Don't Let Winter Keep You Inside!

"We speak of winter as bare, but this is only a contrast with summer. In the summer all things are familiar and close; the depths are covered. The view is restricted. We see things near by. In the winter things are uncovered. Old objects take new forms. You analyze and gain insight."

-The Nature Study Idea, L.H. Bailey. Written in 1909

Here are some ideas & tips for nature walks during the winter:

http://www.squidoo.com/winternaturewalk

Pictures from "seed day"

A seed from a Russian Olive Tree

Emily R. took these pictures on the day that we learned about seeds, and went on our nature walk to find seeds.  Thanks for sharing, Emily!

I love how our students are so excited to show me their discoveries in nature!

 We all enjoyed a big bowl of popcorn. 

Annesley found something interesting!

I love this picture.  This is what I hoped we would be doing in this class!

Sharing discoveries

I'm so happy that every week, us Moms and kids are outside, opening our eyes to the beauties of nature

We made pictures with glue and lots of different seeds

Sometimes you have to climb to get the right perspective!

Week 5: Leaves

Cold weather has come!  I hope you are all trying to enjoy the change in seasons.  We are missing the warm summer evenings, but enjoying the way this cold weather helps us want to study and read more, curl up by the fire, and sleep deeply at night.  

Andrew pointed out this toadstool the other day after the first snowfall of the year!  I love it!

Let's not skip our outdoor nature study time, just because it is getting cold, though!  Going outside all year long should be one of our goals. Here's some ideas for a few outdoor winter activities

We spotted this leaf on a plant near our home during a family nature walk - isn't it pretty?

We've had some great nature kids club classes!  Two weeks ago, our class was such a fun class with lots of "show and tell".  The Anderson & Harris families brought their pets - two rabbits and two cute kittens.  I think everyone loved meeting these little furballs.  Rebecca Wall brought lots and lots of flower blossoms when I thought all the blooms might already all be dead (that shows the difference in gardening skills between us!)  Thanks also to the Roberts and Ridley families for bringing some flowers.

 Last week, we had a field trip to the Drake's Grandparents yard.  They have a beautiful garden, a fun playground, lots of fruit trees (everyone got to pick plums and apples - yum!), alfalfa orchards, and we got to feed some apples to some neighboring horses.  

Up she goes to find an apple!

Enjoying the sunken garden and waterfall

The pumpkin patch

The Gibson Family caught a snake in their yard!  Everyone was excited to see it.

Gimme that apple!

This week we'll be doing some activities with fall leaves.  If you have some colorful leaves in your yard, please bring some to class.  Lots of them are turning quite brown and crunchy already, but not all of them!

This week's Nature Journal Spotlight is Fisher W.  He drew these pictures of the moon on the week that we studied the sun & moon.  Great job Fisher!

And here are some pictures from our activities on previous weeks:

We made sun prints

Caught a praying mantis!

And a ladybug, among many other crawling critters

Traced our shadows when we were learning about the sun

Found this interesting red beetle

And then Trey and Fisher promptly identified it with their field guide!

Thanks so much for sharing these weekly adventures with me! 

Below are some fun links:

Why do leaves change color?

Some fun autumn learning activities

See you tomorrow!
Tasha

Apples

Monday was Johnny Appleseed's birthday.  This week we are going on a fieldtrip to an apple orchard.  We'll each get to pick one apple to enjoy! It is supposed to be chilly next week, so don't forget to bring your hats, jackets, & maybe even gloves.

Some apple ideas for at home:

• Buy several varieties of apples and have blindfolded taste test.  Have each family member vote on which one they like best!
• Make apple pie
• or Baked apples
• We love this apple tart recipe
• Here's a really simple apple treat 
• Or just enjoy fresh apples or apple cider.  Yum!

Be sure to read this excerpt about apples from the Handbook of Nature Study

Here's one family's blog post about apple nature study 

Lots of apple coloring page images

Apple poems and songs

Enjoy!  See you next week!

Week 4: It's autumntime

 Friday was the first day of autumn.  In a couple of weeks, we'll be gathering fall leaves!  For now, enjoy the last bit of summer weather.

"Maybe God gives us late summer air to fill up every pore, to be breathed into every cell of our bodies—sort of stocking up, so we can be happy still when the storms force us inside and make us yearn for the sunshine.  Maybe it is the balm that makes us feel satisfied with our spring/summer toiling in the earth.  Don’t miss it. Go out and walk in it, bike in it, sit under a tree and inhale it in. I’ll bet if it had a color, someone would bottle “Late Summer Air” and market it.  It is so good for you!" 

-Diane Hopkins, Late Summer Air

Song: It's Autumntime

I loved the ideas for autumn activities that Cami left in her comment on the previous blog post.  Let's continue sharing what we love about autumn with comments on this blog post - c'mon everyone, what do you love about autumn?

Last week in class, we talked about seeds, ate some popcorn, made some pictures using school glue & seeds, and went on a nature walk where we looked for seeds.  We found seeds from trees, seeds from weeds, seeds from flowers, pinecones, etc.  Little seeds, and big seeds.  I hope some of you are drawing pictures of seeds in your nature journals!

Remember, seeds need three things to grow into a plant:

Sunshine, water, and soil

This week we will be learning about flowers.  We need each of you to bring several blossoms from home - we don't want to be picking too many flowers in the CCC yard.  So, if you have flowers in your yard, please bring some to share.  We're planning on placing them all on a table, and then letting each child choose 2 or three for our activity.  (You can bring all of the same kind, if you want to.)  Weed blossoms are fine.  I know this isn't the best time of year for blossoms, so we'll have to make do with what we can find! 

Week 3: Seeds!

This post is coming a little late, I had a busy week, and I was sick for most of it, so I got quite behind on all my "to do's".

We'll have pictures from last weeks class when I get our camera back from a house I left it at! Our weekly nature journal spotlight is a fabulous picture of the moon drawn by Fisher W.  

This week, we are learning about seeds.  Wikipedia definition

Once your children are made aware of seeds, they'll find them everywhere.

Some at home ideas for activities:

• Pull up a weed & examine its roots with a magnifying glass
• Pop a batch of popcorn (popcorn kernels are seeds!)
• Plant a seed in some potting soil in a cup or small pot in your home.  Place it on a sunny windowsill and make sure it gets enough water.
• Sprout some seeds & eat them. 

The "Handbook of Nature Study" blog has a section about seeds in their September 2011 newsletter.  It is full of great ideas.
Here is the outdoor challenge

Here's a printable "seed collection bag" to take with you on your nature hunts:
Seed collection bag

Some songs about plants/seeds:

Little Seeds Lie Fast Asleep - interactive music player

The Farmer Plants the Seeds (Tune "Farmer in the Dell")

The farmer plants the seeds. (put seeds in the ground) The farmer plants the seeds. High ho the derry oh, The farmer plants the seeds.

Second Verse: The sun comes out to shine. (make big circle with arms)
Third Verse: The rain begins to fall. (hands flutter to the ground)
Fourth Verse: The seeds begin to grow. (children begin to rise)
Fifth Verse: The farmer digs them up. (pretend to use a shovel)
Now we'll have some to eat. (pretend to eat)

Little Seed (Tune: I'm a Little Teapot)

Here's a little seed in the dark, dark ground. Out comes the warm sun, yellow and round. Down comes the rain, wet and slow. Up comes the little seed, grow, grow, grow!

This Week (Friday, September 23) is the first day of autumn.

Here are some autumn activities
Song - It's Autumntime (music player)

More:  For anyone who reads this post, can you please comment and tell us the things you look forward to in autumn, and/or any fun activities that your family enjoys in autumn?

Here's a great page to learn more about the phases of the moon:
http://moonphases.info/moon_phases.html

We didn't get to see the "Harvest moon" on Sept. 12th (it was too cloudy), but we saw the waning moon tonight, and it was so bright, yellow, & beautiful!  My kiddos sat on the roof to observe it.

See you tomorrow in class!