Colors in Nature Archives

Posted on December 17, 2022December 21, 2022 by Barb — Leave a comment

A Robert Frost Style Winter Nature Study for Your Homeschool

You can enjoy a Robert Frost Style winter nature study for your homeschool! Frost’s poem, Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening can be a jumping off point. Enjoy these ideas for your snowy adventure.

There was so much snow in our favorite woods…it brought to mind the Robert Frost poem that we have been reading in our poetry study the past few weeks.

A Robert Frost Stopping By The Woods Winter Nature Study

“Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.”
Robert Frost (Few lines from Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, 1923).

Using Snowshoes or Cross Country Skis for a Snow Hike

Our Winter Wednesday color walk and cattail observations were combined into one snowy hike…snowshoes firmly attached. It started off with 18 degree weather but by the time we finished it was around 40 degrees, sun shining brightly.

Look for Winter Colors in Your Homeschool Nature Study

We started off with not much aim other than looking for colors and finding the cattail pond. I decided that it is nice to have something in mind as we head out in the really cold air….otherwise you keep your eyes down and forget to look up and out.

The color palette of this snowy world is actually quite beautiful. The blue sky, the evergreen pines, the red-yellow-orange of the shrubs, the colorful lichens, and the blue of the lake really stand out against all the snow.

Our cattails this year are quite secluded and we aren’t even sure if we will be able to get out here since we think this is marshy in the spring and summer. It will be interesting to see how the terrain changes by the season.

Look at the mountain covered with snow! The colors really pop when you have all this whiteness going on…blue sky, reddish-oranges of the willow and dogwood, green evergreens.

Keep Your Cross Country Ski Route in Mind

It seems unlikely that we would get lost but we did wander around following someone else’s path. It is a really good idea to have in mind a route when you are out in the woods like this. We knew our general direction but you get tired trudging through large amounts of snow even with snowshoes on. (I also got hot…too many layers.)

Our problem was that there are two large creeks that run through the snowy meadows and if you don’t plan it right you are stuck on one side with the water running between you and the rest of the path. I could see where animals had just jumped across the gap but with snowshoes on, you don’t jump very well. We had to find a way to go around.

Another factor is that with all this snow, our familiar landmarks are erased. The bushes are flat with snow and there is far more water than we are used to. All those lumps are bushes weighed down with a couple feet of snow. You can’t really hike over the top. Going around again.

In the end, we made it back to the car by following the creek and finding the bridge. It was a wonderful romp through the woods, successful in refreshing our hearts with some wonderful awesome vistas that you would never see if you didn’t break out the snowshoes or cross-country skis.

A Homeschool Snow Study

If you don’t have snowshoes or cross-country skis, you can still enjoy a fun homeschool snow study! Browse all of these fun ideas: Homeschool Snow Study

A Robert Frost Art Lesson and Tea Time

Follow up your outdoor hour time with a fun art and homeschool tea time! Fun ideas for Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening Homeschool Tea Time with You ARE an ARTiST. A printable Robert Frost poem is included in ARTiST Clubhouse membership.

You might also like a Winter Snowflake Study with Snowflake Bentley.

More Winter Homeschool Nature Study

Here are even more winter nature studies for you to enjoy together:

January Nature Studies Perfect for Winter Homeschooling
A Winter Tree Study for Your Homeschool
Nature Study Crafts for Kids – always a fun thing to do indoors!
Simple Ways to Study Nature in Your Homeschool This Winter
How to Find the Joy of Nature Study in Your Own Backyard

Join Homeschool Nature Study Membership For a NEW Outdoor Hour Challenge Each Week!

Be sure to share photos of your Robert Frost winter nature study with us! Tag us @outdoorhourchallenge

Be inspired. Be encouraged. Get outdoors!

Written by Outdoor Hour Challenge founder, Barb McCoy in 2011. Updated by Tricia 2022.

Posted on December 27, 2021December 27, 2021 by Barb — 7 Comments

Greens of Winter, Moss and Lichen Homeschool Nature Walk

We are continuing our festive theme of finding Christmassy reds and greens in nature. This homeschool nature outdoor hour challenge includes the greens of winter with a moss and lichen nature walk. Here is how you can enjoy a greens of winter nature walk too!

Take a Walk to Find Greens of Winter in a Moss and Lichen Homeschool Nature Walk

Greens of Winter, Moss and Lichen Nature Walk

It was a cold, frozen day but if we stopped and looked closely….there was beauty all around us.

These lichens are just so interesting! Did you know that lichens are not plants at all? The are complex organisms formed by a symbiotic relationship between fungus and an algae. They will certainly make for a fascinating, in-depth study!

Even on the tree branches it was beautiful. So many shades of green!

After a bracing walk hunting for these wonderful non-vascular plants, an afternoon spent painting in your nature journal may just be the perfect way to wrap up the day. You might even decide to paint while warming up next to a warm fire.

Not up for an outdoor walk due to the weather? We share details on Taking Your Winter Nature Studies Indoors.

Join the Nature Study Homeschool Membership for Helpful Tips Year Round

Next week we start our first Outdoor Hour Challenge (OHC) of the new year. We will be looking at winter tree silhouettes. The nature study plans for 2022 and the corresponding ebooks are available for our members to download. Be sure to download in preparation of an exciting new year of outdoor hour challenges.

Greens of Winter, Moss and Lichen Nature Walk - Continuing the theme of festive colour found in nature, join us on a greens of winter moss and lichen nature walk.

If you are not yet a member but would like to join and receive access to all the curriculum books, the interactive nature study calendar and fresh new posts every Friday then please consider joining the homeschool nature study membership now.

Join the Homeschool Nature Study membership Now

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Did you enjoy this Outdoor Hour Challenge? Be sure to tag us on Instagram @outdoorhourchallenge and use the hashtag #outdoorhourchallenge so we can see and comment!

Posted on December 10, 2021November 12, 2024 by Barb — 3 Comments

Winter Homeschool Nature Study: Green And Red Challenge

We decided to repeat last year’s Winter Challenge on a recent hike. This homeschool nature study is perfect for the season.

Our Winter Homeschool Nature Study

We had planned on leaving in the early afternoon but it actually started to rain so we postponed it for a few hours. The rain stopped eventually and it was amazing how beautiful everything was as we hiked along the trail.

The colors were vivid and we noticed a few outstanding things to share.

Green And Red In Nature

We found some beautiful green moss covering stones and trees. Isn’t so vibrant and bright? It stands out from the winter grey making it hard to pass by. If you come across some moss be sure to encourage your children to take a closer look through a magnifying glass.

Bright red berries on bushes along the way. Red berries add a splash of color to stark and frosty scenes when most of the trees have lost their leaves. They are a vital food source for animals and birds during these ‘hungry’ months. All the berries you see on your walk have grown and developed in autumn.

Interestingly, studies have shown that birds choose the order they eat the berries carefully to ensure that they have as much food as possible to last the winter.

Finally, we found some Manzanita wood. Isn’t it just so vividly red after it gets wet?

Finding green and red in our homeschool nature study was a wonderful way to blend learning with a celebration of the holiday season!

You Are Invited to Join Us!

Here was last year’s entry for Winter Wednesday #1: Color Walk.
Ready to get started? Grab your FREE Getting Started in Homeschool Nature Study Guide with 10 free Outdoor Hour Challenges.

Join Us For All New Outdoor Hour Challenges in Homeschool Nature Study Membership!

Posted on December 8, 2021December 11, 2021 by Barb — 23 Comments

The World of Winter Homeschool Nature Study

It’s our Winter Wednesday challenge once again and time to bring the world of winter into your homeschool nature study.

Winter Wednesday – Week 1 The World of Winter in your Homeschool Nature Study

1. Read chapter one Discover Nature in Winter. While you are reading you can highlight any portions that you would like to share with your children. I also like to write in the margins any topics and ideas that come to me as I read.

2. Our family is going to complete the winter color activity on page 14 and illustrated on page 17. Please feel free to complete any of the suggested activities in chapter one of the book and then share your experiences in a blog entry.

If you do not have the book and you would like to follow along with the activity, here are some basic instructions.

Finding The Colors Of Winter In Your Nature Study

The bareness of the trees and the appearance of a white snowy landscape help to sharpen the other colors of winter. Find a few minutes this week to notice the colors you can observe in your own backyard, even if it is from your window.

Some Ideas to Get You Started In Your Homeschool Study This Winter:

Red berries on a holly bush
Greens and yellows of lichen
Bright blue of a blue jay or the sharp reds of the cardinal
Yellows and oranges of the sunrise or sunset
Blue sky and white clouds

Keep track of the colors you observe this week in your nature journal.

Ready to get started? Grab your FREE Getting Started in Homeschool Nature Study Guide with 10 free Outdoor Hour Challenges.

Join Us For All New Outdoor Hour Challenges in Homeshool Nature Study Membership!

Posted on January 5, 2018 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Winter World of Colors

Outdoor Hour Challenge

World of Winter and Winter Colors– January 2018

From the Archives and the Winter Wednesday ebook

Use the ideas and suggestions in the challenge linked above to make some winter color observations with your children. If you have access to the Winter Wednesday ebook, you’ll have a notebook page to complete after your outdoor time.

Additional Ideas from the ebook:

If you have snow, bring a few cupfuls inside and let it melt. Use the water to watercolor a winter scene for your nature journal.
For older children, think of some similes to write in your nature journal that relate to winter. For instance: The snow was like crystals in the sunshine. Here is a pdf to get you started: Snow Similes.

Join us for the Winter Wednesday series of challenges here every FRIDAY. You can find them under the winter tab on the blog or if you have an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership, you can find the ebook there for downloading.

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Barb — Leave a comment

Late Autumn Color – From My Window

Said the leaves upon the branches,

One sunny autumn day,

“We have finished all our work, and now

We can no longer stay;

So our gowns of red and yellow,

And our cloaks of sober brown

Must be worn before the frost comes,

And we go rustling down…”

-by Margaret E. Sangster

I have been attempting to take a photo of my front yard from my office window each month for comparing. This was an idea that came from Alex over at Life on a Canadian Island when she shared her photos each month with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. I looked back through my images and I found that I have been fairly successful in capturing an image each month. I thought today would be a great day to share a few of the pictures with you because they show the autumn colors we have finally experienced.

This is from March 2015 back when everything looked so neat a tidy. You can see the daffodils and the forsythia are the stars of the show.

This one is from August 2015. The butterfly bushes and the sage have taken over and are created shelter for the birds, bees, and butterflies.

This was from the beginning of November 2015. The dogwood tree, the redbud, and the butterfly bushes are all starting to take on their autumn colors.

This is the view out the other window in my office…looking out into the Chinese pistache trees. I love having these trees in our yard because there are many birds that are attracted to them at this time of the year. I get to see flickers, robins, starlings, and bluebirds as they hover and perch around the nutlets that are crimson red on this tree.

Now this week we have had hail twice and it has changed the look of the view out my living room window. I spend lots of time observing the birdfeeders from this particular window and since we trimmed a few of the butterfly bushes and the lavender and the yarrow I have a clearer view of who is visiting.

If you would like to read more about starting a window study or any year long nature study, members can look at the July 2014 edition of the Handbook of Nature Study newsletter. There are quite a few ideas and suggestions in that issue. Or, you can start a year-long tree study by using the ideas in this entry: Four Seasons Tree Study Photo Project.

You might also like these nature color ideas:

Color Cards – These printable cards are perfect for younger students.

Signs of Autumn – Printable notebook page.

November World – November in your own backyard activities and printable.

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Posted on April 16, 2014 by Barb — Leave a comment

Our Spring Wildflowers – Bursting with Color

Our weather has dried up again after about twelve more inches of rain. We had a week of rainy wet skies which were much welcomed in our drought-restricted area. My garden is much happier!

My faithful readers know once the trails are dry and the sun warms the air that I itch to get outdoors for a good springtime explore. My husband and I carved out a whole day for a good hike…traveling out of our county, through another county, and arriving at a spot that we love to ramble down to the river. There were two cars in the parking lot at the trailhead but we never saw anyone until we were returning back up the trail much later in the day. I love that!

This time of year the hiking story is really about the wildflowers. You can hike along for a bit but you do need to stop and take a few photos along the way. Here are a few of the highlights. I know for many of you that spring has not yet arrived….so enjoy my images and dream of your springtime coming soon!

The Blue Dicks or Wild Hyacinth is in full bloom at the top of the trail. As we began our hike, the slope from the parking lot down to the little ravine was dotted with pretty bluish/purple flowers.

Another one of our regular early spring wildflowers is the Shooting Star. Once it starts blooming, you can be sure it is spring for sure and the days will get warmer.

I am pretty sure this is a new to me wildflower…I have seen something very similar but a different color. Using my field guide and the CalFlora site, it looks like this may be a Brown Bell or Brown Fritillary

This is such a beautiful blue wildflower! There were several spots along the trail that had Hounds Tongue. We have this on our local trail as well and it is just starting to blossom for the early spring bloom.

This is a fairly common wildflower in our area, Golden Brodiaea or Pretty Face.

This Caterpillar phacelia has such a unique looking flower that I never forget its name. It really does look like a caterpillar!

Coyote Creek at the bottom of the trail, beyond the natural bridge, runs cool, clear, and fast over the marble rocks. It is a great place to sit a few minutes and listen to the birds singing and the insects buzzing. This is where we observed our new spring bird, the Black Phoebe!

Hopefully this is the start to a fantastic hiking season!

Did you know you can get access to all the archived newsletters (all 36 issues) with every level of membership?

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Barb — 4 Comments

Yosemite in Winter – Winter Colors

We finally finished our four seasons visits to Yosemite National Park. This was our winter trip that turned out to not be so wintery at all. The temperatures were in the 50’s and we enjoyed sunshine for most of the trip.

We decided to take a hike on the north side of the Yosemite Valley where the sun is shining. The Upper Yosemite Falls Trail is just across from the lodge so that is where we began. There was very little water in the falls so we chose to go up the trail about a mile and a half and see the view from Columbia Rock.

We did see a few hikers on the trail but during the winter there are very few people to be found in the park. I think this year there are even less than normal because Badger Pass ski resort is closed so there aren’t even skiers to be found in the valley. At Columbia Rock we met with a family from England, two young college students from Korea, and a Croatian girl.

Here is the view from Columbia Rock overlooking a meadow and the lodge. In the distance Half Dome looms up and dominates the vista. We stood for a bit and gazed at the beauty and then hiked back down the four dozen or so switchbacks to the valley floor.

We started off the hike with lots of layers and by the time we reached our destination we were in shirt sleeves and sweating. It was really warm in the sun on the exposed trail.

The first of my colors in the winter color challenge is black. The Common Ravens are the bird most commonly seen and heard in this area of the park. They are black AND iridescent purple in the sunlight. Their loud and clear CRUCK CRUCK CRUCK can easily be identified. We also saw and heard other birds during our stay like the Steller’s Jay, the Nuthatch, and the Acorn Woodpecker.

In the Village you can see the browns of the trees, acorns on the ground, and the evergreens to make a winter color palette. In this photo you can see Yosemite Falls in the distance, nearly dry. As the day wears on, the falls flow a little more but in the mornings they are nearly dry.

Here is a little green lichen I spotted along the trail, landing among pine needles. The bright green really pops out this time of year when the world is filled with grays, browns, and blacks.

In spots where the sun doesn’t shine, the snow is still seen in patches. This meadow has lots of winter weeds showing through and I spotted some milkweed left from the past season.

The second day we hiked to the Merced Grove of sequoia trees. These giants really stand out in the forest with their reddish bark and large trunks. We shared this forest with the trees for a bit, sitting quietly and reveling in their ancient history.

I tried to capture what the bark looks like close up…it is soft and squishy and shreds easily. Amazing.

My husband decided this was the best way to enjoy the sequoia’s beauty…looking up at their tall stature.

So ends a complete year of Yosemite National Park visits. It has been a wonderful experience personally for me to achieve a goal and to learn a little more about one of my favorite places on earth. I feel blessed to live so near such an awesome place to get outdoors and build memories with my family.

My husband and I celebrated our accomplishment with a little pizza and Half Dome California Wheat beer at the Yosemite Lodge. Perfect ending to a fantastic day, trip, and year.

You can read about our seasonal visits to Yosemite in these entries:
Yosemite in Spring – Waterfalls and Biking
Summer Trip to Yosemite – Hikes, Wildflowers, Rocks, and More
Yosemite Autumn Trip – Panorama Trail

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Winter Color Nature Study

This week we are going to be completing the World of Color challenge from the Winter Wednesday ebook. This challenge invites you and your family to take a walk outdoors and find some color in your winter world. Even if you have to complete this challenge from your window, it will help train your eyes to see the bursts of color that are out there if you look carefully enough.

Original Challenge: The World of Color.
Don’t worry if you don’t have the Discover Nature in Winter book to use along with the challenge. Take the ideas listed in the blog post to complete a simple color hunt with your children and then follow up with an entry in your nature journal. The journal can be simply a list of colorful things you saw or a sketch of something your child found interesting. Make this a no-pressure challenge for your child.

There are a few other ideas in the ebook to try if you don’t want to go outside for this challenge.

Color Cards For Your Winter Color Study
Use these color word cards to stimulate a fun nature study related activity. See how many of the colors you can find during your winter color hunt.

TIPS: These cards can be printed on cardstock or cut and pasted to index cards. If you only have a black and white printer, have your children color the words or the border with markers before going outside.
Printable Color Word Cards

Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #1. This is the perfect challenge to just take a simple walk outdoors with your children as part of completing challenge #1. Make sure to follow up your outdoor time with a discussion to find out one or two things your child would like to know more about. Don’t worry that you won’t know the answers to any questions they may have…just take the opportunity to learn together using internet resources or a trip to the library.

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Barb — 1 Comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Autumn Tree Nature Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Autumn Tree Nature Study

Use any of the Outdoor Hour Challenges below to complete an Autumn Tree Nature Study. Feel free to pick and choose any of the suggested activities that you think will fit your area and interests. Spend some time outdoors looking at trees with your children…see the beauty in this time of year!

Autumn Tree Study (2009) with free printable notebook page
Four Seasons Tree Photo Project with free printable notebook page
Autumn Tree Study (2008)
Autumn Leaves (2010)

Color Hunt Printable Cards

Use these color word cards to stimulate a fun nature study related activity. Challenge your child to find something of each color during your Outdoor Hour Challenge time. This can be part of your Autumn Tree Study or any other study you complete throughout the year.

Printable Color Word Cards

Tree Poetry Printable from the Archives

Tree Poetry ideas with free printable activity (October 2012)

Getting Started Suggestion:
If you already own the Getting Started ebook, complete Outdoor Hour Challenge #7-Your Own Field Guide. Use the ideas in this challenge to start your own field guide pages using the trees in your yard or neighborhood. Add to your tree field guide from time to time and as the years go by you will have built a record of many trees right in your own yard! Use the accompanying notebook page to get started or a blank nature journal page for each tree.

Tag: Colors in Nature