autumn Series #9 – Pine Cones

Printable Notebook Page – My Tree Cone Observations
Here is a simple notebook page to use with your challenge this week. Have some fun observing a tree cone and help your children make a record of their thoughts for their nature journal. I left the box large enough that you can adhere a photo of your cone if you don’t want to sketch.

My Tree Cone – printable notebook page

Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, completeOutdoor Hour Challenge #6. Start a cone collection this week and complete the notebook page provided in the ebook if you desire. See this Pinterest board for display ideas: Nature Display.

Posted on February 12, 2014December 29, 2021 by Barb — Leave a comment

Revelling in the Tree Silhouettes of Winter

We had a break in our rain today and the sun came out for the first time in days. I have been keeping track of our rain totals and in our rain gauge, I measured over fourteen inches in the past four days! It was a steady rain with strong downpours for periods of time…it was a lot of rain.

Today, I spent some time wandering in our backyard and noticing the trees. We live in a mixed conifer forested area so our yard has both deciduous and evergreen trees. The best way to share what I did for the tree silhouette challenge is to post lots of images.

The story really is about the trees. I encourage you to try to observe a bare winter tree both from afar and from underneath its branches. Look at the sky through the crisscrossing of the limbs. Take a photo and save it to compare the summer tree’s shape.

“Children should also become familiar with trees at an early age. They should pick about six in the winter when the leaves are gone, perhaps an elm, a maple, a beech, etc, and watch them during the year.”
Charlotte Mason, volume 1 page 52

Try just one tree if you are overwhelmed by six. Keep it simple and fun for your kids. You may wish to visit this entry for more seasonal tree study ideas:
For The Love of Trees

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Barb — Leave a comment

No Snow Study- Winter Walk Instead

Our winter continues to be warmer than normal…even record-breaking temperatures. As much as I love the warm afternoons and sunshine, I am concerned for the drying up reservoirs and the very dry forest conditions. I know I have no power to bring on the rain and snow so I am trying to make the best of it.

This week’s Winter Snow challenge was a big challenge indeed. We did find a bit of snow up the mountain from our house but not a whole lot. We opted to complete the Winter Nature Walk- Scavenger Hunt activity from Hearts and Trees.

I took an image of the page with my phone and we used that during our hike to remember the things we were looking for as we went.

Here are our results:

An evergreen

Buds on a tree

We decided this duck weed was more interesting than moss.

Trees that have lost all their leaves – aspens

a bird – Steller’s Jay

We didn’t find any berries but this rose hip was certainly colorful.

Something with thorns

Pinecones – The squirrels had lunch on the picnic table!

Feather

One last image from our hike at Taylor Creek. The beavers have been clear cutting a lot of the trees along the water. They have quite a few trees that are ready to fall as well. The dam is getting huge! Amazing creatures with incredible strength.

We are still waiting for some real snow here and I will keep the snow study in the back of my mind for a future time. I hope some of you were more successful with this challenge or you took advantage of the scavenger hunt instead.

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Barb — 2 Comments

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Snow Study

The Winter Snow challenge from the Winter Wednesday ebook is a fun one to have on hand whenever you get some snow. I wish you all a great week of nature study!

Original Challenge: Snow
Use the suggestions in this challenge to complete a snow related experiment, recording the results on the accompanying notebook page or in your nature journal. There are also some additional ideas for non-snow related activities to substitute if you live where there is no snow. You can also use the Winter Nature Walk printable from Hearts and Trees.

Special Activity: Watercolor With Snow
Bring a cup or so of snow in and let it melt. Use the resulting water to watercolor a winter scene.

Watercolor Clouds-Cure for the Winter Blahs

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 a winter scene in your journals or use the notebook page from the ebook to keep a record of your outdoor time.

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 1/30/14.

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Winter Color Nature Study

This week we are going to be completing the World of Color challenge from the Winter Wednesday ebook. This challenge invites you and your family to take a walk outdoors and find some color in your winter world. Even if you have to complete this challenge from your window, it will help train your eyes to see the bursts of color that are out there if you look carefully enough.

Original Challenge: The World of Color.
Don’t worry if you don’t have the Discover Nature in Winter book to use along with the challenge. Take the ideas listed in the blog post to complete a simple color hunt with your children and then follow up with an entry in your nature journal. The journal can be simply a list of colorful things you saw or a sketch of something your child found interesting. Make this a no-pressure challenge for your child.

There are a few other ideas in the ebook to try if you don’t want to go outside for this challenge.

Color Cards For Your Winter Color Study
Use these color word cards to stimulate a fun nature study related activity. See how many of the colors you can find during your winter color hunt.

TIPS: These cards can be printed on cardstock or cut and pasted to index cards. If you only have a black and white printer, have your children color the words or the border with markers before going outside.
Printable Color Word Cards

Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #1. This is the perfect challenge to just take a simple walk outdoors with your children as part of completing challenge #1. Make sure to follow up your outdoor time with a discussion to find out one or two things your child would like to know more about. Don’t worry that you won’t know the answers to any questions they may have…just take the opportunity to learn together using internet resources or a trip to the library.

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Barb — 8 Comments

How To Use The Outdoor Hour Challenge 2013-14

Step By Step Instructions for the Outdoor Hour Challenge

Starting September 1, 2013

Receive the monthly newsletter on the 1st of the month (subscribers to the Handbook of Nature Study blog).
In the newsletter, view the printable Challenge Grid for the four topics for the up-coming month. If the topic is from the archives, I provide the link to the challenge on my blog and the link to the ebook it is from if applicable.This way you can prepare for the challenges ahead of time if you wish.
If you own the applicable ebooks, you can open those and print the coordinating notebook pages to use during the month. This is not required but would supplement the current month’s work.
Print and cut out the newsletter Study Grid or other printable for use during the month.
Complete the challenges at your own pace and create your blog entries as you have time.
Submit your blog entries to the Outdoor Hour Challenge blog carnival. Become part of the global community of nature study families that participates in the monthly carnival of entries sharing how you spent time outdoors with your family.

Big Picture for the Outdoor Hour Challenge

Seasonal Studies: Each month from September 2013 to August 2014 – I am going to be recycling challenges from the archives, pulling them from older nature study series and ebooks. Each month will not be topical but have a variety of nature study ideas that fit the season (Northern Hemisphere). I will also give you ideas from the Getting Started Ebook if you already own that and would like to use it instead or in addition to the seasonal ebooks.

Note that the Getting Started ebook is available in every level of access: Ultimate, Journey, and Discovery.

Resources Needed for 2013 – 2014:

Monthly Newsletter so you have the topic, the challenge ideas ahead of time, and the newsletter printables. The newsletter is free to all who subscribe to my Handbook of Nature Study blog.
Handbook of Nature Study book by Anna Botsford Comstock – I recommend the edition linked on the sidebar of my blog.
Optional but recommended: The seasonal series or ebook that coordinates with the season we are currently experiencing (see schedule below). All of the challenges are available for free here on the blog (see the seasonal tabs at the top of the blog) but each ebook gathers the challenges and includes coordinating printable notebook pages.
Optional: A copy of the Outdoor Hour Challenge Getting Started ebook. Of course, the challenges in the ebook are available on the Handbook of Nature Study blog for free but if you want the notebook pages you will need to purchase the ebook.
Highly recommend: Nature journal or nature notebook.

Schedule of Ebooks to Be Used Sept. 2013 – Aug. 2014

NOTE: This bundle is still available until 8/1/14. You can purchase it here: Select Membership Level.

Fall 2013 – Autumn Series from 2009 (no ebook, free notebooking pages)
Winter 2014 – Winter Wednesday Series
Spring 2014 – Spring Series 2010
Summer 2014 – Summer Series 2010

Special Offer:
Purchase all three ebooks for this year’s nature study for $16.95 (regular price $24.85)
2013-2014 Ebook Bundle

Category: winter wednesday series ebook