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Posted on November 2, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

Salmon Circle of Life

We were able to experience two kinds of salmon and their spawning this autumn.

The Kokanee salmon are a land-locked species that live in the high mountain lake and then return to the creek of their birth for spawning.

This shallow creek is the perfect place for laying eggs in the gravel.

The fish come by the thousands, swimming and leaping around in the water as they make their way back up the creek from the lake.

The bears are around and we are warned to keep clear of them as they come for their autumn feast of salmon after the fish have spawned and then die.

Even though these are land-locked salmon, they still go through the same changes that their ocean cousins perform. Their colors change and their jaws and teeth become more prominent.

They wiggle a little dance to court the females and then fertilize her eggs. It is amazing to watch.

There are two bridges that you can watch the fish from and on this day there were quite a few nature lovers out there viewing the fish ritual.

The ducks, gulls, and eagles all depend on the salmon spawning for their autumn diet. We didn’t see any eagles on this day but the ducks were present.

They eat the freshly laid eggs if they get the chance.

Our second salmon observing opportunity came this past weekend at the American River above Sacramento. There is a fish hatchery below a dam where the salmon will make their way up the fish ladder.

Here is the ladder the salmon will leap up as they make their way to the hatchery. The officials were waiting until the next day to open the gate that ajoins the river to the ladder.

We were a little early but we were still able to observe the *huge* Chinook salmon waiting at the gate to climb up. They were actually jumping up out of the water and slamming into the metal gate. One sign says they can leap out of the water nine feet!

The Chinook are much larger than the Kokanee and we decided it was because they have a much longer migration journey. They travel round trip 2,000 miles from their birthplace, down the American River, through the Sacramento Delta and then out into the Pacific Ocean. Two or three years later, they make the return trip and end up at their birthplace again….changing from freshwater fish to saltwater fish and back again.

The hatchery we visited has a lovely visitor’s center to learn more about the cycle of life of the salmon.

Trout are filling the holding ponds of the hatchery at the moment. There are steelhead and rainbow trout to view. In a month or so the steelhead will start their journey up the fish ladder and we may take time to visit again.

We had an additional observation of the rainbow trout a few weeks ago at a local pond that they stock for the kids to fish in. They are such beautiful fish and very tasty too. (I’m surprised I didn’t encourage us all to taste test the salmon and the trout…next time.)

So for our Outdoor Hour Challenge we were able to compare two different species of salmon as well as the salmon to the trout.

Our favorite is still the Kokanee salmon in its wild habitat and its unique cycle of life.

Here is a nature journal entry I made a few years ago featuring this colorful amazing fish.

Here is one from my son’s portfolio…oil pastels.

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Barb — 4 Comments

OHC Blog Carnival – October 2010 Fall Inspiration Edition

Welcome to October’s Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival! The days are definitely shorter and the temperatures are cooling off here in Northern California. The opportunities are still available for some wonderful nature study and our family has been snatching up quite a bit of time outside both in formal and informal enjoyment of the season.

The Autumn Series of Challenges are moving right along and I have enjoyed reading and viewing the outdoor time your families have shared in your entries. So, here is your carnival….sending big thanks to everyone who participated. You will get a wonderful sampling of what has been accomplished if you read each of the following carnival entries.

Signs Of Autumn
Jamie from See Jamie Blog joined us for this carnival with her entry that shares their autumn signs…don’t miss her daughter’s list.

Lynn shares their Autumn Signs from her blog, Nature Notes.

Autumn Series #2 Autumn Bird/Geese
Paula and her daughter from Belgium share their autumn bird study of the nuthatch. Read their entry, Bird Study in Town.

Another unusual autumn bird study comes from Amy in Peru. Read their entry on her blog, Fisher Academy International. They ended up comparing two of their local birds and adapting the study to fit their part of the world.

Autumn Series #3 Horses
Melissa submits their family’s horse study, With Flowing Tail and Flying Mane. Love the title and all that she writes about in her entry to the carnival.

Angie from Petra School links up with their autumn horse/dog study. She shares how they pulled in some drawing activities to compare and learn more. Great idea!

Phyllis and her family share their horse challenge experiences in their entry to the carnival. What a wonderful study and the photos really tell the story.

Tricia from the Hodgepodge Homeschool has linked up with their horse study and their experiences. One of their observations comparing horses and dogs was, “Both horses and dogs can nudge you with their noses when they want attention.” Perfect!

Autumn Series #4 Apples
Phyllis from All Things Beautiful links up to the carnival with their family’s apple study. Don’t miss the pastel art at the end…lovely.

Paula’s daughter shares their Apple Study from Belgium. Paula has adapted all the autumn challenges to fit their European habitat. She also includes some book suggestions to check out.

Monica from Discover Their Gifts writes about their apple study and how they compared thirteen different varieties of apples. Great job on this study and the journals!

Tricia met up with Angie (The One Thing) for some apple study. What is nature study without a little dirt? They had a wonderful afternoon, I loved seeing their photos and catching up with Angie’s boys. Thanks Tricia for sharing your day.

Autumn Series #5 Autumn Tree/Leaf Study
Angie from Petra School shares their wonderfully encouraging and informative study of autumn trees/leaves. Thanks Angie.

Tricia from Hodgepodge Homeschool submits their entry to carnival with their autumn leaf study. What a rich and full study of leaves at this time of the year. Don’t miss their journals.

Phyllis at All Things Beautiful shares their tree study with a tree I have never seen before. Pop over and check out their osage orange tree study.

Mauren from Homeschool Mo shares how they adapted the autumn tree/leaf study to their preschool day.

Autumn Series #6 Queen Anne’s Lace/Weeds
Tricia from Hodgepodge Homeschool decided they didn’t have to travel farther than their backyard to find some autumn weeds to study. Read all about their nature study as part of Autumn Series OHC #6.

Amy from The Teachable Heart shares their excellent study of Queen Anne’s Lace and how she adapted the study to fit their preschool age boys. She used some garden carrots to compare to the Queen Anne’s Lace…excellent idea!

(Autumn means hanging a few more birdfeeders and filling the ones already up there.)

Outdoor Hour Challenges-Other
Karen writes on her blog The Fruit of Her Hands about their Outdoor Hour Challenge #2. I think they did a great job of coming up with words for their time outdoors. I am sure she would love to hear some encouraging words as they set out on the OHC trail.

Rhonda at Preparation Education didn’t need to go farther than their own backyard to find a subject for their weekly nature study. Read about their dragonflies and see their journals as part of the carnival.

Amy from Hope is the Word submits to the carnival their Outdoor Hour Challenge #1. They have gone back to the beginning of the challenges and in this entry they come across some armadillos!

Makita from Academia Celestia shares their pine cone study which includes some wonderful journal examples for you to check out.

Phyllis from All Things Beautiful writes about their mushroom study. She has a photo of a fairy circle that will amaze you!

That wraps up this edition of the carnival. I hope you enjoy reading what other families are outside doing for nature study and how the Autumn Series is helping us learn a little more about our own backyards and neighborhoods.

Please consider submitting your Outdoor Hour Challenge entries to the next carnival. Deadline for submissions will be November 30th, 2010 and all entries from November are eligible. Here is the link for submissions: LINK.

Thanks again,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Posted on October 29, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

Autumn 2010 OHC #7: Fish Study-Trout and Salmon

Outdoor Hour Challenge Trout and Salmon @handbookofnaturestudy

Autumn Series #7
Fish Study: Trout and Salmon

Inside Preparation Work:
Trout: Read pages 156-158 in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 40). Much of this information seems outdated but if you Google search “trout fishing NAME OF YOUR STATE” you will probably find enough current information to fill in the gaps. Try to determine what kind of trout you have in your area: Rainbow, Brown, Cutthroat, Brook, Golden, or Lake. Here is some additional information on the Brook Trout (includes a video).

Salmon: There are no specific pages in the Handbook for the salmon but there is plenty of information online to use as part of this challenge. Here is a coloring book for the Pacific Salmon and Steelhead that is excellent (this download link keep disappearing so do a Google search for it if you can’t get it from the link provided). You can print the entire book out and use it to pre-study salmon. Here is the Atlantic Salmon version. Make sure your child understands that the salmon lives part of its life in saltwater and part in fresh water.

Compare a Trout and a Salmon

Does it live in fresh water or salt water?
Size, color, shape, markings, placement of fins, eyes.
Where do they lay eggs, how is the nest made, and how are the eggs protected

Outdoor Hour Time:
This is the perfect time for a field trip to a fish hatchery in your local area. Google search “fish hatchery list YOUR STATE NAME”. This will usually give you at least one good lead to where you can visit to see fish up close. If you cannot find a hatchery to visit, ask someone you know who is a fisherman if they could bring you a fish to observe up close. As a last resort, visit a local pet shop or an aquarium and look at any fresh water fish.

Follow-Up Activity:
Lots of choices for this challenge as part of your follow-up: Coloring book pages from above, the trout notebook page or the salmon notebook page in the Autumn ebook, a blank page in your nature journal, or the Venn Diagram activity suggested above. There is also a Salmon Life Cycle notebook page in the ebook. Have your child narrate what they learned from this challenge and help them write about it in their nature journal or on their notebook page.

Extra Resources:

Grizzly Bears and Salmon video on YouTube
Trout Fish Hatchery Video with examples of Golden and Rainbow Trout
Atlantic Salmon: coloring page and images to print
Brown Trout: coloring page and images to print
Grizzly Bear: coloring page and images to print (just for fun)

Note: This nature study challenge can be found in the Autumn 2010 ebook.

If you would like to own this ebook, it is part of the Ultimate Naturalist Library for members. You can find more details on how to get your own membership here: Join Us!

Ultimate Ebook Library @handbookofnaturestudy

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Posted on October 22, 2010 by Barb — 3 Comments

Autumn 2010 OHC #6: Queen Anne’s Lace or Other Autumn Weed

Autumn Series #6
Queen Anne’s Lace Year-Long Study
Autumn Observations

“The object of this lesson should be to show the pupils how this weed survives the winter and how it is able to grow where it is not wanted. The weed is very common along most country roadsides, and in many pastures and meadows. It blossoms very late in the autumn, and is available for lessons often as late as November.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 544

Inside Preparation Work:
Read pages 542-545 in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 148). If you started your year-long study of Queen Anne’s Lace in the summer, these pages will be a review, but read with an eye to looking for changes between this season and the last. Pick out a few points from the lesson to use in your outdoor time observations. One thing that can be pointed out before going outdoors is the difference between Queen Anne’s Lace and Poison Hemlock.

Compare Queen Anne’s Lace and Another Weed in Your Yard

Where are the seeds located? How many seeds are there? What color and shape?
Look at the flower and/or seeds and decide how the seeds are dispersed. (wind, water, attachment, etc.)

Outdoor Hour Time:
Option 1: The challenge is to go back to your patch of Queen Anne’s Lace and make some autumn observations. There should be some dramatic changes from your last study. This plant is also called a Bird’s Nest or Wild Carrot and you might ask your children why they think this plant has so many names. Use the suggestions above to compare the Queen Anne’s Lace with another weed that you observe. Observe closely with a hand lens the seeds since they will be the most predominant feature of the plant at this time.

Option 2: Since I know there will be some families that do not have Queen Anne’s Lace to observe, you can substitute outdoor time in your own backyard instead. Find a different plant to observe if you can, any weed that is still present in your backyard will be a good subject for study. Use the suggestions above to compare any two weeds you find. Remember the most important aspect of any challenge is to find something of interest to your child…even weeds can be interesting if you take the time to look closely.

In Addition to Options 1 and 2:
Collect a few autumn weeds to bring inside to observe. Look at the leaves, the dried flowers (if any), and any seeds or pods. Make note of the colors and textures.

Collect a variety of seeds from weeds in your yard or neighborhood, perhaps placing each different kind of seed in a separate plastic sandwich bag. Sketch a few of the seeds in your journal and label the drawing with the plant’s name (if you know it), the date, the location you collected the seed from, and how you think the seed is dispersed.

Follow-Up Activity:
If you didn’t have the opportunity to talk about Queen Anne’s Lace or weeds during your outdoor time, take a few minutes to discuss your discoveries. Complete the Queen Anne’s Lace notebook page or the other autumn weed study page in the ebook or make an entry in your own blank journal. If you haven’t done so already, complete a Venn Diagram comparing two plants you observed during your outdoor time. Display your weeds in a vase.

Note: This nature study challenge can be found in the Autumn 2010 ebook.

If you would like to own this ebook, it is part of the Ultimate Naturalist Library for members. You can find more details on how to get your own membership here: Join Us!

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Posted on October 21, 2010 by Barb — 4 Comments

Seasonal Tree Study and Leaf Comparisons

I don’t usually enjoy the fall season…it is a melancholy time for me. I love the barefoot days of summer and the hot afternoons working in the garden or swimming in the pool. I would much rather be hiking in the green, green hills with wildflowers blooming at my side in the springtime. The promise of spring and the activity of summer are much more likely to gain my vote for “favorite season”. Winter is the enduring time, the time for preparing for spring and summer.

Autumn days are soon filled with colored leaves, falling leaves, and raking leaves. It seems to creep up slowly but then you wake up one morning to find that the leaves are starting to turn colors…..oranges, reds, yellows, golds, purples.

Observing autumn trees and looking close though, you will see spring’s leaves preparing for the winter.

So here we are in the middle of our autumn challenges and making the best of what the season has to offer. We gathered a few leaves to compare and my son reminded me that we did an in-depth study of leaves and their parts as part of our biology study.

I went to the shelf and pulled out his biology notebook and his nature journal and we thumbed through to find our completed study.

So now what could we do to learn more about leaves?

First of all, I shared with my son the idea that I gleaned from Amy at The Teachable Heart and her family’s study of autumn leaves. She actually color copied the leaves for their nature journals and they looked wonderful. I thought maybe we could do the same for our tree and other fall leaves that we were comparing just for a change in our journals.

We had already decided to choose another tree to study for a year-long tree study, the birch tree in our backyard. We gathered a few leaves and took a closer look at the tree while we were out there.

Welcome to our new tree for the year! We are excited to see what we can learn by looking at and comparing this tree to our previous tree study subjects.

These catkins are such interesting things to look at and we looked up some more information in our tree guide after our outdoor time.

We brought some inside to look at with our loupes and to draw in detail in our nature journals.

While we were out we looked at several other kinds of leaves….the dandelion growing in my pot is such an interesting shape in comparison to our tree leaves.

How about these leaves on the broccoli? Amazing gray-green color.

Our coleus is still giving us blazing amounts of color in the container garden on the deck. It makes me happy just to look at these leaves.

It had to go in my nature journal.

Watercolor pencils are fun to work with in your nature journals and we always have a set sitting on or near our work area table. It is easy to sketch quickly and then come back later to add water and details.

I will end my entry here since this journal is getting quite long. We are enjoying the connections between our biology study and our nature study using the Outdoor Hour Challenges.

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Barb — 8 Comments

Apples-Autumn Series Challenge Day

Autumn came this past weekend to our world and we awoke to sprinkles of rain on the ground. It wasn’t much so we didn’t let it cancel our plans to head up early to the apple orchards to find some apples to sample and use as part of our apple challenge.

Our traditional autumn outing always starts off with apple cider doughnuts….there are plain, glazed, crumb, and cinnamon spice varieties to enjoy along with your big cup of steaming hot coffee. The crumb doughnuts were the first to be eaten. We were early enough to have a good spot to sit to eat and enjoy the mountain air.

Then the real business of the day was at hand, choosing a few new kinds of apples to try. We were disappointed that they did not have Honey Crisp to purchase since I had read on several blogs about their wonderful taste. In the end, we settled on Empire, Jonagold, and Mutsu.

Empire is a cross between Red delicious and McIntosh.
Jonagold is a cross between a Jonathan and a Golden Delicious.
Mutsu is also known as the Crispin.

Our official taste tests were interrupted when we decided to make the Mutsu apples into a pastry dessert. Mr. B had already created a wonderful dessert a few months ago with some apples and he repeated his recipe for us to enjoy again.

We compared the sizes, colors, shapes, and tastes of the apples, noting the seed patterns, the skin textures, and the skin thicknesses as we cut and peeled the apples for the pastry and some applesauce.

Some of the apples were so large that they would be a complete meal all by themselves! My dear husband announced that although he enjoyed the new varieties that we picked out, he still loves the Granny Smith for eating the best. Go figure.

This was a delicious challenge for our family and we learned a little more about the different local varieties of apples available for eating and baking.

Posted on October 17, 2010 by Barb — 11 Comments

An Autumn Tree Observation Extraordinaire

We decided that our autumn study of leaves was going to be incorporated into our annual fall trip to see the colors of the aspens up in the high country of the Sierra Nevada. The trip is about 100 miles round trip from our front door but it goes through magnificent forests, by snow fed lakes, and in view of some of the most breathtaking mountains in existence.

The first leg of the trip goes through the pine forests and we thought our day had come to an end before it really started when we encountered a control burn of the forest floor by the US Forest Service. They clean out the underbrush by setting fires and then controlling the burns. It makes a lot of smoke but we were able to drive down the highway and past the fires onto our destination.

The second part of the forest is actually in Alpine County and the forests are mixed in with aspen groves to make wonderful color in the fall. You know the minute you hit this part of the habitat because you start to see the yellows, oranges, and golds of the leaves.

We have a favorite side road that has the prettiest meadow. Yes, that is my son out there taking just as many photos as I am on this day….it is awesome to share a hobby with your grown up kids.

Here you can see the shape of the aspen leaf and the trunk of the tree in all its beauty. I never tire of looking at aspens.

It was fairly cloudy this afternoon but for a few minutes the clouds parted and we had a chance to capture the blue sky in contrast to the bright yellow leaves.

We drove the next leg of the road which leads through a place called Hope Valley. This is “the” place to see fall color in our area. There were many of us lined up on the side of the road to capture the oranges and yellows and golds of the trees on the mountain. Isn’t it dreamy?

Then as we headed back around to Christmas Valley, we saw this scene. There were some people on horses rounding up a herd of cattle. Stop the car! Yes, we had to take a few photos of this and it was the perfect way to end up this part of drive.

We observed some of the leaves “quaking”. We learned from our field guide that the reason they shake that way is because the stem is flattened near the leaf and so when the wind blows they shake or quake. It sounds sort of like the ocean to me when you hear them quaking and is a nice sound. Here is a link to try: USDA Quaking Aspens.

There was more to this trip but I will save that for another post. We actually went to see the salmon spawning and there were quite a few ducks to observe as well. Stay tuned for a salmon post when that challenge comes up in a few weeks.

I also am going to post a separate entry for our leaf comparisons since this post became rather long. Stay tuned for part two. We also have picked a new tree in our backyard to observe for a year-long tree study and I will share our fall observations with the leaf post.

Today we will be working on the apple challenge but the horse challenge is still in the works.

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Barb — 3 Comments

Review: Observing Nature-A Journal Sketching Guide to Discovering Your Natural Environment

Observing Nature – A Journal Sketching Guide to Discovering Your Natural Environment

The moment I printed this plan out and put it into a binder, I knew I was going to like the approach taken to help teach children (and adults) how to tap into their observation skills and translate them into their nature journals. This is a wonderful plan for homeschoolers to use on their own or through a co-op. If you are interested in learning how to help your children learn how to create wonderful nature journal entries…read on!

There are two parts to this review.

Observing Nature-Teacher’s Manual

This 18 page teacher’s manual is very well put together and gives enough detail that you would feel confident to teach a whole group of students about sketching and journaling. The targeted age group is 8 years old and up but I did not feel it was too easy for my high school age boys.

Here is a link to the Course Objectives and example of a completed journal page.

Valuable aspects of the Teacher’s Manual:

Directions for gathering and displaying observation trays.
Supply checklists.
Thorough instructions for teaching the three student projects, see LINK.
A class plan with suggested time values if you are going to be teaching this course to a group of students. Also a plan for an assistant if you are so lucky to have one in your co-op. The author suggests teaching the entire workshop in one session but after that you can practice the skills over a period of time.
Template to print out for making collection or observation boxes…very handy.
$24.95 as a PDF download.

Observing Nature Student Guide

This workbook style guide will work alongside the activities suggested in the teacher’s manual.
There are exercises right in the guide that will help your child become better observers and as a result, better at recording their observations in a nature journal. (SAMPLE)
There are plenty of examples to view and in the back of the workbook there are reference drawings for plants, insects, reptiles, birds, mammals (SAMPLE) and tracks.
My favorite part of the guide is the Question Page. This page gives your child lots of journal prompts to make the nature journal entries come alive with their own words.
There are blank journal pages in the guide for your child to use in getting started with their own sketching. We were able to glean some fresh ideas from these pages for our own personal journals.
Once you buy the student workbook you can print as many copies as you need for your family or co-op.
$24.95 for PDF download.

I would give this plan a big thumbs up as far as value, content, and organization. These may be the plans your family needs to jumpstart your nature journals and/or breathe some fresh air into some nature journals that are becoming ho-hum.

Please note:
I received these ebooks in exchange for a fair and honest review. I only review items I have personally used and would recommend to my readers. Also, I am not affiliated with Nature Works Press and I will not receive any compensation if you purchase these ebooks. My sole motivation for writing this review is to share another valuable tool with families that might like this sort of guide to use personally or in a co-op setting.

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Barb — 1 Comment

Garden Update and View from Under the Walnut Tree

The weather has been a little bit cooler in the mornings so we were able to get out and clean up the garden boxes. I pulled the first of my compost from my compost barrel and mixed in the rich black soil as I readied the boxes for a few cooler weather crops….carrots, lettuce, and peas.

There are still plenty of zinnias ready to bloom, herbs growing strong in the sunshine, and the tomato is still forming some small green fruits.

I was making a list of possible things from our garden that we could study from the Handbook of Nature Study and I realized there are few things blooming that we need to get to before too long.

Our list:
Salvia: Lesson 161
Black-eyed Susans: Lesson 140 and 131
Pansies: Lesson 152 (we are going to do this one again)

My son brought me this leaf that he found in the yard….he thought the red edges were unique. I feel another nature journal entry coming on for us with this pretty leaf as the star.

We also cleaned up under the walnut tree and the view from under the branches is the perfect way to see the autumn sky. Before too long all the leaves will fall and we will have a different sort of clean-up day but we did enjoy this day and feeling a sense of accomplishment. Gardening is like that….you get to feel the satisfaction of a job well done.

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Barb — 1 Comment

Butterfly Beauty

Over the last few weeks we have seen lots of these beautiful butterflies in our garden.

It is a California Sister or Adelpha californica which is found in oak habitats. These butterflies are not shy and they will flutter right around your head, swooping down to tease you. Today when we were watching another California Sister, a bird tried to fly down and catch it but we learned how *fast* these butterflies can move if they have to!

Our front yard has quite a few butterflies this month since we added several new butterfly attractive plants during our remodel. I will soon share a post with all the updates.

Outdoor Hour Challenges for families since 2008!