If you have been too busy this month to keep up with the Outdoor Hour Challenge, you many want to consider this week a time to get a few final April nature study activities. If you blog about it, you are welcome to submit your link to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.
Five Easy Nature Study Suggestions for the End of April
Just get outside and take a walk! Informal nature study done while spending time together as a family is often the most meaningful. Get outside for a quick walk when you have a few minutes to spare. Printable Scavenger Hunt available from Hearts and Trees: Spring Nature Walk. You can also use my free Signs of Spring Notebook Page to follow up your walk.
Keep track of temperature for three days in a row. Record it in your nature journal to compare with future months. You can print and use my free Printable Weather Chart Notebook Page.
Observe clouds over the course of a week. Print out a Cloud Chart (scroll down and there are two choices). Record your cloud observations in your nature journal with sketches.
Finish the grid suggestions from the Apri 2012 Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter. Note: You will need to subscribe to my blog to receive the download link for the newsletter at the bottom of the next blog entry email.
Welcome to the first of the new spring challenges for 2012! I am excited to get started with a fresh set of nature study ideas and to see how spring looks around the world working alongside all of you. It hardly seems possible that we are at the beginning of another spring season but here we go! I want to send a big thank you to all of you dear readers for your kind words of support about the More Nature Study challenges and for sharing your family's experiences with the blog carnival each month. I look forward to another season of encouraging nature study. Have fun and get outdoors with your children!
Inside Preparation Work 1. If you have not read pages 23-24 (How to Use This Book) in the Handbook of Nature Study, please read it now. In addition, read the section on The Field Excursion on page 15. Highlight interesting sections as reminders. 2. Prepare your children for your outdoor time by explaining the purpose. For this challenge, use the ideas from Outdoor Hour Challenge #2—Using Your Words which is take a short walk in your yard or neighborhood and then come back inside and record words to describe your experience. 3. Ebook users: Before beginning this series of challenges, use the Spring Splendor Notebook Page to build enthusiasm for the spring series of nature study. Keep the page in the front of your nature journal as a reminder of the three questions you hope to answer and the three activities you hope to accomplish.
Outdoor Hour Time: 1. Enjoy some time outdoors this week as part of this challenge, including a few minutes of quiet observation if possible. Observe what early spring looks like in your neighborhood. Use all your senses. If you have young children, taking a walk and enjoying the season is the main point. You can work on adding words as your child gains confidence in nature study. 2. Use the Spring Nature Walk Senses Scavenger Hunt notebook page if you want more structure to your time outdoors. 3. Collect an item to sketch into your nature journal, perhaps a leaf or a flower. 4. Advanced Study: Take photos of spring flowers, birds, trees, leaves, or other objects you see during your outdoor time. Try taking photos from different angles and up close.
Follow-Up Activity: 1. Use the Spring Splendor notebook page (ebook users) or your nature journal to record your time outdoors, including the prompts for descriptive words. You can brainstorm words with your children if they have trouble. Sketch or watercolor your spring scene in your nature journal or onto your notebook page. See this link for some inspiration: Watercolor Quick Sketch in the Garden. 2. Advanced Follow-Up: Make a slideshow with the images you took of your spring splendor walk. See this video for ideas: Spring Symphony. (We use Windows Movie Maker.) You can also print the images and include them in your nature journal. 3. Ebook users: Optional coloring pages: Spring Woods 1 and Spring Woods 2
Don't forget to share your Spring Splendor Walk blog entries with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. All entries done in March are eligible for the next edition. The deadline for entries is 3/30/12 and you can send them directly to me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com.
After all the rain we received in the last five days, it was nice to have a dry day today. It would be stretching it to say it was warm and sunny but it was pretty close. We were able to all get outside this afternoon to enjoy a look around the garden. The boys were on their scooters, the Kona dog was rolling in the grass, and I had my camera and nature journal.
The first things we noticed were the colors.
After that we noticed the delicate scent of the alyssum flowers which are starting to fill in all under the rose bushes.
Next when we sat still in the chairs for a few minutes it was the bird song and the bees buzzing in the dandelions. A spider swung by on a web...not sure where he came from but he was swinging down and floating in the breeze. The border bugs were skittering across the river rocks in the sun.
The trees are coming alive too....maple keys, buds bursting. The garden is full of sprouting, unfurling, and greenness.
So much to be thankful for on this first day of Spring 2012.
Today's bird list on this first day of spring:
House finches -singing sweetly in the plum tree.
Nuttall's woodpecker in the suet feeder (looking out at one right now as I type this entry)
Mourning doves scratching around under the feeder.
House sparrows
White-crowned sparrows
Western scrub jays - back to their bullying role at the feeder
Oak titmouses
Dark eyed juncos (a dozen of them)
Spotted towhees
California towhees
Anna's hummingbirds (flew right by my ear when we were sitting outside)
White-breasted nuthatch
American robins
So what did you see? How is spring shaping up in your part of the world?
After Sunday's snow, it is hard to believe we are at the first day of spring for 2012. We have had a crazy weather year but it is going to be fun to record our spring thoughts today..perhaps even taking a long walk this afternoon.
Here is a printable notebook page to inspire some springtime nature study or at least some looking out the window time today on this first day of spring.
I would love to hear how you incorporate a little nature study or outdoor time into your first day of spring. Leave me a comment or send me a blog link!
Remember we start with the first challenge from More Nature Study Book 3 this coming Friday, March 23, 2012. I welcome all to join us for the first challenge: Spring Splendor Walk.
This has been a great experience for me to read all the different comments sharing how spring looks in your area and when you truly know it is spring! Before I announce the winner of Weather Lapbook from Hearts and Trees, I would love to share a list of some of the signs of true spring shared in comments from readers. I want to thank everyone who left a comment sharing your springtime goodness. We will have to do this again in another season because I enjoyed it so much!
Flowering Bulbs
I am in SW Virginia and in this area, it's the forsythia, the grape hyacinths, the violets, and the wind!!!
Here in the boondocks of Quebec, it's when you can see the crocuses pushing through the last snow....
When I see the crocus come up that usually means spring to me....
Here in Oregon you know it is spring by the clumps of yellow all around from daffodils
Changes in Trees
...Southern middle Tennessee - we know that spring has sprung when the Bradford pear trees turn white as snow with blooms...
We know Spring is on the way in the Carolinas when the Bradford Pear trees bloom white all over town...
We know its spring here (Vancouver BC) when the cherry blossoms bloom.
In south Louisiana, it's the pecan trees! They say you can't fool the pecan trees, they won't get leaves until after the last frost.
Green Grass
The grass has greened up, the streams are bulging and sap season is over.
Spring for me is the day after the first thunderstorm when the grass begins to turn green.
Return of Migratory Birds
This year, the signs of spring were the birds. Even though nothing else seemed to want to wake up, the birds came and started to sing.
The kids love it when the robins start coming back to the yard.
When the birds that fly south for the winter come back.
When the geese start to fly north again I know that the weather is getting nicer and we are (most likely) done with snow.
Rain and Mud!
Rain boots and mud tracks through the kitchen!
At our house in Rochester, NY, we know it's spring by the reappearance of tracks.
Spring? Means Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain, with a chance of Rain.
Flowering Bushes
We know that Spring is on its way when the Daffodils, Red Buds, and Dogwoods bloom.
We are on the Gulf Coast and spring here is always heralded by the blooming of azaleas!!!
Hanging wisteria.
Ah Spring. Our spring actually happens when the lilac blooms
Spring Babies
The baby chicks and turkey poults arrived and our first baby goats of the season hit the ground.
The winner of the Weather Lapbook is...
Casey from Bumpin' Along The Road Less Traveled.
I would love for you all to hope over to Casey's blog and see her beautiful images in this recent entry: Evening. You will feel like you have taken a trip to springtime. Lilacs! Wow! Wish I had some of those blooming in my yard right now! Thanks Casey for all your hard work on your blog and hope your family enjoys your Weather Lapbook.
Sewing project, art print and projects, handicrafts, and a lapbook!
I also encourage all to pop over the Hearts and Trees and see Amanda's latest art, handicraft, and nature study kit for spring. She did a great job pulling lots of interesting things together this time around!
