Skip to main content

Which Tree is Yours? ~ Outdoor Hour Challenge


October's Outdoor Hour Challenges from Handbook of Nature Study centered around Trees. The kids and I had started identifying trees at our local park this summer, so we transitioned into these lessons quite nicely. We didn't get all of the challenges done, per se, but made connections none-the-less.

Our fun primarily included going to the park and each choosing a tree to follow all year.

Brynne chose the Maple.


Eli chose the Sweetgum.


And I chose the mighty Oak. I had the kids run around the park and find the tree with the acorns. It took some time, but they found one. We observed the acorns and the oak leaves. Several times through the month I would hold up a leaf at the park to see if they could identify it, trying to focus on the oak, maple, and sweetgum. We are trying to get to know our three trees more intimately, and can't wait to see what they look like covered in snow.


We did bark and leaf rubbings of "our trees", and pressed leaves.




We also spent some of our outdoor park time this month doing a Fall Scavenger Hunt provided by Marcy at Ben and Me. So far we have found everything except a feather and helicopter seeds. We were particularly attracted to all of the moss we found, especially the moss on and at the base of one of the trees in the park. The moss was like a bright green carpet and was so pretty and soft.



Of course I also love the other nature learning that happened spontaneously while focusing on trees, like seeing Brynne chase a "yellow and black butterfly", coming across a walking stick, and finding a limb with some fungus on it and wondering, "what is that?" I have seen my kids being more in tune to what is around them, and it's great!!


Looking forward to nature studies in November! Join us! Head over to Handbook of Nature Study and sign up for email notifications. You will then automatically receive the monthly Outdoor Hour Challenge newsletter with all of the fun activities.

Comments

  1. Love all your tree choices! It is a wonderful way to learn about trees...watching them and getting to know them more intimately.

    Thanks for sharing your entry with the carnival.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great study! I need to do a fall scavenger hunt. I haven't done one in forever and that sounds fun!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the idea of following a tree all year. I've been doing it with our pond, in photographs, and it's so much fun to watch it change through the seasons!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I *love* this! We chose a huge apple tree one year that we could view in the field near our house. Another year we observed a walking trail throughout the year; that was a lot of fun! I like that you are working with your younger kids this year, it helps me glean ideas for my Andrew. *smile*
    ~Sheri

    ReplyDelete
  5. Isn't it great to see all your efforts in nature study paying off and seeing your kids more in tune with their surroundings? Great job.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

We all know that in this crazy world of homeschooling, we need all the (adult) support we can get. Please leave a comment if you so wish!

Popular posts from this blog

ABCya

Eli's reading resource teacher shared a website with me yesterday that I would like to pass along. It's called ABCya . There are separate educational sections with fantastic games for ages kindergarten through 5th grade. I browsed the 2nd grade level, and it includes age-appropriate games about Letters, Numbers, Shapes, Geometry, Patterns, Mouse Manipulation, Art and Holiday games. There are lots and lots of fun and creative games for children to play. They are fun, but oh, so educational. Eli's favorite, in his short time playing it, was Create a Car . A lot of the games also have Apps available for purchase (99 cents for most of them) for the iPad and iPhone. I have been looking for another free website for games similar to Starfall , for some time. I think I have found it. I can feel confident having Eli and Brynne play these games.

A Thomas Jefferson Education "This Week in History" ~ Schoolhouse Review

Talk about a GOLD MINE! A Thomas Jefferson Education's This Week in History by Rachel DeMille is her "labor of love" ... and I absolutely LOVE it! " This Week in History is a daily resource that brings your home school or classroom to life." For just $9.99 per month, you can log onto TJEd.com and click the "This Week in History" link to obtain many, many, many resources tied to specific events that occurred in the upcoming week in history. Or even better, you can receive the summaries and links to ALL resources right in your email Inbox each week! It doesn't get any easier than that! What does this really look like in real life? Each week, I receive an email from Rachel DeMille that sets out each date of the coming week. Under the date, there are listed anywhere from one to several events that occurred in history on that date. THEN there are ALL kinds of things to do related to that event, such as books to read, websites to visit, ac

Cells ~ It's What's for Dinner

Dawson made edible cells on Friday. He made an animal cell pizza ... and a plant cell chocolate chip cookie ... He reviewed what he's learned about cells the past two weeks, and I had dinner made by someone else. Win, win!! I am linking up at Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.