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Posted on October 31, 2011 by Barb — 1 Comment

OHC Blog Carnival – October Newsletter Edition

Have I told you all lately how much I love hosting this carnival? Well, I do….a lot. I think the Outdoor Hour Challenge with its rather simple idea of getting outside with our children a few minutes each week and then sharing together our successes and adventures has become a BIG deal to me. I love every word and image that you put into your entries.

Thank you for sharing with me and with all the readers of the carnival…wishing you all a fantastic November of nature study…just wait until you see the newsletter tomorrow! Inspiring!

Zonnah shared their leaf notebook pages.

Fall Color Walk

Zonnah shares their Fall Colors entry with carnival readers. They made a fall color collage as part of their follow-up…beautiful!
Kristin from Broom and Crown shares their desert fall version of fall color in A Return to the Neighborhood Nature Walk. I think they did a great job using this challenge to focus on their neighborhood color.
Tricia from Hodgepodge Homeschool and her family join the carnival this time with their Fall Leaf Walk. Actually she titled it, “Fall Leaf Walk is Our Favorite and Our Best”. Love that! She also shares how the upper level notebooking pages from the ebook are helping her family. Thanks for your kind words Tricia.
Amy at Hope is the Word has submitted their Fall Colors in Our Backyard #1 for you to click over and read. They focused on the maple in their backyard and did some outside journaling of the leaves. She also shares some great tree book selections. I love Crinkleroot!
Janet from Across the Page has written a wonderful post called Leaf Love. What a joy to read about their leaf walk and to be introduced to a new poem that will be going into my own nature journal. Thanks Janet!
Anne from About a Bug writes about their Fall Tree Study and Fall Color Walk. They did some painting as part of their work and some rubbings too!
You are going to enjoy reading Shirley Anne’s entry from her blog Under An English Sky: OHC – Autumn Color. Not only did they see colorful leaves but they recorded their other color findings in their very well done nature journals. Be inspired!
Angie enters their Fall Color Walk photo journal which shows their Oregon autumn rainbow of colors. They made quite a collection.
Robin from Harris Homeschool writes about their Nature Walk where they found some fall color, then used the Fall Color notebook page to follow-up their outdoor time.
Julie and her son treat us to their fall color walk….in Zion! You can read their entry Fall Colors and see for yourself how they took the OHC on the road. (That is her son with the praying mantis in the photo below!)

Julie’s son found a gigantic praying mantis.

Chipmunks/Squirrels

Julie from the Homeschool Balancing Act shared their day in Zion National Park, this time with journaling, hiking, and squirrels to compare. I would love to go to Zion in the autumn sometime soon to see the colors of the trees and the rocks.
Desiree from Hoeks-in-UK has submitted their Squirrel Hunt entry for carnival readers. Their part of the world does not have chipmunks so they did a great job adapting this challenge for their local squirrels. They followed up their outdoor time with journal pages and an art project.
Tricia from Hodgepodge shares their Chipmunks and Squirrels Nature Study. They chose to spread the study out over a week’s time and complete the suggested activities including the free lapbook from HomeschoolShare. Don’t miss reading their entry.
Makita enters their Chipmunks and Squirrels Nature Study study for carnival readers to enjoy. Their family has lots of experience with both subjects and her daughter has written a report comparing and contrasting squirrels and chipmunks. I love it when families can combine nature study with more academic subjects like researching and writing.

Amy shared their colored leaf activity.

Leaf Study

Jenny Anne from Royal Little Lambs submitted their Leaf Study entry for the carnival. It looks like they really enjoyed making their sketches and rubbings.
Tricia and her children also completed the Up-Close Leaf Study and they share their wonderful entry with carnival readers. They couldn’t find their hand lens so they came up with some clever alternatives.
Zonnah and her son adapted the leaf study and she shares it in her entry, Leaves Up Close. See her image above.
Diana joins the carnival with her Leaf Study and a follow-up art project featuring pointillism.
Desiree shares the Nature Walk and Fall Nature Notebooks with carnival readers. They did a great job recording their outdoor time.

Ellen’s daughter Anya took this gorgeous image of an orb web.

Fall Webs (from last month)

Tricia and her family completed their Cobweb Hunt and How To Draw a Web entry and have submitted it to the carnival. They have a glorious spider to share! Tricia also has shared their follow-up study of a really beautiful web in their backyard. Don’t miss it: More Spider Web Studies and the Shirt To Prove It.
Makita shares their Spiders and Their Webs entry with carnival readers. She even has an intriguing video of two spiders building a web together…interesting! Their family also wanted to share their special Meeting Dr. Jane entry with carnival readers. What an inspirational story!
Ellen has submitted another wonderful entry Webs and Cookies. They did a great finding webs and taking great images. They also followed up with some spider web cookies!

Potpourri

Desiree from the UK shares their Pear Study as part of their first Outdoor Hour Challenge. They did a great job observing, recording, and then eating their pears.
Makita gives us their families Leaf Roller Update. I am so glad that she made the effort to bring home one to look at and then they found some more! Excellent way to get this challenge done. Makita also wrote a wonderful post sharing Self Directed Journaling done by her young son. What an inspiring example.
Makita also shares an unexpected but fascinating field trip with carnival readers: Sweet Tart Cranberries!
Anne is busy learning right alongside her daughters and you can read all about their Constellations – Big and Little Dippers study on her blog Harvest Moon at Home. They also submitted their Grasshopper Nature Study which has some great images and information.
Zonnah has shared their Praying Mantis entry with some awesome up close images!
Kristin from Broom and Crown found a great way to incorporate a little fun in their nature study. Read about it in her entry, Nature’s Maracas.
Leslie and her daughter completed their fall pear study…yummy entry with a wonderful follow-up notebook page: OHC: Yes You Can Compare Pears. They were also able to complete their amazing Milkweed! study too so don’t miss seeing their fantastic images.

Newsletter Giveaway
After a random drawing, the October Newsletter giveaway gift goes to Julie from Homeschool Balancing Act. She will be getting the the Window Star from Ann at Harvest Moon By Hand ($10 value). Congratulations and please email me so Ann can get you your beautiful Window Star. (I LOVE mine!)

See you all next month! Remember that November’s Newsletter link will be for subscribers of the blog only. Please click over to the blog and subscribe using the form on the sidebar.

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Barb — 1 Comment

Our October Bird List and Sparrow Study Using the Handbook of Nature Study

As part of our House Sparrow study, we kept track of the tally of birds who have visited our feeders. We have a regular contingency of sparrows but this month the numbers have greatly increased. We saw two kinds of sparrows this month.

House Sparrows

White-Crowned Sparrows

Using the More Nature Study Challenge for House sparrows, we did some research to see what other kinds of sparrows there are in our neighborhood. We did this by going to the Great Backyard Bird Count website, clicking the Explore the Results button at the top, and then entering our town name. This brings up all the statistics from the latest Bird Count – Bird species, number of birds, number of people reporting observations of a particular bird. I found this very helpful. According to the lists, in February there are lark sparrows, song sparrows, house sparrows, and golden-crowned sparrows seen in our town.

Advanced follow-up notebook page from the More Nature Study with the OHC ebook.

We decided to look those particular sparrows up in our field guide and note their field marks just in case we happen to see these three other species sometime in our area. The trouble is that the females all look very similar. We found the What’s That Sparrow? page on the Cornell website very helpful.

Here is the list of other October birds…we were not as diligent this month at recording our birds but I am going to try to keep it as a daily task for Mr. B the whole month of November. 🙂

October 2011
California towhee
Spotted towhee – first ones we have seen since spring at our feeder
White-crowned sparrows – increase in numbers
House sparrows – increase in numbers
White-breasted nuthatch
Oak titmouse
House finches
Turkey vultures – soaring overhead
Mourning doves
Western scrub jays
Lesser goldfinches
American robin
American crow
Anna’s hummingbirds – still coming in numbers to the feeders

Heard our Great horned owl and California quail
Along the road we saw Wild turkeys, Brewer’s blackbirds, pigeons, Canada geese, and a Snowy egret.
There were also several Red-tail hawks and a Cooper’s hawk on a drive to town.

Do any of you participate in the Project FeederWatch Program? It starts the second Saturday in November and I think our family is going to join in this year since we have made a habit of keeping track of our feeder birds anyway. Do you want to join up too? Click over and read all about it! Or watch a video.

We also are submitting this post to Heather’s Tweet and See link-up.

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Barb — 2 Comments

An Inquiring and Sympathic Spirit – Nature Study

“Now and then, take the children for a ramble in the woods or fields, or go to the brook or lake. Call their attention to the interesting things they you meet-whether you yourself understand them or not-in order to teach them to see and find some point of sympathy; for every one of them will some day need the solace and rest which this nature-love can give them. It is not the mere information that is valuable; that may be had by asking someone wiser than they, but the inquiring and sympathetic spirit is one’s own.”
What is Nature Study? Liberty Hyde Bailey, 1904.

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Barb — Leave a comment

OHC More Nature Study #7 House Sparrow

More Nature Study #7
House Sparrow (English Sparrow in the Handbook of Nature Study)

Inside Preparation Work:
1. Read pages 83-85 in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 20 English Sparrow). Highlight some points you can share about the house sparrow with your children.
2. If you have a bird field guide, use the index to look up the House sparrow and any other sparrows you may have in your area.
3. Let your children see an image of the House sparrow and have them describe what they see. (You may use the information in the Additional Links section below.)
4. Younger Children: Read the Burgess Bird Book chapter on the English(House) Sparrow online. Listen to an MP3 recording of the chapter.

Outdoor Hour Time:
1. Seize the opportunity to observe a House sparrow during your week. This may need to be done from a window at first but outdoors is always better if you can keep still and quiet as you observe. If you have a pair of binoculars, take them along with you so you can view the sparrow’s features. Try to observe their color, size, beak, tail shape, and behavior. Look for House sparrows in your yard in bushes or hedges, in parks, or even around buildings in urban areas.
2. If you don’t have a House sparrow to observe, choose another bird and have your child describe its features. (It is always good to compare size, shape, beak, and tail.)

Follow-Up Activity:
1. After your Outdoor Hour time, take a few minutes to follow-up your bird observation time. Pull out your field guide and learn a little bit more about any birds you were able to view.
2. Allow the opportunity for a nature journal entry, a notebook page, or time to color the accompanying coloring page.
3. Advanced follow-up: Compare the House sparrow with another sparrow in your neighborhood. You can use the accompanying notebook page for your notes (ebook users only).
4. Advanced follow-up: Watch for the House sparrow in all four seasons. Keep a record of what months you see them in your yard or neighborhood.

Additional Links:
All About Birds: House Sparrow
My HubPage on birdfeeders: Birdfeeders in the Winter
Advanced students—for research: House Sparrow

Please note these are affiliate links to products I love and highly recommend.

This challenge is part of the More Nature Study – Autumn series. All of the challenges are gathered into one ebook with notebooking pages (regular and for advanced students) and additional resources. You can gain access to this ebook by purchasing an Ultimate Naturalist membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study. See the Join Us page by clicking the link at the top of the website for more information about what comes with your Ultimate membership.

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Posted on October 19, 2011 by Barb — 5 Comments

Chipmunks or Squirrels? Our Study Using the Outdoor Hour Challenge

When you spend as much time outdoors as our family does, you eventually come across squirrels and chipmunks. Squirrels are an everyday occurrence in our yard but we do not see chipmunks at all. Chipmunks sometimes find us when we are out hiking, always when you stop to eat a picnic at Yosemite. I think the Chipmunk study as part of the More Nature Study series of Outdoor Hour Challenges will be one that is on-going since we were unable this week to observe any up close.

This past summer we had an experience where we thought we had seen chipmunks but turns out they too were squirrels.

This little rodent was very curious about us as we sat on the granite rock taking a rest after a long hot hike. He was not afraid of us in the least bit, begging a bite of our granola bars. We know better than to feed wild animals but he didn’t understand that people food is not good for him and insisted that he investigate our pack from the inside out.

We thought he was a chipmunk because of the stripes but when we got home and pulled up the field guide we realized he was a Golden-mantled ground squirrel. Our book says he is “medium sized” but we thought he was rather small compared to our other squirrels that we observe in our backyard, the Western gray squirrel and the Fox squirrel.

So how can we tell in the future that what we see IS a chipmunk? They have stripes on their head and our little ground squirrel does not.

Interesting facts:

Traditional hibernator- subject of much research on hibernation.
Eats leaves and seeds of grasses, occasionally eats nuts, roots, bulbs, and other underground plant parts.
Lives in the coniferous forest at elevations of 5,200 to 12,500 feet.
It is prey for hawks, jays, foxes, bobcats, and coyote.
Has cheek pouches for carrying food.
Digs shallow burrows (up to 100 feet) with hidden openings.
Cleans itself by rolling in the dirt.

Since we don’t have chipmunks in our neighborhood but we know we see them all the time when we are at Yosemite. Sounds like a good reason to take the drive soon!

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Barb — Leave a comment

Morning Circle Time – Noticing the Gradual Changes

“The morning talk is the most appropriate time for the weather reports, and for the arranging of the pictorial weather chart. different designs are in common use by teachers, and are thoroughly enjoyed by the children. The facts observed each day are of little value in themselves, but are used to lead to thoughts of the gradual change that is taking place – the shorter days, sun lower at noon, cooler winds, early frosts. Consequently the changes in plant and animal life.”
Nature Study By The Months, by Arthur Boyden, 1900.

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Barb — 3 Comments

Found My Orb Web!

We were busy pulling all of the dead and brown things out of the garden when I spotted it! The most perfect spider web I have seen in a long time was right next to the hose reel. I actually touched it before I saw it and it startled me.

The sun was shining just right to see most of it in a photo so I ran inside and snapped a few images to share here on the blog. I called Mr. A and my husband over to take a look and we admired the preciseness of the web and we talked a bit about how it was constructed with a frame and then the web spun around and around.

I took the opportunity to see if the inside threads were sticky like we read about in the Handbook of Nature Study.

Isn’t that grand? I love learning new things alongside my boys….

“The radii or spokes, the guy-lines, the framework, and the center of the web are all made of inelastic silk, which does not adhere to an object that touches it. The spiral line, on the contrary, is very elastic, and adheres to any object brought in contact with it. An insect which touches one of these spirals and tries to escape become entangled in the neighboring lines and is thus held fast until the spider can reach it. If one of these elastic lines be examined with a microscope, it is a most beautiful object. There are strung upon it, like pearls, little drops of sticky fluid which render it not only elastic but adhesive.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 440.

Thanks Anna Botsford Comstock for bringing such an amazing detail to our attention. We have a heightened sense of awe over something we have overlooked our entire lives. Now I can rest our web study for the season, unless a new web presents itself.

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Barb — 1 Comment

OHC More Nature Study #6 Chipmunks

“While the chipmunk is a good runner and jumper, it is not so able a climber as is the red squirrel, and it naturally stays nearer the ground.”
Handbook of Nature Study page 239

OHC More Nature Study #6
Chipmunks

Inside Preparation Work:

Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 239-241 (Lesson 58). Take note of the differences between a squirrel and a chipmunk.
Listen to Chp. 6 in The Burgess Animal Book For Children: Striped Chipmunk and His Cousins.
View this website that has simple information for chipmunks and squirrels: Backyard Nature: Squirrels.
Optional YouTube video: Chipmunks Eating.

Golden Treasury of Natural History from 1952

Outdoor Hour Time:

Go on a chipmunk hunt! Spend a few minutes of your Outdoor Hour time for this challenge looking for chipmunks. Chipmunks and squirrels are diurnal, or active during the day.
If you observe a squirrel instead of a chipmunk, make some observations and comparisons. Compare color, stripes, tail, and behavior.

Golden Treasury of Natural History from 1952 – love the expression

Follow-Up Activity:

Give the opportunity for discussion and follow-up to your chipmunk hunt. Complete a notebook page (ebook users), a nature journal page, and/or the coloring page (ebook users only) for you nature journal.
Advanced Follow-Up: Compare a chipmunk and a squirrel by careful observation. Subjects can include: stripes, tails, behavior, diet, size, voice.
Advanced Follow-Up: Research and record in your nature journal about the method the chipmunk uses for building his home. There is a notebook page in the ebook to record your study.

Additional Links:
Chipmunk Lapbook and Unit Study on HomeschoolShare.com
For Advanced Study: Chipmunks.

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Posted on October 9, 2011 by Barb — 28 Comments

Morning Circle Time – Nature Study

October’s Party
October gave a party; the leaves by hundreds came,
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples, and leaves of every name.
The Chestnuts came in yellow, the Oaks in crimson dressed,
The lovely Misses Maple, in scarlet looked their best.
-Unknown Author

Many families already implement the idea of a morning circle time. Even in our family with high school age children (and above) we meet together each morning for our version of “circle time” because it has been our established routine for many, many years. Circle time is a great time to include some nature study themes and activities. Here are some ideas to get you started and that will tie into your Outdoor Hour Challenge time.

Image from PreKinders

The morning is the perfect time to share daily weather and changes in the trees or plants outdoors. Each day your child can go outside briefly or look out the window to give the morning “nature report”. Younger children can share with their words or use pre-made pictorial cards, then progress to keeping a daily weather/nature journal, and finally older students can record temperatures, wind direction, cloud types, and changes in plants, animals, and birds. (PreKinders has weather themed printables for your circle time activities.)
Memorize a seasonal poem or a stanza from a poem like the one quoted at the top of this blog entry.
If you already include a “color of the week”, why not ask what things in nature are that particular color? Try to get them to dig deeper than the ordinary by building on your outdoor time. You can give them hints to get started by reminding them of subjects you observed outdoors. What did we see yesterday in the garden that was yellow? Can you remember the name of a yellow bird? What yellow object did you sketch in your nature journal last week?
If you have a “number of the week”, ask them to list objects they have learned about as part of their nature study? Can you name four birds? What are five garden flowers? Can you think of six mammals?
You can use this time to work on your verbal skills by having an object from your nature table to pass to each child. They take turns describing the object using as many adjectives as they can.

Gently work into your circle time some references to your nature study and it will make some important connections as your children get in the routine of observing and learning about their very own backyard.

If you haven’t had a chance to read about circle time on Kendra’s Preschoolers and Peace blog, I highly recommend you pop over and take a look.

Circle Time- Plan The Best Part of Your Day: Kendra has an ebook outlining ideas for circle time and she has generously offered to share a copy with one of my readers. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment here on this entry (one comment per person please). Each comment will have a chance in the random drawing of names on Friday, October 14, 2011 8 AM (EST).
Thanks Kendra.

Outdoor Hour Challenges for families since 2008!