Wakges: 2011 Spring Series - Signs of Spring

Friday, March 18, 2011

2011 Spring Series - Signs of Spring


Mullein, Onions, Dusty Miller, and Glimpse of the Butterfly Bush. I really need to clean up this bed.

Spring nature study is like swinging open the doors and windows wide to a new world, a green world accented with yellow and pink.

A simple spring nature study starts as soon as you start to notice the changes around you. Your family can begin by noting the signs of spring in your part of the world. As always, I want to emphasize that my focus for any nature study plan is to encourage families to take a few minutes each week to go outdoors with their children and enjoy their own backyard and neighborhood.

Some signs to look for:

* Green grass/weeds in your garden or alongside roads
* Wildflowers-Dandelions, violets, or mustard
* Spring bulbs like crocus and jonquils
* Bird activity, migrating and nesting
* Warmer temperatures and more daylight
* Blooming trees like dogwood, cherry, or apple or perhaps your trees are budding out
* Insects return and activity
* Mud-look for animal tracks

Here is a printable notebook page for recording your Signs of Spring.
Here is a Spring Nature Walk Worksheet for you to use with your family. My daughter put this together a few years ago and it is a favorite for spring nature study in young families. She has worksheets for every season on the right sidebar of her blog: Hearts and Trees. Leave her a little thank you and it would make her day. :)
Here is last year's Signs of Spring entry. I enjoyed reading through everyone's 2010 entries.If you participated, it might be fun to compare this year with last year.
Have a great week and enjoy whatever weather you are having (ours is wet) and then come back and share on Mr. Linky.