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Posted on October 23, 2009 by Barb — 4 Comments

Outdoor Hour Challenge Autumn Series-Seasonal Weather

The challenge this week is one that can be done by every participant without regard to location.

This week we will start a year long, four season weather observation study. This challenge will be to make a record of your weather during the current season. I have put together a simple Seasonal Weather Notebook Page. You can use it for your records or you can simply record the information in your a nature journal.

Outdoor Hour Challenge Autumn Series #5:

Seasonal Weather Observation (See Also Challenge #40)

Inside Preparation Work

Read pages 790-791 in the Handbook of Nature Study which includes the sections on Thermometer Scales in Use and Distribution of the Temperature and Pressure. Read the sections with a view to finding a few facts to share with your children this week about what influences the temperature and the atmosphere around us.

“The heat received on the earth from the sun is the controlling factor in all weather conditions.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 791

It might even be a good idea to purchase an outdoor thermometer so you can record the temperatures in your own backyard.

Outdoor Time

Pick a day this week to spend 15-20 minutes outdoors observing the weather and recording the conditions using the Seasonal Weather Study notebook page. We will be completing a weather study challenge during each season in the coming year and the more detailed you get in your observations, the easier it will be to compare the weather from season to season.

Follow-Up Activity

Spend a few minutes discussing what you experienced with your children. Find out if they have any questions about the weather that you can research together this week. The Handbook of Nature Study on pages 812-814 lists numerous specific weather related activities that will help demonstrate weather concepts for your children. Please complete any of the activities that interest your family and that you have time to complete. For your nature journal this week, fill out the Seasonal Weather Observation notebook page. If you prefer to record you observations into your nature journal and not on a notebook page, look to the sample blank chart on page 807 of the Handbook of Nature Study for a basic record keeping idea.

“Let us make it a daily habit to give a thought to weather conditions; the wind directions; the presence or absence of dew during the hours of evening, night, or early morning; and the readings of the barometer, thermometer, and the weather maps if any are available.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 806

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Barb — 5 Comments

The Right Place…..

Just one of those times that was…..right place at the right time!

What is he taking photos of?

Is it the colorful trees? beautiful clouds?

Wow! Look at that!

This was a complete rainbow and in fact, as we snapped photos, it turned into a complete *double* rainbow.

My son and I had a great time together shooting photos of this awesome rainbow from our back deck.

If you didn’t know already, the Handbook of Nature Study has a complete section on water forms starting on page 808.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

Family Outdoor Hour: Nothing Like an Oak

My oldest son and I had the opportunity to take a long walk together and enjoy the oaks and pines along the walking trail. He has such long legs that he ends up way in front of me most of the time but that gives me a chance to snap a few photos as we walk. He stops every now and then to let me catch up…..yep, I feel like an old lady.

Oaks make me happy. I love the variety of oaks with their different shapes and here in California we have quite a few to study. Last year we kept track of a Live Oak growing in our backyard. We also have quite a few scrub oaks in the back of our property.Here is a previous post on our oaks: Oak Challenge Entry

There is nothing like the smell of warm oak leaves in the sun.

Oak galls fascinate me and the boys think they are pretty interesting as well. Oak galls are basically abnormalities on plants caused by insects. We noticed that there are not as many as usual this autumn and we wonder what that means.

I love the shape of oak trees and this one at my dad’s house is a big old oak. I took an informal poll of my three boys and asked them which they preferred: oaks or pines? Two oaks and one pine…..I think if I had to make a quick answer without thinking too much I would pick oaks as well.

We have noticed how different the acorns are from different kinds of oaks.

We had a wet morning to observe the oaks in our backyard but I really like the way the wetness brought out the texture in the bark.

Here are leaves from one of our oaks. We are assuming the red parts are the new growth. We will have to keep checking to see if we are right.

I really like using the Peterson Field Guide-Western Trees book for our tree identification. The color plates show the leaves, the buds, and the acorns. Once you get an idea of which oak you think you have, there is a reference to a page number to read the narrative account along with a photo and range map. You can find the tree guide listed on the Autumn Series Squidoo lens (scroll down to the additional resources section).

We made leaf prints last week with our oak leaves and they are included in our nature journals for this challenge.

These challenges are helping us stay motivated to get outdoors which is always a good thing.

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

Autumn Afternoon Walk-Surprising Discovery

Just another beautiful oak day with a beautiful sky.

Here we go down the trail. The rain stopped a few hours earlier and we decided to take advantage of the break in the storm to hike down the hill and see what we could see. Little did we know that right after I took this photo we would see something that would make us stop dead in our tracks.

There in the middle of the trail were scattered deer bones and one of the hooves.

A little further down the trail was the biggest pile of bear scat I have ever seen. Yikes. (No photos of that I promise.)

We have been hiking this trail for a very long time and we have never seen either of these things before.

We did a quick consultation and decided to finish our hike down the hill but on the return back up the hill, going past the pile of bones, I started to get a little nervous. I was sort of glad to get back to where we had parked the car…if you know what I mean.

I am not usually spooked by this sort of stuff but it was a big pile of bones and a huge pile of scat. It looked fairly fresh but maybe it was because of the recent rain….or not.

We might hike somewhere else for awhile.

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Barb — 5 Comments

Garden Goodness Before the Rain

It is raining this morning but yesterday I was able to get out into the garden to gather in some goodies. There are now four vases with zinnias on my kitchen table to cheer me up on this gloomy rainy morning.

The veggies are tapering off but are still very welcome at the dinner table. I didn’t photograph the gigantic zucchini that I found hiding under the leaves…how does that happen?

Some of the herbs have gone to seed and are so pretty that I hate to trim them.

The garlic chives have some seeds too…I couldn’t bear to cut them back and this is what happens.

This is my favorite flower of the day with its uncurling ray flowers.

Just think…we are getting to the end of my garden posts for the year 2009. Autumn posts will start to roll in anytime now with the changing season. I need to start thinking about a winter topic for the blog. 🙂

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Barb — 8 Comments

Goldenrod Afternoon-Or Not-Learned Something New

All of the photos above were taken last week on our quest for goldenrod. Turns out after reading up and doing some investigation and actually helping another OH Challenge family to identify a mystery flower, I learned that this is not goldenrod but rather rabbitbrush.

We spent quite a bit of time looking at and comparing photos with our field guide and on Calflora.org. Turns out to be something new to us….Rabbitbrush.

We had a sample of the flower and that really helped us when it got right down to making a firm identification.

We decided to turn to the chrysanthemum for our formal nature study this week and we talked about composite flowers and made a journal entry.

I think we were still successful and learned so much about our local wildflowers. We spent a glorious afternoon on a perfect autumn day together outdoors as a family.

Hat Tip to Alex for the new Flickr tool to make the mosaic with photos. Thanks!

Posted on October 11, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

Fiery Skipper in the Flower Garden and a Few Turkeys

Fiery Skippers in the garden are pretty common this time of the year.

Just as ordinary to our autumn season are the turkeys that wander onto my dad’s property everyday as they make their rounds. Even though they are not my favorite bird, I have come to recognize their beauty…..and also their silliness.

They think if they hold still I can’t see them. They will be as still as statues until some signal goes through the flock and they trot off for cover.

There they go making their little gobbling sounds. Silly turkeys.

Enjoying our gorgeous weather…..perhaps a hike later today.

Posted on October 10, 2009 by Barb — 10 Comments

Our Tree: Tuliptree or Tulip Poplar

Trees are such a part of our life and there are quite a few growing in our yard that delight us during the different seasons. In the past, we chose an oak and then the sweet gum tree to study for a complete year.

We talked it over and decided that our new year-long tree study as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenges will focus on a Tuliptree in our front yard. I was leaning more towards studying the Chinese pistache that is actually in our neighbor’s yard but so close to the fence line that it might as well be in our yard.

The boys campaigned for the Tulip tree and since the whole point is to get them enthusiastic about a tree, we will go with their choice. The photo above shows the top of the tuliptree and to the right of it is our magnolia. The tuliptree is much taller than any other tree in the front yard and gives us lots of shade in the summer.

We talked about the tree for a few minutes before we headed out the door to spend our Outdoor Hour Challenge time observing our new tree friend. We talked about how the robins like to sing from the top of the tree, how the seeds are like helicopters, and how tall the tree is growing. One son added that he likes the tree but it is one of the biggest producers of leaves and soon it will mean lots of raking and composting. I shared how I remembered the blossoms on the tree and the humming of the bees last spring. We already knew quite a bit about our tree so we were anxious to see if we could learn anything new.

We took photos of our Tulip tree and gathered a few leaves to put into the flower press. A journal entry was made so we can compare with our winter study.

Most of the leaves are shaped like this……

But there were some that were shaped like this……

We were wondering why the leaves on the same tree are shaped so differently…..any guesses?

Many of the leaves have fallen already and there are quite a few turning yellow-orange-brown as well.

This is the fruit that turns to the seeds….great helicopter seeds that fall by the thousands.

How about that bark? It has the fluffy green lichen and the flat bright orange lichen as well.

We actually had a squirrel friend spend some time in our tree this afternoon.

This was a great start to our new tree study and this tree will be easy to keep track of since I can see it from my bedroom window. I love watching the shadows of the branches and leaves on the blinds. It makes a great swishing sound in the summer when the breeze blows and during winter storms it has a sway and a creaking sound as it bends in the wind.

We will try to spend some time this week watching as the leaves start to really fall and before you know it, this tree will be bare. 🙂

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Barb — 14 Comments

Making Leaf Prints with Ink

I love it when we can mix nature study and art together and this week we found an excellent project to work on together.

The Handbook of Nature Study suggests making leaf prints as a part of studying a tree (Lesson 173). The directions in the book include gasoline and kerosene and I thought there had to be a more modern and easy way to accomplish lovely leaf prints.

I found this website with easy to follow instructions.
Naturalist’s Apprentice: Making Leaf Prints

We used ink on stamp pads for this project. I have a small collection of colors and we started off with brown. You might try using washable ink pads since your fingers do get a little messy.

You really need to press the leaf firmly onto the ink pad so you probably do not want to use dried up leaves since they will more than likely crumble on your ink pad and leave behind a mess.

After pressing onto the ink pad the leaf doesn’t seem to have a lot of ink on it and I was surprised how beautifully the impression turned out on the paper.

We made a few test prints on scratch paper and then we got busy working in our nature journals. We found that using multiple colors on the leaf made a really nice print.

You can really see the veins and the leaf shape if you press the leaf firmly onto the paper and work carefully so you don’t move it around before lifting it up.

Once you get started you can be a little creative if you have the desire. Wouldn’t it be pretty to have a tree with blue leaves?

We made our prints, added some labels, and now they are securely tucked into our nature journals.

This will be a project we use more often since I like it even better than leaf rubbings. We will be adding an ink pad and a few Wet Ones into our nature pack to use when we are out and about.

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Barb — 8 Comments

Outdoor Hour Challenge Autumn Series-Goldenrod or Other Autumn Flowers

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Autumn Series – Goldenrod

This series of challenges has greatly encouraged so many of us to look at the changing season with new eyes.

Goldenrod is a showy yellow flower that is included in the Handbook of Nature Study. Anna Botsford Comstock encourages us to engage our child’s imagination as we hunt for “golden cities” in our neighborhoods. If you do not find any goldenrod, an alternative autumn flower study could be the aster. You will find information in the Handbook of Nature Study on the aster starting on page 506. You could also study the chrysanthemum using Lesson 131 in the Handbook of Nature Study. Chrysanthemums are available in abundance right now at your local garden nursery in a wide variety of colors.

Inside Preparation Work
Read Lesson 132 (pages 503-506) in the Handbook of Nature Study. These few pages will give you some great ideas for sparking your child’s interest in goldenrod. It is suggested to also read through Lesson 131 on Composite Flowers since the goldenrod is a perfect example of a composite flower to study. Use the illustrations on page 505 to help your children understand a little better what you are looking for as far as disc and ray flowers. (If you still have a sunflower blooming, you can also use it to demonstrate a composite flower.)

Outdoor Activity
Take a “field excursion” to look for goldenrod. In my research I discovered that there are over a hundred species of goldenrod in North America and they can be found in meadows, pastures, and alongside roads and in ditches. Their brilliant yellow color will alert you to their little “golden cities”.

The Handbook of Nature Study suggests on page 506 to notice where you found the goldenrod growing. Did you find more than one kind of goldenrod? How many insects did you find visiting the goldenrod’s flowers? Did you find any galls growing on the goldenrod?
Anna Botsford Comstock says to not worry so much about identifying a particular species since they are difficult to distinguish.
If it is appropriate, choose one sample to take home for further study during your follow-up time. I made a simple nature notebook page for you to use if you wish.
If you are studying an aster or a chrysanthemum for this challenge, I urge you to still read about the goldenrod and take the outdoor time with your children to enjoy the season. There is an Aster Nature Study here on my blog for more ideas.

Follow-Up Activity
Allow time for discussion and a nature journal entry. If you were able to bring home a sample of goldenrod, take the time now to really look for the parts that are discussed in the Handbook of Nature Study. Use Lesson 132 on page 505 to guide your detailed observations of the flower heads. There are suggestions for sketches within the lesson.

If you have a membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study, you can use the Autumn Photo Project activity in the printables section of your membership along with your autumn goldenrod study. Print the page out and take a camera along with you to snap a few of the suggested nature photos. This will keep your whole family involved as you take a walk together.

This is the version of the Handbook of Nature Study that I recommend using along with the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Please note this is an affiliate link to Amazon for a book that my family owns and has used for over a decade.

You can find the notebooking pages that go along with this series of challenges here: Autumn 2009 Free Nature Notebook Pages.

Outdoor Hour Challenges for families since 2008!