Outdoor Hour Challenge Winter Series #4
Winter Weather
Winter weather is usually pretty interesting to children. Observing snow, ice, rain, fog, hail, or just feeling the cooler air is enough to get them interested in going outdoors for this week’s nature study challenge.
I have a vivid memory from my childhood of taking a walk in a raging downpour. I challenge you to experience your weather outdoors at least for a few minutes this week. Properly dressed, your children might just make a fond memory of their own.
"There is no reason why the child's winter walk should not be as fertile in observations as the poet's; indeed, in one way, it is possible to see the more in winter, because the things to be seen do not crowd each other out."
Charlotte Mason, Volume 1, page 86
Inside Preparation Work:
You can read the section in the Handbook of Nature Study on water forms to arm yourself with some basic weather information. Pages 808 to 814 have lots of fun ideas for learning about different aspects of our winter weather.
Optional Inside Preparation Work:
More ideas for winter weather study are found in chapter two of Discover Nature in Winter. There are so many great ideas for studying snow in this chapter that you will find at least two or three that you would like to try with your family. Use your highlighter or sticky notes to mark the places that you find with interesting information or ideas for including in your winter nature study.
Check out the Winter Wednesday entry from last year to glean some ideas for your Winter Weather study: Winter Snow
Outdoor Hour Time:
This week you can use your time to enjoy the winter weather in your backyard. If you have chosen some weather related activities to complete outdoors, make sure you bring any items you need for your study. You may wish to bring along your weather notebook page or your nature journal with pencils to take a few minutes of your outdoor time to record the weather conditions. If your children are enjoying their time outdoors, you probably want to wait until you go back inside to talk about the weather.
Follow-Up Activity:
Be sure to complete your Seasonal Weather notebook page from the sidebar of my blog or the Winter Nature Study notebook pages (see link below). You could talk about the differences between what you observed in autumn and those things you recorded this time.
How is the scene you drew this week different from the autumn scene?
How are the temperatures different?
Is there a difference in the number of hours of daylight?
If you would like all the Winter Series Challenges in one book, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. The ebook also contains art and music appreciation plans for the winter months as well. Please see this entry for more details:
Winter Nature Study Ebook Now for Sale. You can also purchase just a set of custom notebook page for the Winter Series Challenges by following the link above.
My daughter also has a complete Weather Lapbook Kit for sale on her blog, Hearts and Trees, for $2.95. Pop over there and check that out if you would like to spend a little more time on weather as part of your nature study. She also has a Clouds in Art Mini Unit with custom notebooking pages for $4.95. This is a fantastic art study with a weather theme. I highly recommend both these products as a supplement to your nature study. Sidenote: Amanda is getting ready to release her latest kit any day now....stay tuned for more details!
Make sure to come back and enter your blog entry for this challenge in Mr. Linky.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
