Winter Nature Notebook Entry

Yesterday's snow and the coming of Christmas made us all realize that winter had arrived. We took our nature walk yesterday afternoon after the snow clouds began to break up to see what the weather had left behind . Today, we worked in our nature journals to record our walk, and Grant and Chloe were inspired to try a little experimentation with the freezing point.

After learning the freezing point is 32 degrees, and knowing that yesterday's temps were below that, Grant and Chloe decided to see if water would freeze in a little cup when placed outside.

They were rewarded with solid blocks of ice this morning!

After reading in the Handbook of Nature Study about snowflakes, we learned a few fascinating facts about snow. Most people know that no two snowflakes are alike, but did you know that all snowflakes have 6 points and 60 degree angles? Isn't God's creation amazing?!

This is Chloe's dictation to me about snowflakes.

I found a great art project that allowed the kids to create in their nature notebooks a scene much like the one we had out our window yesterday during the morning's snowfall. You can find that project at Art Projects for Kids. I love it when I can combine art and nature study!

The kids drew with oil pastels in their nature notebooks and then sprinkled watered down white tempera paint over the finished drawing. I thought the effect was snowy and beautiful!

The Leaf Man

This week for nature study, we enjoyed the beautiful fall weather again. After last week's cold spell, Albuquerque is back to 70 degree daily highs. The Leaf Man, by Lois Ehlert, is a book your young children will enjoy, but the project we did based on this book was fun for everyone.

We decided Abby's looked like a dancing puppy.

Chloe found pine needles for arms and legs.

Allison is our flower person, so naturally she incorporated some wildflowers in her creation.

Grant chose a pinecone for the body of his "leaf man".

Enjoy the outdoors with your children and encourage them to make their own "leaf men/animals"!

Bringing Autumn Indoors

We had such a good time at 4th of July Canyon on Saturday that we just had to bring some of it home with us. Today, we finally got some time to craft with our leaves, acorns, and seeds. First, I cut out a small circle (about 8 inches in diameter) from heavy cardboard. Then, I cut a smaller hole in the middle. The kids then painted the ring with a thick coat of green tempera paint.

Once the paint dried, we strategically hot glued the leaves, acorns, and seeds that we found on our hike to our wreath.

Here is our finished product. Now I just have to find a place to hang them!

We still had some left over leaves that we couldn't part with, so we ironed them between sheets of waxed paper and hung them on our sliding glass door giving them a stained-glass effect. If you decide to do this with your kids, I discovered that you should use a low temp. iron, and only go over the wax paper once. You'll be tempted to go over it several times with the iron, but doing so will loosen the wax paper and it won't stick.

Challenge #3

Today we again combined our study of nature with art. Nature seems to inspire some of our most fun and favorite projects. We are on challenge #3 from The Handbook of Nature Study. I have to tell you that I did not really want to do nature study today. The kids have seemed less enthusiastic about what we might find in our tiny little backyard, and the laundry among other chores was calling my name. God must have known our need for a little encouragement today because we found lots of things to look at! A beautiful rose on our bush that had produced little to nothing this year, a leaf bug, and a lizard with a metallic blue tail were among some of the wonders we found in our little space of yard. After the kids chose something to put in their nature journals, we got out the tempera paints and the kids made printings with rocks, leaves, flowers, sunflower seeds, and anything else they could find. Enjoy the slideshow.

Sunflowers Through Nature and Art

This school year, I decided we needed to have nature study time and more art time. The kids love this kind of learning, and I discovered a couple of blogs that have inspired me in my new endeavor. Friday I decided to combine nature study with art to go along with the sunflowers we've been growing all summer. The sunflowers are getting heavy with seeds, so I thought this would be the perfect time to dissect one of the flowers. Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study has a sunflower Outdoor Hour challenge listed on her sidebar that I reviewed before getting started.

The kids and I discovered all kinds of things about God's creation as we studied the rays of the flower, it's florets, and the growing seeds underneath the florets in the disk of the flower.

We then studied Van Gogh's painting of sunflowers online and completed an art project that I found on Kathy Barbro's blog. Check out her blog, Art Projects for Kids, if you are looking for some great art ideas to do with kids.

Allison's drawing

Abby's and Chloe's drawing

Mom's and Grant's drawing