You may wish to start a new year-long study this spring using some of the ideas above. If you have a continuing year-long nature study project, don’t forget to put it on your calendar or you may forget to make your autumn observations.
You may wish to start a new year-long study this spring using some of the ideas above. If you have a continuing year-long nature study project, don’t forget to put it on your calendar or you may forget to make your spring observations.
Autumn is here and we can start planning some of our autumn year-long nature study observations. There are so many that you can choose from but the trick is to pick one and remember to complete a study in each season.
Have you picked your topics yet?
Here are some ideas from year-long nature study topics we have done in the past:
We live in an area where Queen Anne’s Lace is abundant and it is a constant part of the scenery all summer long. It lines the roads and fills the empty fields. I am always aware of it now as we hike and spend time outdoors. It makes me think about Anna Botsford Comstock’s words:
“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
This year however our family noticed a difference in our summer time Queen Anne’s Lace. Instead of the really tall towering plants with loads of blossoms, we only had short plants which were sparsely covered with flower heads. Our growing season has been very unusual with hotter and drier conditions than the last few years. We are reasoning that that is the cause of the smaller plants. It will be interesting to see the crop that sprouts next year and then make some more comparisons.
Some more Autumn weeds to enjoy.
This is the joy of a year-long nature study of any subject, getting your eyes to see the changes not only from season to season but from year to year.
If you don’t have Queen Anne’s Lace to study, try the Getting Started suggestion in this post.
Outdoor Hour Challenge:
This week’s Outdoor Hour Challenge is from the Archives and the beginning of a potential year-long study of Queen Anne’s Lace. Please see the following Autumn Queen Anne’s Lace challenge for suggested activities to get your started. This is a study that you can repeat in every season for a complete year to see the life cycle of this interesting plant. Here are the past resources for Queen Anne’s Lace.
Please Note:
If you are interested in connecting your insect study and your study of Queen Anne’s Lace, do some careful observations of your plant for signs of insects. Follow up your outdoor time with some time spent identifying your insects.
“Children should be encouraged to make notes about the same plants or birds for several consecutive years. Each year will bring some new things to their notice and a fuller knowledge of the ways and habits of their subject.” The Charm of Nature Study, 1930
Printable Notebook Page:
This week the challenge extra is another notebook page. Make four copies and use one in each of the up-coming seasons to record your Queen Anne’s Lace observations. Seasonal Observations Queen Anne’s Lace – Use this notebook page in each of the four seasons to record you careful observations. Use the suggestions in the challenges listed above to guide your study.
Getting Started Suggestion:
You can complete Challenge #2 Using Your Words and the accompanying notebook page if you have the ebook. This would be especially helpful if you do not have any Queen Anne’s Lace to observe.
We have had our eyes out for it. We have been anticipating it. It arrived almost overnight!
The Queen Anne’s Lace! Right alongside our walking trail where it was so beautiful last summer we found it sprouting up in large numbers. Look at the bright spring-green color!
Now I feel like we have completed our Queen Anne’s Lace cycle for the four seasons. All that is left now is to enjoy watching it grow and grow and grow.
Thanks Anna Botsford Comstock for inspiring us to watch this plant for a complete year. If you want to get started with your own Year-Long Queen Anne’s Lace Study, here are the links for spring and summer.
Last year we studied dandelions as part of the spring series but this year I wanted to make sure that we are all on the look-out for our Queen Anne’s Lace. This is a plant that we started observing last summer and then continued through autumn and then winter.
If you studied Queen Anne’s Lace in the past, you may wish to pull out the completed notebook pages to remind yourself of the appearance and location of your Queen Anne’s Lace.
Read pages 542-545 in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 148). Glean some new points about this interesting plant that is considered a weed by many people.
Remind yourself what Queen Anne’s Lace looks like by using the accompanying notebook page or the Handbook of Nature Study. More information can be found here: eNature or the USDA.
Outdoor Hour Time:
For this challenge go back to your Queen Anne’s Lace patch and make some springtime observations. If this is your first season of observing Queen Anne’s Lace, you may need to wait until the flowers bloom before finding your own patch. Still take your 15 minutes outdoors and find any wildflower that you can observe in your yard or neighborhood.
Follow-Up Activity:
Spend a few minutes talking about your outdoor time. Did you see some Queen Anne’s Lace? Did your child have any questions about things that they found interesting during your outdoor time? Use this time to complete a nature journal entry or you can use the Spring Queen Anne’s Lace Notebook Page available HERE.
Planning Ahead!
Here is a link to a Squidoo page that shows exactly how to color your Queen Anne’s Lace with food coloring. I love this idea and we will be doing this over the summer. You may wish to add it to your seasonal activities: Queen Anne’ Lace
You may also be interested in my Spring Nature Study Ebooks!
I woke up this morning and realized that I did not schedule a winter study for our year-long Queen Anne’s Lace activity. So guess what? I will make it a bonus challenge with a free notebook page for all of you who are participating in this year-long activity.
We started way back last summer finding our own little patches of Queen Anne’s Lace to watch for a complete year. You can read about that challenge HERE.
Then in the autumn many of us returned to our patch of Queen Anne’s Lace and did some observations and nature journal entries. You can read about that challenge HERE.
Now it is the middle of winter and time to return to our Queen Anne’s Lace to make some new observations.
1. Read the section in the Handbook of Nature Study on Queen Anne’s Lace if you have not done so before. This is found starting on page 542 or it is the last subject in the “weeds” section if you have a different version that I do.
2. Return to your patch of Queen Anne’s Lace to make some wintery observations. Look at the shape of the plant, the feel of the stem, the look of the flower clusters and observe the seeds. We have some Queen Anne’s Lace plants that we want to remove so we will be pulling it up by the roots. We will take the opportunity to observe the tap root. (Please do not remove any plant by its roots unless you have permission from the property owner or it is in your own garden.)
3. Complete a nature journal entry with a sketch or watercolor of your Queen Anne’s Lace. You can also use the provided notebook page.
We finally completed our autumn observations for the Queen Anne’s Lace in our neighborhood. The challenge asked us to go back to our patch of this flower and compare the changes since our summer observations. Most of the Queen Anne’s Lace looks like this right now…dry, brittle, brown, and stiff. We cut a stem or two to take inside to observe closely and compare to our summer observations.
We had a great time observing closely the flower heads we brought in and were able to observe some interesting things. The challenge suggested using a hand lens to look more closely at the seeds of the Queen Anne’s Lace.
Each dried cluster was made up of many dried flower clusters.
The large cluster was made up of more than 70 small clusters.
Each small cluster had over 20 seeds in it.
We drew a flower cluster and a seed after viewing it with our loupe. The little seeds were sticky and I found them in the carpet and the hem of my skirt after we had finished. We thought about our dandelion seeds (akenes) and how they are blown away in the wind and compared them to the Queen Anne’s Lace seeds that are definitely spread by adhesion or attachment. Our dog regularly helps disperse the seeds of the Queen Anne’s Lace as she romps through the weeds on our walks.
On today’s walk with the dog, we found a patch of Queen Anne’s Lace that is not quite dried up yet. There is still a little greenness to the stem, leaves, and flower head. We are experiencing some unseasonably warm weather with the afternoons in the 70’s. I actually took a walk without a sweatshirt and we worked up a thirst by the time we reached home again. We will be trying to get out in the warm temperatures again tomorrow….who knows how long they will last.
The season of abundant Queen Anne’s Lace is over but we shall be watching as we enter the winter season to see if the plants make much of a change.
