Our Creation Club met for the last time until spring. (Boo Hoo) This month’s focus was on trees and we were as busy as beavers!
As a warm-up activity, each child was asked to find a leaf from any tree in the area. They had to remember which tree it came from! Then, they exchanged leaves with someone and had to located the tree their new leaf came from. The partners worked together to give hints to each other if needed.
I gave a simple explanation of why leaves change colors in the fall while the kids took notes on a notebooking page.
Then, we played a game to warm up their detail finding skills. Everyone teamed up in partners again. The first partner had to close their eyes, while the second partner led them to a tree. With eyes still closed, the first partner had to touch the tree remembering as much detail as possible. The first partner then led them back to the starting point with eyes still closed. The first partner then had to try to locate the tree with eyes open. Fun!
Now the kids were ready to “adopt” a tree. Using a notebooking page from Considering God’s Creation, they had to notice all sorts of things about their tree such as bark style, tree shape, leaf type, leaf shape and more. On the back of this page, I added a few more things for them to do like measuring the circumference of the trunk, tracing a leaf and coloring in detail, sketching something they found using a magnifying glass and such. You can download this simple page here.
Using watercolors, they had to paint a picture of their tree. We used our imaginations a bit since the drought has really caused all of our trees to lose their brilliant colors already.
Then, they were asked to take a few quiet minutes to write a poem about their tree or a prayer to God in thanksgiving of trees.
Finally, we took a short walk to some tree stumps to see if we could figure out the age of any of the trees that were once there by counting the rings.
This was two hours of our day that were definitely not wasted! Thank you , God, for your glorious creation!
Learn how to create your own wonderful tree study using:
Our first Fine Arts Tuesday has come and gone. What a lovely day it was!
We will soon be listening to Peggy’s Violin: A Butterfly in Time(which is a wonderful story of the life of a violin, by the way!) Woven into the story are several classical music pieces by famous composers. One of the first is “Canon” by Pachelbel. Before heading downstairs for our artist tea, we listened to “Canon” on the computer. The kids were very excited to know this piece was played at my wedding!
Then we headed downstairs for some peppermint tea and cookies.
Caleb chose to do a still-life of red hot peppers in a vase, while Mahayla found some clover in the yard.
They had fun, but we had to continually stop painting to re-warm the crayons in the oven since we don’t own a warming tray. (Don’t use a good muffin tin – it will never be the same again!)
We didn’t do a morning nature walk this week because our Creation Club met in the afternoon. Here are a few pictures from the wildflower walk and journal time.
I can’t wait to keep you posted on our Tuesday learning! I think Tuesdays will turn out to my favorite day of the homeschool week – never mind the kids!
July’s meeting was less of a nature day and more a celebration of water. We had a water field day! Each of the moms brought a water game or two which turned out to be tons of fun.
Let’s see, the kids played a relay carrying containers of water on their heads, a sponge and bucket relay, and competed in a water obstacle course. They had to try to keep water in their cups while jumping rope ten times, and they had a water balloon launching contest. They also had a frozen t-shirt contest, trying to be the first to thaw and put on a wet t-shirt that had been folded and frozen solid. And apparently, it doesn’t matter where the water is, kids will jump in and have fun (see the cow watering container below. It was clean!) Here are a few pictures from the day.
And look! My friend, MonkeyX4, brought me a whole box of cucumbers since we haven’t been having any luck with them this year. I was able to can 14 quarts of dill pickles this morning! Thank you, D!!
Yep, we’re still as busy as beavers around here! I thought I’d stop in for a few minutes to show you some of the fun from our Creation Club this month…..
We met at the local cemetery. Cemeteries are wonderful for nature study! Typically, they have a huge variety of trees, shrubs, fungi, weathering and even critters to be found. With tweezers and baggies in hand, the kids’ first job was to go on a Tweezer Trek. Basically, they were asked to collect anything and everything nature related that they could pick up with tweezers. We had a show-n-tell time and studied a few things under the magnifying glasses.
The next activity was to dissect flowers. Thanks to a couple local nurseries, we had an abundance of flowers to use. Apologia’s Exploring Creation With Botanyhas a wonderful flower dissection tutorial that we went through. Before digging in, though, we read The Reason for a Flower (Ruth Heller’s World of Nature)
and drew/labeled a flower diagram. As you can see, our little botanists were very serious about their dissection and recording what they had found.
Here are a few great sites to go along with flower dissection…
So here’s what I had envisioned. A peaceful day at the pond with children who ever-so-quietly and diligently explored life in and around the pond. Children who would pull out their nature journals at every interesting find, writing lovely poems and prayers. A day of discovery and awe.
Here’s what happened. Children racing around the pond, boys jumping in, muddy water, lots of laughing, and yet lots of exploring still. I’m not sure much nature journaling was accomplished, but most of the children went home with a cup full of nature to continue exploring. Their plan was WAY BETTER than mine! (Oh, and Colleene, SO sorry about the shoes!! )
The day started in my house with prayer, a little pond talk and the making of our underwater viewfinders. (These are easy. Cut the bottom out of an old container – milk, 2-liter, large yogurt. If needed, cut a bit of the top out, too, so you can easily look down through the container. Cover the bottom with plastic wrap, securing with a rubber band or duct tape. Submerge the plastic side into water and see what you can find under the water!)
Then, off to the pond we went. The kids had to first walk all the way around the pond, observing life on the edges. They were supposed to journal something they found. (Notice these are all girls!)
Then, they used the viewfinders to look down into the water. Again, they were supposed to journal something they found.
Finally, they used jars tied to poles to scoop water and life out for observation. Again, they were supposed to journal something they found.
Talk about hands-on learning. I think we might even be able to call this body-on learning. They had so much fun and I’m sure learned a thing or two in the process. At least that’s what I’m still envisioning.
We brought home a bit of moss and pond water. This morning, we were able to identify at least SIX different forms of life in about a cup’s worth of water!! For sure we have some tadpoles, water bugs and tiny snails. There are also tiny, tiny, tiny specks swimming around, tiny, tiny, tiny snake-like creatures and some oblong clear eggs with no observable animals inside. I can’t wait to see what grows!
Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems is a book full of pond poetry. Yes, I had even carted this to the pond thinking some sweet child would just love to write poetry in their nature journal. It wasn’t cracked open until later in the house! HaHa!
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Would YOU like to have wonderful pond studies? You can! Peaceful Ponds gives you all you need – except the pond.
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to create melted crayon still-life paintings.
has a wonderful flower dissection tutorial that we went through. Before digging in, though, we read 
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is a book full of pond poetry. Yes, I had even carted this to the pond thinking some sweet child would just love to write poetry in their nature journal. It wasn’t cracked open until later in the house! HaHa!
