Our local landscape is full of rocks…the area was settled by gold miners in the California Gold Rush and even today there are gold mines in our area that are back into production (the price of gold is up enough that they can make money). There is a park in our neighborhood that has an exposed bank next to the road and that is where we found our shale to study as part of my on-going year-long focus on rocks.
This is our official first rock from the list which we pulled from the book Rocks, Fossils and Arrowheads (Take-Along Guides).See last month’s entry for my preparation for this project where I will be attempted to locate and collect as many of the rocks from the book as possible during 2013: Rock Update.
This is what our local shale looks like….like wafers that are either horizontal or vertical. The color varies but mostly the out-croppings we have seen are light colored from a light gray or red or even green. Doing some research has revealed that it is the organic materials in the shale that give it its color: iron oxide, hematite, geothite, or mica.
This is the piece of shale that is shown sticking out in the photo above. I could just slide it out.
Shale is a sedimentary rock that is mostly composed of clay and is sometimes called mudstone. It can easily be scratched with a knife and has a quality that is listed as “laminated”. This means that the rock is made up of many thin layers.
The mystery rock from last month’s entry turns out to be slate which is the metamorphic form of shale. Guess what next month’s rock will be? You guessed….slate! I will explain how you can tell the difference because in the process of identifying the shale I also learned quite a bit about slate.
To refresh your memory, I am going to try to collect all fifteen rocks discussed in the Rocks, Fossils and Arrowheads (Take-Along Guides).This month we spent lots of time out and about looking at rocks, collecting a few new ones, and enjoying our rock adventures. We did not actually complete any of the fifteen rocks from the book. I can see now that I need to be more purposeful if I am going to achieve this goal in the year 2013.
That is the beauty of goals…they keep you focused and on track.
We did however accomplish several rock-related activities.
We added a new rock to our front yard rock spot. We have yet to identify it but that is going on February’s list because I actually think it is some kind of shale or slate which would be one of our fifteen rocks from the book.
We collected a rock from the other side of the river canyon and comparing it to the rocks on our side of the canyon, realized it is different. This I think is going to be the value in labeling our rocks with where we collected them.
My son, my husband, and I enjoyed a warm mid-winter afternoon sitting on a big rock at the river. I collected a few rocks for a friend as a surprise.
This was a month we spent more time outdoors looking at rocks and talking about rocks and not much was recorded in our nature journals. I already have my rock grid in my nature journal so I just need to sit down with a pen and record this month’s thoughts and discoveries.
I am going to do my best to have one of my official fifteen rocks studied by the end of February.
Next week I will update you on my “using less plastic” goal for 2013…which I did a much better job with this month!
Rocks are everywhere! It is hard to know where to start with a study of our local rocks since everywhere we look we have rocks to observe. But, like all nature study, our rock hunt led us to more questions than answers. Using the Rock Grid from the January edition of the Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter, we narrowed our focus to a few of the squares.
Find a rock you would like to know more about using a book from the library.
Find three rocks to bring home in your pocket.
So these were the rocks that came home…a little too big for the pocket but we have long admired them along the hiking trail. It is high time that we slow down and learn a little more about them. My husband thinks the flat ones are some kind of slate. I’m not sure…the black ones maybe but the reddish ones will be fun to research. They are definitely sedimentary rocks and break easily. The top right rock is mostly quartz and very pretty in real life. These are going on the nature table until we find a book to help learn more about them.
This is Mr. A’s rock that he wants to know more about. You cannot tell from a photo but I am guessing it is twice as heavy as the same size piece of granite we have on our shelf. It is solid! This rock is found alongside another walking trail we take every week. If you look closely, you will see it is shiny/sparkly around the edges which makes it an interesting rock. Can’t wait to learn more about it…just need to get over to the library and find a good reference book.
Here is the start of my rock journal for the year. I listed down the side all the rocks from the Rocks, Fossils and Arrowheads (Take-Along Guides) that I have decided to focus on for the year of 2013. Our family is going to be trying to locate, collect, and then study each of the fifteen rocks from the book. I made a chart to record the date we find the rock and the location.
On the other page, I watercolored a background and then I will adhere the Rock Grid Study for easy reference and as a reminder of a few things we can do while outside for our hikes and walks.
If you haven’t downloaded the January Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter with the Rock Study Grid yet, you still have time to do so. The link will be in every entry for the month of January if you are a subscriber to the blog. I already have quite a few rock-related entries for the next Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival and I invite you to join us with your entry (link on the sidebar).
I love making goals and then seeing them achieved…but honestly, I love the journey as much as the achievement. Especially when it comes to nature study, always having a goal or focus helps make things happen. The Outdoor Hour Challenge is really just a way of breaking nature study goals down into weekly steps. Each challenge gives us a way to focus for a few minutes with our children on something that could easily be skipped if we aren’t careful.
This year I feel a shift is coming in our family’s nature study. I am for the first time making my own personal nature study goals and inviting any of my family members along with me when they have time and an interest. I find that as I become involved in a particular area of nature study that my family naturally falls in line with that interest and in the process of supporting my nature study, they learn something as well. (Sneaky but it works.)
Would you like to see my personal nature study goals for 2013? Some are related to the Outdoor Hour Challenges we will be completing together here on the blog and some are more specialized to my area of the world. Feel free to make your own list and you might like to do what I am doing, print out a copy of the goals and insert them in the front of your nature journal. I am also taking each goal and actually scheduling in some dates in my planner, in pencil of course just so I be flexible as the opportunities arise.
Barb’s Nature Study Goals for 2013
Learn about ten new birds, including nature journal entries and learning their calls.
Learn about five new trees in my local area.
Learn about five scrubs that I see along my walking trail or our favorite hiking trail.
Take four new hikes. (These are tentatively planned in my planner along with maps.)
Visit Yosemite in all four seasons and focus on some aspect of nature each time:
Spring – trees/birds
Summer – wildflowers/waterfalls
Autumn – mammals
Winter – rocks
I am not sure if I will stick to the topics listed above or allow each trip to unfold some aspect of nature to learn about. I am also going to invite some friends along with me, sharing my love for this awesome place with people who have never been there even though we live just a few hours away.
Now for the big goal that I will need help from my family in achieving. I am challenging myself to take on a rock related nature study project which will hopefully teach me new skills and lead to some adventures. My husband and I are going to try to collect all fifteen rocks discussed in the Rocks, Fossils and Arrowheads (Take-Along Guides). After going over each rock in the book, we searched online for places that we could realistically find each specimen. It will mean taking a few trips to new places and finding ways that we can legally collect each one. Several of the rocks we have access to on a daily basis like granite and slate but even for these specimens I want to make a proper display and journal entry. We just came up with this idea a few days ago and already our wheels are turning, plans are being made and our hopes are high that we can achieve our goal.
I am going to be taking the year of 2013 and trying to use far less plastic than we have been as a family. I am slowly going to be adding new routines and habits that will support a lifestyle that will use less disposable plastic. I will be sharing my journey.
I am looking forward to what we will experience and learn this year as we continue our journey learning about the wonderful awe-inspiring creations we have all around us.
If you had to pick one nature study related goal this year, what would it be?
Leave me a comment with your goal and perhaps I can work some of your ideas into up-coming Outdoor Hour Challenges or write posts with suggestions on how to achieve your goals.
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. See last month’s entry for my preparation for this project where I will be attempted to locate and collect as many of the rocks from the book as possible during 2013: Rock Update.
