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Outdoor Hour Challenge #36 Autumn Tree Study

Autumn Tree Study handbookofnaturestudy

“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. In the winter they will see the color of the bark, the way the branches grow and the thickness of its build.”
Charlotte Mason, volume 1, page 52

The Outdoor Hour Seasonal Tree Study started in the spring and will complete its cycle in the winter. Our family has been anticipating the changes that come with fall. The last week or two has brought about some *huge* changes in our tree and we are anxious to focus this week on our journal pages.

Outdoor Challenge #36
Seasonal Tree Observation-Autumn

1. We started a tree study project way back in Challenge #11 and made our first observations of our tree. Then during the summer we completed a summer observation of the same tree in Challenge #20. If you would like to review this section in the Handbook of Nature Study, you will find it on pages 622-626. This week the challenge includes making the next seasonal observation of your tree. Lesson 172 on page 623 includes five suggestions for studying your tree during autumn. If you are just joining the challenges, pick a tree from your yard, your street, or a near-by park to observe over the course of the next year. Check in the Handbook of Nature Study to see if your tree is listed there and then do the reading about that particular tree. There should be some suggestions for observations that you can follow. You can use the prepared seasonal tree study page to record your observations.

2. Take your 10-15 minute outdoor time to study the tree you are going to observe over the next year. You can take photos of your tree to put in your nature journal or you can sketch the tree in your journal. If you need help with tree sketching you can use this resource.
Clare Walkers’ Tree Guide

3. After your outdoor time, complete your Seasonal Tree Study notebook page or record your tree observations in your nature journal. Take a few minutes to talk about your time outdoors to see if there is anything that your child wants to learn more about. Follow up any interest shown.


You can purchase all of the first ten challenges in a convenient ebook along with custom notebook pages.

10 thoughts on “Outdoor Hour Challenge #36 Autumn Tree Study

  1. Thanks again for keeping us going! Also, I really appreciated todays post about “Bored in Nature.” Most of the time the boys love being outside, but at times my agenda seems to be the last thing they want to do.

  2. Thanks so much for this – I’m finally getting outdoors with my kids, and not feeling like we should be inside doing schoolwork. We are LEARnING, me especially, and enjoying our beautiful yard, weather, and God’s creations.

  3. I’m looking forward to my little one being old enough to do more detailed journaling, but I do love the way it feels to just EXPLORE! Thanks for giving me a little structure to follow in our wanderings!

  4. We finally got this one done! 🙂

  5. I have been slow on posting about our challenges lately. But we certainly have been having a good time with the challenges

  6. We finally got this one done! I was afraid all of the leaves were going to be gone before we got around to it! 🙂

    It was nice to have the push to go outside on a cold rainy day.

    Thanks so much for the challenges Barb!

  7. Thank you for all of your great challenges! We really enjoyed learning about our tree!

  8. Thanks for the great challenges! We really enjoyed getting to know our tree!

  9. Thanks for the suggestion to incorporate this into where we were at (study 3) – the girls really enjoyed choosing a tree, and Miss5 even drew something! Usually she refuses to draw anything free-hand, and just wants me to do the outlines so she can colour-in – which is fine, but I was pleasantly surprised that she wanted to draw the tree this week!

  10. Was there a chlorophyll experient on this site with colored leaves ,alcohol and coffee filters ?

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