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Pond Study ~ Part 1

As part of The Outdoor Hour Challenge's August Newsletter, the kids and I partook in the first part of our pond study.

It was drizzling the whole time we were there, so there wasn't much activity. And, it was slippery, slimy wet and Brynne and I were terrified of the possibility of a slippery, slimy snake, so we didn't dig into our study like we would normally do.

Walking around the pond we did find an egg. It was small and a tad bit squishy. A snake egg, perhaps?


I collected tons of different leaves for Dawson's Apologia Biology Module 14 study while he and Brynne sat down to sketch. I had them look for something big to sketch and then concentrate on a smaller detail of it to sketch in a detail box (suggested by the newsletter).


Brynne sketched a leaf, some water, a rose (that wasn't there) and a log and made a detail box of the bark on the log from an up-close photo I took. (Again, she was too scared of snakes to get too close, so she sketched from the photo.)



Dawson sketched the pond and a tree and drew detail of the small nodes on the tree. He had his sketchbook propped right up to the tree when he drew the detail.



I spotted a tree with a fungusy mushroomy thingy (very technical terms, I know) growing out of the side of it. So, I sketched the tree and made a detail box of the "thingy".




We didn't see any cattails, or frogs, or ducks, or dragonflies, so no detailed study of any of them could occur. Next week, though, we'll go back in search of them again, and plan to dip out some pond water to observe.

We will visit that pond often, because it's a great place to study nature, so I know that our pond study will really occur all year.

Comments

  1. It might be a red eared slider egg they are small white and slightly squishy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really liked seeing your nature journals this time...shows how much you are really "seeing" in your pond study. Kudos to mom for making her own entry showing the fungus on the tree...great example for your children.

    Thank you for sharing your entry with the OHC.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I LOVE the journal entries. Just beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't know what area you live in but perhaps the egg is a box turtle egg. The size and fragility reminds me of some I have seen when we lived in VA.
    I also like the fungus that you found and recorded in your journal. Nice job there.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your nature journal entries are great. We didn't manage to incorporate the detail boxes on ours this month, but shall keep it in mind for another time!

    ReplyDelete

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