OHC More Nature Study #10 Maple Seeds and Update for Nov/Dec OHC

I can hardly believe we are finishing this series of challenges! Did the time fly by for the rest of you too? I have enjoyed participating alongside you with my teenage son, learning how nature study is such a wonderful activity for older children if you go a little deeper. Each month it has been such a joy to read about your nature study time in the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. I want to thank every participating family for your kind words and for sharing nature with your children. This community is so awesome!



November/December/January Plans for the OHC
Many people have asked what winter is going to bring to the Outdoor Hour Challenge. I will briefly outline my plans for the next few months but the best way to keep up with any changes will be to subscribe to my blog for any bonus challenges and announcements.

• 1. I plan to continue the OHC Newsletter each month on the first of the month.
• 2. For the rest of November and December I will continue to post nature study ideas for you every Friday.
• 3. There will continue to be monthly Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnivals so send in your nature study entries each month.
• 4. I am in the midst of writing a new ebook to be released the first week in January 2012. Tentative title is More Nature Study - Winter 2012 and it will include ten challenges as usual and advanced nature study options. Topics are winter related but will be adaptable to all locations. I will start posting the new ebook challenges on January 6, 2012.
• If you have any questions, please email me.

OHC More Nature Study #10
Maple Seeds and Maple Tree

Inside Preparation Work:

• Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 628-632 (Lesson 174). This is the section on the sugar maple. Pay special attention to the “Fall Work” section, especially #2 which describes the “key” and how to observe it. There is also a previous OHC for the Maple Tree that you may wish to look up and read for ideas to include in this challenge.
• Other Maples to Investigate: Bigleaf Maple, Silver Maple, more listed on USDA. If you have a tree field guide, page through the maple tree section and get an idea of what kind of maples you have in your local area.
• You will want to discuss with your child any winged seeds you are familiar with. We often call these winged seeds “helicopter seeds”. Another name for the winged seeds are samaras.

Outdoor Hour Time:

• For this challenge, spend some of your Outdoor Hour time looking for maple trees and maple seeds. Gather a few of the winged seeds to observe and investigate. Maple trees in the autumn have beautifully colored leaves and should help you in finding one to study.
• Have some fun with your maple seeds. Release them and measure the distance they travel and how long they stay afloat.
• If you don’t have a maple tree or seeds to observe, see if you can find another tree observe that has seeds (oaks/acorns, conifer/cones, sweet gum/sticker balls, etc). Collect a few to bring indoors to observe with a magnifying lens.

Follow-Up Activity:

• You may wish to talk about other seeds you have observed that fly or float in the air. How about dandelions, milkweed, and elm seeds as well as the maple? If you found maple seeds, compare them with other seeds you know about.
• Allow time to make a journal entry, complete a notebook page, and/or finish a coloring page. Make sure to sketch the key with the seed and wing labeled. If you observed a tree other than the maple, you can complete the Seasonal Tree Study notebook page if you wish.
• Plant a maple seed where you can watch it grow.
• Read about why and how leaves change color in the autumn: A Tree’s True Color.
• Advanced Follow-Up: Use a field guide to learn more about your maple. You can use this online tree field guide at eNature.com. Complete a notebook page for your nature journal (ebook users).
• Advanced Follow-Up: Find other autumn seeds and make some observations. Suggested seeds: acorns, seeds from a cone, sticker balls, etc. Sort your seeds: Round/Not Round, Float/Not Float, Fly/Not Fly, Seeds That Lie Flat/Seeds That Do Not Lie Flat, and by Size.

Make sure to send in your entries for the blog carnival. The carnival is posted on the last day of each month. You can enter at this link: Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival Submission Form.

Our Milkweed Study - Featuring the Pods

Showy Milkweed pod and dried flowers - Yosemite Valley 8/2011

Nature study while traveling is a gentle way to learn more about a new place, or in this case, a familiar place. Our family spends quite a bit of time at Yosemite National Park and consider it part of our big "backyard". Learning flower names, tree species, more about the mammals who live there, and how they all work together has been a layer of understanding that over time has given us much pleasure. We KNOW this place and appreciate the beauty and awesome balance found in this most special of valleys. 

As part of our milkweed study, I remembered an abundance of Showy milkweed in Yosemite Valley...whole patches in the meadows. We made a special walk along the Valley floor to observe an abundance of milkweed...it was hot in the sun but that is part of the late summer experience at Yosemite.

Here is a short video I took of some of the pods and plants.

I was wishing were not a national park so we could pick some pods to dissect....we restrained ourselves and used our eyes and camera to capture our experience instead. There is so much to learn by using your senses.

Things we found interesting to think about and research a little more:

• Insects we observed: milkweed beetle, some sort of bee/wasp
• Size of some of the pods...was it a "good" year for milkweed?
• How long until the pods burst open and shed their seeds?

Mr. B did a comparison of the milkweed seeds (images from a previous encounter and internet research), dandelion seeds (found in our backyard), and the cattail (gathered at our local patch).


We also have a small pot of milkweed on our back deck that we have been nurturing for two years. It did grow a bit better this year but still no blooms or pods. I am going to try again next year with new seeds but after reading about milkweed in the Handbook and online, we may plant them directly in the garden.


All in all, I think the new Advanced Follow-Up suggestions went rather well for this challenge.

If you would like to see another milkweed entry we did a few years ago, you can click over here:

Milkweed (Challenge #30 Weeds and Seeds)

"Sleeping Life Waiting to Be Spread"

"The concrete highway was edged with a mat of tangled, broken, dry grass, and the grass heads were heavy with oat beards to catch on a dog's coat, and foxtails to tangle in a horse's fetlocks, and clover burrs to fasten in sheep's wool; sleeping life waiting to be spread and dispersed, every seed armed with an appliance of dispersal, twisting darts and parachutes for the wind, little spears and balls of tiny thorns, and all waiting for animals and for the wind, for a man' trouser cuff or the hem of a woman's skirt, all passive but armed with appliances of activity, still, but each possessed of the anlage of movement."
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

Wow! What a great passage from this book!

I enjoy Steinbeck's writing so much. The descriptions of common things just jump off the page and conjure up images that you can relate to as you are drawn into the story.

I thought about this quote when we were out taking a walk the other evening. The weeds with their stickers are just about everywhere. Our Labrador's nose was covered in sticker burrs from the sides of the trail.


The purple thistles are actually quite pretty with a mixture of purple flowers and white fairy duster seeds.


Even the dried flowers are pretty.

Have you seen some stickers and burrs in your neighborhood? Take a closer look to see how those seeds are dispersed.....point some out to your children on your next walk.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Winter Mix and Match Nature Study

This post is a mix and match post with lots of different interesting things we are studying. I am trying to get through all the photos I have taken in the last month to close off our winter studies before spring comes.


I brought in some branches of various trees and bushes in January and we have been watching them as they unfold. This is such an easy project that I encourage you to give it a try. Any woody plant will work and we are trying some new ones this year.

Here are some instructions you might want to read: Bursting Blooms


This is the sweet gum as it starts to unfold. Edit to add that this is a maple and not a sweet gum.

Now this is my mystery tree branch (perhaps a Quaking Aspen) that I brought home from my romp up in the mountains. The branch was broken off on the trail and I decided it might be interesting to bring it home and see if it would sprout leaves. It had buds at first and then the buds burst open to reveal these catkins.



The catkins then dropped off and the leaves are now sprouting bright spring green leaves and I am still not 100% sure this is a Quaking aspen branch.


This is the forsythia bush twig that I brought in and it is so pretty in yellow. I must be tired of the winter drabs because this yellow really cheers me up.


These are just two things that have been sitting on the nature shelf that someone brought in to look at and study. We haven't had time to really research them much, but they are interesting none the less. The crepe myrtle bush has some interesting seeds and the pods have become really hard as they dry. The seed pod from the trumpet vine is filled with thousands of seeds with wings. They are amazing actually.

Now for a few outdoor things that I would like to share.


This buckeye seed has broken open and sent out a pinkish root. They are striking to see as we walk along the trail.


The acorns are doing the same thing right now as well. This black oak acorn has sprouted.


Here is another photo of an acorn sending down a root. Amazing to see in real life. Just think, a gigantic tree can grow from just this little acorn and one little sprout.


One last photo with some manzanita that is ready to bloom. I love the delicate pink buds that will soon be blooming all along our walking trail.

I think that catches me up with photos from the camera. We are trying to keep up our daily walks and I am feeling the change of the seasons coming. The air is different.

I encourage you to try the Bursting Blooms activity with your kids and to get outside for a few minutes this week to enjoy the day.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Seed Dispersal in Autumn

We had a terrific windstorm last Friday night which is why there were so many fires here in California. I stood outside under the moon in the warm wind and just soaking it all in. I invited my family to join me and several came out and enjoyed the time just listening to the trees blowing and the leaves as they skittered across the deck. The wind chime was really serenading us and reminding us that the wind has a whole rhythm to itself. Wind music.

All that wind left our yards littered with leaves, small twigs, big branches, seeds, cones, and needles. The above photo shows just a snapshot of how many seeds came down out of the tulip tree. If you click on the photo you will see how the tree disburses its seeds with the little "helicopter style" winged seeds.

I really should have the boys complete the one small square activity on our front grass right now with all the interesting things to be found. If you look carefully you will even see an acorn that some bird had stored somewhere and it fell out of its hiding spot during the storm. There are no oak trees anywhere near this grass so some creature had to bring it here...probably a woodpecker or a Scrub jay. The boys and I had a discussion about how the various trees in our area disperse their seeds.

You can also see the large cone from the magnolia that has already lost all of its beautiful red seeds. There are probably over a hundred of these cones in our front yard right now.


This is a perfect example of how when you examine something up close it is truly amazing. Look at the texture and the pattern! The magnolia tree is always giving us something to look at: beautiful green, glossy leaves, huge fragrant flowers, cones, red seeds. The bees love this tree when it is in bloom.


I could not help but try to capture a few of the red seeds that are left after the storm. I love the reds of the autumn and this one is a bright, cheery red.




Here is a very, very cool video on seed dispersal that I found on YouTube and my boys and I watched it about three times! It is a fantastic video about nine minutes long but very much worth the time. Be warned that at about 9 minutes during the segment with the rhino, it actually shows the rhino "dispersing" the seeds with his excrement....my boys were grossed out but watched it several times so it can't be that bad. My favorite segments on the video are the dandelion seeds blowing by the millions and the squirting cucumber seeds. Don't miss this video or just watch a few minutes and invite your children to share the great information.

This was a very unplanned nature study but very rewarding. We have not had any "weather" at all here except the wind. There hasn't been a cloud in the sky to look at or an precipitation except for maybe a bit of dew a few mornings. We are experiencing unusually warm weather in the 70's right now and very dry.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Milkweed Pods and Seeds: Outdoor Hour Challenge #30

We took some time to observe and learn about milkweed seeds as part of this challenge.

"The milkweed pod has been the admiration of nature students from the beginning, and surely there are few plants structures that so interest the child as this house in which the milkweed carries its seeds."

Milkweed pods opening
"No sooner is our treasure open to the air than the shining silk begins to separate into floss of fairy texture."

"...and altogether there are enough of the threads to float the seed, a balloon of the safest sort."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 493

The Handbook of Nature Study has a complete section of information and observation suggestions on pages 491-495.

We are going to plant some milkweed in our butterfly garden this year. I ordered the seeds from this website. We did not gather the milkweed seeds that are in the photos since we were at Yosemite National Park and it is against the law to gather seeds in a national park. :)

Here are a few more photos from our day.

Thistles


Oak leaves and acorns


Meadow and late afternoon light

I will keep you posted on growing milkweed in our garden.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge #30 Weeds and Seeds

I don’t know about you but my garden has lots of weeds right now. It is going to take some serious effort to clean it up since I guess I have neglected it lately. This brought to mind a great idea for a challenge this week. Hopefully you have some weed in your yard....or am I the only one?

I had already decided to introduce the idea of seed saving and then with all the weeds, I came up with a sort of combination challenge.

1. Weed study using the Handbook of Nature Study
2. Observing and collecting seeds.

As the flowers start to fade and dry, I try to gather a few of the heads to collect the seeds from. There are some flowers that are easier to get the seeds from and some that seem to not make it through the winter. I have saved a few seeds in the past by collecting the seeds and then pouring them all into a paper bag to sow in the spring. We will consider this a challenge-wide experiment to see what we can collect, save, and then what eventually grows.

Marigolds are an easy first flower to save the seeds from and I collect lots of the seeds and put them into an envelope for sprouting next spring. This pile is about six marigold blooms. They actually need to be a bit drier before I collect them but you get the idea how many seeds there are potentially in a small number of flower heads from the size of this pile.

Holly hocks work well too but you have to remember they don't bloom their first year so they are a long term plant in your garden.

I have never tried Morning glories but I am going to give it a shot this year and see how it goes.

If you want more information on saving seeds, there is a link below in the challenge that you can read.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #30
Weeds and Seeds 1. This week we are going to have a two part assignment.
Part 1: Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 512-513 on beginning a weed study. This is a terrific section to read aloud before your outdoor time this week. [Note: If it offends your family to say that “nature is the great farmer”, please feel free to insert God’s name in place of the word nature.] Skim down the table of contents in the weed section and see if you recognize any weeds from your area and read at least the introduction material to yourself before your outdoor time.

“A weed is a plant growing where we wish something else to grow, and a plant may, therefore, be a weed in some locations and not in others.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 512

Part 2: Spend your 15-20 minutes of outdoor time with your children in your own yard or on your own street. Pay attention for two opportunities this week. First, look for some weeds growing in your own garden, yard, or along your street. Remind your children of the definition of a weed and see if they can apply it to your local plants. Secondly, see if you can find any seeds to collect and to observe and possibly save to grow next year.

Here is a website for more information on collecting and saving seeds from your garden.
Saving Seeds
http://www.flowergardennews.com/
Saving_Seeds-Collecting_Drying_and_Storing_Seeds_from_the_Flower_Garden.html

Possible seeds to look for that are easy to find and grow:
Sunflowers
Dandelions
Marigolds
Cosmos
Zinnias

Optional Activity:
If you want to really find some seeds and you have access to a little open ground like a pasture, meadow, or field, try this activity.

Sock Seeds
http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/sockseeds.html
They say this activity works best in late summer or early fall.

2. After your outdoor time, spend a few minutes discussing anything you found of interest. Topics might include the weeds you observed, the beginnings of the change in the plants and trees in your neighborhood for the autumn season, or the change in weather if you have any. If you are completing the Sock Seed project, spend some time examining your socks before you plant them in the soil. Use a magnifying lens to get a closer look.

4. Make sure to give time and the opportunity for a nature journal entry. If you are completing the Sock Seed project, draw some of the seeds you observed with the magnifying glass. Remember that simple journal entries are best: sketch, label, date. You can also choose to use one of the notebooking pages designed for the Outdoor Hour Challenges.

5. Post an entry on your blog sharing your experiences and then come back to the Outdoor Hour Challenge post and add your blog link to Mr. Linky.



This challenge is part of my Garden Flowers ebook. This ebook has ten garden related challenges that will walk you through a study of garden flowers using the Handbook of Nature Study. In addition to the challenges already written, there will be more photos, nature journal examples, book lists, and totally new notebook pages designed to go with each of the Garden Flower Challenges.
Follow the link below to view the ebook! Over 50 pages for $6.95