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Fall Scenes: Colorful World

Red leaf and the Squirrel
Red leaf, yellow leaf. Yard art squirrel made with love by my dear husband.

Sweet gum leaves
Sprinkles of color.

Crepe Myrtle leaves
Red crepe myrtle leaf….yellow veins.

Cyclamen leaves
Cyclamen leaves. Shapes and patterns.

Sigh, there is something about the autumn season that is growing on me.

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Autumn Seasonal Weather -Blue Skies

yellow red leaves pines blue sky

We had a perfect morning for a weather study as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge Autumn Series. The air was cold, the wind was blowing, and the leaves were raining down all around us. It *felt* like autumn. Note: This morning it was 38 degrees outside..that is cold.

trees and hummingbird feeder

There are still loads of leaves left on the sweet gum trees but as of this morning, the fall color is breaking through. Reds, oranges, burgundy, and every shade in between are all popping out on the trees.

hover fly on the zinnia

Still a few insect friends in the flower garden…..look at his wings in the sun. Gorgeous and amazing. I think this is some kind of hoover fly.

Seasonal weather notebok page 1

We came back in to warm up with a bowl of soup and then our weather notebook pages were filled in and filed away in our nature journals.

I love having a specific subject for our nature study….it motivates me to spend time with the boys outdoors each week. Don’t let anyone tell you that high school age boys do not enjoy nature study.

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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.

Hiding in the fall weeds

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.

Seasonal Weather Study Autumn

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

 

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Outdoor Hour Challenge: Autumn Series-Cattails

Outdoor Hour Challenge-Autumn Series #1
Cattail Autumn Study

Autumn+Cattail+Study+@handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com.jpg

Cattails are the focus of this nature study and you will either be able to complete the challenge by observing cattails this week or sometime in the future. Look at the reading of the Handbook of Nature Study as a way to prepare you for a future nature study. Be on the look out for cattails as you drive around your local area and you may be surprised to find them in places you did not notice before.

Inside Preparation Work

  • Read pages 500-503 in the Handbook of Nature Study. View the images of cattails and talk about where you can find them in your local area. I asked my boys and they thought of three places near-by that they remember seeing them grow.
  • Print out the Cattail Seasonal Nature Study notebook page and go over the suggested activities so when you have your Outdoor Hour time your children will be prepared for what to look for.

Outdoor Time

Look for Cattails: Spend your outdoor time looking for cattails and then observing them to record their appearance at this time of the year. You will be revisiting this spot in every season to record your observations and to note the changes that take place from season to season. If your child does not want to sketch the cattail, bring along a camera to have them record the appearance with a photo. Remember the things you read about in the Handbook of Nature Study and see if you can complete the Cattails Seasonal Nature Study notebook page with lots of details. Also, look for other living creatures that might make their home in the cattails or that might visit there if you are still and quiet.

Alternate Idea: Use your fifteen minutes of outdoor time to explore your own backyard. Look for something ordinary that you can learn more about during the next week. The most important part of your Outdoor Hour time is to spend a few minutes with your children outdoors, slowing down enough to observe something closely in your own backyard or neighborhood. Keep the atmosphere relaxed and let your child’s interests guide you to find something to observe. Don’t forget to use all your senses and try to include a few minutes of quiet time to experience the sounds of your own backyard.

Cattail+Seasonal+Nature+Study+notebook+page.jpg

Follow-Up Activity

  • Allow your child a few minutes to tell you about their outdoor experience. Help them find a few words to record in their nature journal.
  • Give time for a nature journal entry and remember it can be as simple as a sketch, a label, and a date. Complete the Cattails Seasonal Nature Study notebook page for the Autumn season and file it in your nature journal to compare to future cattail studies. As always, remember that the nature journal entry is a great way to record your outdoor experiences but it is not necessary every time.

Additional Resource for the Cattail Seasonal Nature Study:
There is a great book to look for at your library, Discover Nature in Water and Wetlands. This book has a whole section on studying cattails that I found very useful in preparing this challenge in addition to the Handbook of Nature Study.

Please note these are Amazon affiliate links to books I own and love.

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Weather Study Finally! Outdoor Hour Challenge #39 and #40

We were finally able to do a little weather study today and it was actually fun to be outdoors in the light rain.


It wasn’t too cold either so we took a few photos as we walked around the yard. The deck plants are so pretty and colorful and brighten even this rainy day.


The gray sky really brought the colors in the trees and it was interesting to watch the raindrops collect on the plants in the garden. One sweetgum tree has lost all its leaves but the other is still holding on to its bright red and green leaves…at least so far today. On the right of the photo above you can see our Giant Sequoia tree and how its evergreen boughs are still full and beautiful.

My youngest filled out the Seasonal Weather Study sheet and we filed it away in his nature journal to compare with the coming season’s pages.

This was really a great nature study and I think that watching and comparing the weather each season is going to help us notice more about each season.

 

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Outdoor Hour Challenge #40 Seasonal Weather Study

Autumn weather nature study @handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com
Last week we read through a large section of the Handbook of Nature Study on water forms and hopefully everyone was able to go outside and observe the weather conditions in your particular area of the world. 

We went outside on several days to try to catch some clouds and it just didn’t happen. I am going to save our official entry for last week’s challenge until we can draw some clouds in our journals.

This week we will start a year long, four season weather observation study. This challenge will be to make a record of some sort of your record during the current season….autumn. I have put together a simple weather study notebook page if you want to use it for your records or you can simply record the information in your a nature journal.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #40
Weather Challenge #2
Seasonal Weather Observation-Autumn

1. Read pages 790-791, sections on Thermometer Scales in Use and Distribution of the Temperature and Pressure, in the Handbook of Nature Study. 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

2. Pick a day this week to spend 15-20 minutes outdoors observing the weather and recording the conditions using the My Seasonal Weather 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.

My Seasonal Weather Notebook Page

3. To follow up your outdoor time, 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.

4. For your nature journal this week, fill out the My Seasonal Weather 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 791 of the Handbook of Nature Study for a basic record keeping idea.

 

weather lapbook
You may also be interested in purchasing a complete weather lapbook from my daughter over at Hearts and Trees. The lapbook includes: a winter nature journal, kinds of clouds, moon log, weather words, wind scale, weather record, weather forecasting, and space for your own weather poem. All for $2.95.

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Autumn Tree Study: Our Family Outdoor Hour Challenge #36

Autumn Tree Study
We continued our tree study with the Sweet Gum or liquidambar tree in our backyard.


We had a huge wind and rain storm last night so the tree has lost most of its leaves.

Here were his observations:


The tree has just about lost its leaves. If you look carefully, perhaps clicking the photo to enlarge it, you will see a little bird on the branch of his tree- just the behind section.


The bark is ragged and rough.

I saw ants and a bit of moss on the trunk.

It didn’t smell like anything.

The leaves under the tree were mostly yellow but some were reddish.


I saw the sticker balls on the ground and some were brown and a few were green and heavy.


Where the leaves have fallen off, there are little buds on the tree.

I think he did a pretty good job of observing his tree. He completed the Seasonal Tree Study notebook page for his journal and it is filed away with the other two pages.

One more season to go.

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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.

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Fall Color: Tahoe National Forest

Here are some photos from our nature walk last weekend that I haven’t shared with you. The color of the aspens against the blue sky and greens of the evergreen forest make for a beautiful eyeful of complimentary color.

Would you ever get tired of seeing this view out your window? I would love to build a little cabin in the woods to retreat to when my life gets too stressful.

The Handbook of Nature Study has some wonderful ideas for tree study. From page 622:
“During autumn the attention of the children should be attracted to the leaves by their gorgeous colors. It is well to use this interest to cultivate their knowledge of the forms of leaves of trees; but the teaching of the tree species to the young child should be done quite incidentally and guardedly. If the teacher says to the child bringing a leaf, ‘This is a white oak leaf,” the child will soon quite unconsciously learn that leaf by name. Thus, tree study may be begun in the kindergarten or the primary grades.”

autumn leaves

Page 623-626 has activities to complete during each of the four seasons with your tree. I am anxious to apply these to the study of our tree that we are watching for a year.

I am finding so much to learn about nature in my own area of the world.

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Our Square in the Woods: The Tree (Fall Tree Study)

square 9 28 07
Our square in the woods hasn’t changed much since last month. We did find some green acorns on the ground and there were quite a few more crunchy leaves on the ground.This trip we focused on trying to find some insects on our tree but we couldn’t find any at all. We did enjoy the variety of moss and lichen on the tree trunk.
tree bark with lichen and web
Do you see the different kinds of lichen in the photo? Do you see the spider web?We also enjoyed drawing the tree on our notebook sheet that will include drawings of the tree in all four seasons.
Here are a couple notebook pages you can use for your study:

 

drawing our tree
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This system seems to work for us. We attach an empty ziploc bag to our clipboard and then use it to hold our little “treasures” that we find along the way. Until we devised this system, I always had my pockets filled with items the boys wanted to bring home. Now they can easily slip them into the baggie and hold it themselves.

We used our books to identify the tree as an interior live oak. We collected some leaves and acorns and then took a walk down the hill to see what we could find.

As we walked, we heard some sort of hawk above us screeching loudly. I could tell he was circling around us by the way the sound was carrying over the hill. Here are a few things we saw as we hiked back down the hill to the car.
fungus we think
Some sort of fungus.
buckeye leaves 2
Leaves from a California Buckeye tree
pinecone
A beautiful sappy pine cone.

We had a great morning in the woods and will look forward to checking our square again next month.


That afternoon we ended our day with a bike ride with a friend on a local bike trail. The skies were grey but the boys had enjoyed their day outside.
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