Nature Study Saturday Week 1

We started our Nature Study on March 15^th.   This is going to be my attempt to have some time with the kids with a purpose.   :-) 

We will be using the Nature Connection book, various other books, and keeping records in nature notebooks.

 

The kids decorated their nature notebooks using cardstock and some cut-outs from magazines and old books.  Neither was overly enthusiastic about any of it but hopefully that will come with time.   We started out using prong folders with a  sheet protector to hold the cover but I realized that would make it harder to add pages, so we are switching to binders.
 

Inside were record pages from the Nature Connection including Nature Notes to fill out each day, Tracking Daylight to fill out on an ongoing basis, observation pages to record interesting observations on an on-going basis, and blank and lined paper for pictures, samples and other information.

Since it’s almost Spring we started out by looking around outside for signs of Spring.  Other than some of the snow finally melting into mud, there weren’t many.

Each week we are going to observe three different spots in our yard – our rhododendron bush (a broad-leaf evergreen), our front “yard” tangle of bushes, and down the back hill toward the river.  We will take pictures and then use those pictures to compare to the view the following week and note the differences.

 

We actually had a somewhat nice day for our first outing and the kids decided they wanted to plant some seeds.  George wanted another plant like Albert or Panner from last year.  I doubt they’ll grow anytime soon since they are still sitting outside in the cold.

When we went back inside, George filled out the observation pages in his notebook.  We tracked the hours of daylight using sunrisesunset.com, and George drew a picture of the bare gray trees on his Nature Notes page.  Vicki refused but I’m hoping she’ll get more interested as time goes on and we go on more field trips.