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:
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.
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.
This month I will be sharing another of the Western United States’ National Parks. The Channel Islands National Park is one many are not aware of and no little about its beauties.
Channel Islands National Park – link to the official website. There are many things to do if you visit this national park like hiking, camping, kayaking, whale watching, diving, and learning more about the plants and animals that make their home here.
Our family visited in 2008 as part of a trip to the coast of California. We stayed a couple nights in Santa Barbara and then went down to Ventura where we could catch a ferry boat to the Channel Islands. On the mainland in Ventura, California there is a Visitor’s Center that has telescopes where you can look out over to the islands but not much else.
For the rest of the entry…click back to an archived entry to see super images and lots of details.
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.
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.
I want to thank all the participants this month for sharing your February nature study entries with the carnival. I so enjoy reading your entries and sharing all the wonderful insights your family’s have along the way. You inspire me…really!
Our family’s February entries from this month’s study (in case you missed one):
Tree Silhouettes
Lisa from Pilgrims at Tinker Creek shares their Winter Trees entry with carnival readers. They did an amazing job on their maple tree study. Don’t miss the journals!
Kerry from Keeping Up With The Kordishs has submitted their Tree Silhouette entry for you to enjoy. They have picked a plum tree to watch throughout the seasons. Excellent!
Angie from Petra School shows us their Winter Tree Silhouettes in the Pacific Northwest. I especially like the images where the trees are reflected in the lake water. Take a look!
Barbara from The Schoolhouse on the Prairie has put together their Updates and Trees entry for this edition of the carnival. Take a look at all their lovely tree silhouettes!
Janet from Pursing Joy in the Journey joins the carnival this month with her entry Winter Tree Study. They completed a winter tree observation and drew the silhouettes on their notebooking page.
Alex from Life on a Canadian Island submits their Window Nature Study – February entry for you to view. She shares their view and a wonderful tree silhouette…love the lighting in this image.
Winter Cone Study
Cristy from Cristy’s Nature Journal would love for you to click over and read all about their Pine Tree, Pine Cone, and Winter Tree Study. She was encouraged to get outdoors with her children and take a walk in the woods to find some pines to study. They followed up with a pine cone study.
Winter Weeds
Kerry from Keeping Up With The Kordishs has put together a full and enjoyable entry of their Nature Study in February. Take a look at their winter weeds and more.
Angie from Petra School submits their entry, Winter Weeds and Seeds , for you to read and enjoy. She has a new camera and has taken some wonderful images as part of this entry.
Potpourri
Jennifer at Royal Little Lambs has submitted their Bird Study entry for you to enjoy. Their family has been busy studying birds and they would love for you to see their images, journals, and a birdfeeder. Jennifer also shares their Winter Nature Hike.
Alex from Life on a Canadian Island would love for you to pop over and see their Great Backyard Bird Count 2014 results.
Barbara from The Schoolhouse on the Prairie shares their Winter Wish List Continued entry with the carnival. She has some wonderful images of their table top garden. Be inspired.
Eva Varga shares an exciting story of life and death in their entry, Our Local Bald Eagles. Pop over to read all about the on-going story of an eagle.
Janet from Pursing Joy in the Journey would love for you to read their entries, Constellations! and Big Garden Birdwatch. They look like they enjoyed both activities.
Don’t forget to share your blog entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. All entries done inMarch are eligible for the next edition. The deadline for entries is 3/30/14 and you can send them directly to me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com or submit them at the blog carnival site (link on the sidebar of my blog).
February has been a strange month…weird weather, very few birds to count for the Great Backyard Bird Count, and hardly any special nature study events in our home. Just a February that I am glad is melting into March. We are hoping to take a few hikes to stir up some nature interest…hoping you all are enjoying the Nature Photo of the Week Pinterest Board.
Here are my February entries.Look for more images in the up-coming newsletter.
Hidden- Acorns in a fallen tree alongside our walking trail. The Acorn Woodpeckers were busy storing acorns!
Stone: Rock cairns at the river…we had a big hike to the river and found these on the rocks at the beach.
Found: We had a bunch of ladybugs in our front yard one afternoon. I love the contrast of the red ladybug and the gray-green of the lavender.
Details- This is a Bordered Plant Bug climbing on my grape hyacinth. His details make him easy to identify.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ofTrees
I have just completed a complete update of the Spring Nature Study with Art and Music Appreciation ebook. There were quite a few new broken links which is frustrating when you are trying to quickly complete a lesson from the ebook.
If you have the old edition of the ebook (if you purchased before 2/10/14), you are welcome to email me to have me send you the revised edition.
Send me an email with your Paypal address so I can find your order and I will send the new ebook within 24 hours.
I look forward to working through the spring challenges in this ebook alongside you soon!
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