Welcome to my 10 Days Series on the topic of nature study! Each of the ten days brings you a creative nature walk idea and a fun follow-up activity to spark your enthusiasm for nature study today!
As you search for wildflowers today, you’ll closely observe each flower type to decide whether it’s a monocot or a dicot. Monocots and dicots are determined by the number of cotyledons inside the seed. (The little tiny leaves present when you open the seed.) Monocots have one little leaf inside the seed, while dicots have two.
In the field, you usually can’t open a seed to find the cotyledons, but other clues are present to help you place a plant in the correct category.
Monocots typically have parallel veins in their leaves and their flower petals are in 3′s (3, 6, 9…).
Dicots typically have webbed veins in their leaves and flower petals come in 4′s or 5′s (4, 8, 12…5, 10, 15…)
In a nature journal, older children should draw and label each flower type you find.
Follow-up Activity:
Back at home, dissect a wildflower and identify the parts. Use a dissection kit or a sharp knife (with adult supervision) to cut each part of the flower in half. For instance, you will cut apart the stem lengthwise to see if you can find the sticky liquid that travels inside. And you will carefully open the ovary to try to find ovules (eggs) ready to be fertilized. As you dissect, draw each part in your nature journal, noting interesting things you find. Use this diagram of a flower and its parts if you wish.
Read a Book or Two If You Like:
Today’s wildflower ideas are just a very small sampling of similar activity suggestions you’ll find in the NaturExplorers Wonderful Wildflowers study!
Be sure to visit the other fantastic bloggers taking part in this season’s 10 Days Series!
The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. And of course, click the image above to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.
Welcome to my 10 Days Series on the topic of nature study! Each of the ten days brings you a creative nature walk idea and a fun follow-up activity to spark your enthusiasm for nature study today!
Tally colors of birds you see over the course of a walk.
Once home:
Older children should create their own colorful graphs to show the data.
Younger children can cut squares of construction paper in the colors of the birds to make a concrete graph. Simply glue one square per bird in a line. For example, if three red birds were observed, three red squares should be glued in a line. If five yellow birds were observed, glue a line of five yellow squares beneath the red line.
While on the walk, talk about camouflage and decide which colored birds can hide best in their surroundings. Talk about other defense mechanisms given to birds like fast flight and high nests.
Follow-up Activity:
Birds use oil from a gland in their body to make their feathers waterproof. Waterproof feathers help the bird to stay warm, dry and, in some cases, allow the bird to be able to swim without getting drenched.
Bird feathers are not naturally oiled. Have you ever seen a bird preening itself? This means the bird was rubbing its head on its tail feathers and then rubbing again on other feathers. Preening glands, which excrete a waxy substance, are located near the tail feathers. The bird distributes this wax (or oil) as it preens itself.
Experiment with the ability of a feather to repel water. If you have just found a feather in the wild, it’s possible it will still have some natural oil on it. Spray a little bit of water on the feather and observe if the feather repels it. If not, let the feather dry out, then brush or spray it very lightly with cooking oil, simulating the bird’s natural oil. Spray the feather with water again. Notice how the water “beads up” and doesn’t absorb into the feather. (You can also complete this experiment with feathers purchased from the craft store.)
(Wash your hands after touching bird feathers!)
Read a Book or Two If You Like:
Today’s bird activities are just a very small sampling of similar ideas you’ll find in the NaturExplorers Beautiful Birds study!
Be sure to visit the other fantastic bloggers taking part in this season’s 10 Days Series!
The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. And of course, click the image above to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.
Our annual competition expo at co-op is always so much fun. With three children entering projects now, we hit an all-time high for family entries – 21! Stressful, yes. Worth it, oh yes!
The photo collages are in no particular order and don’t show every single project we entered. Some projects were created by a 9th grader, some by a 6th grader and some by a PKer. (We only took part in the art, construction, sewing and cooking competitions. There were probably six other categories we could’ve entered. I’m tellin’ ya, this night is amazing!)
Considering God’s Creation has been the spine curriculum for our 6th grade human body study. As always, I added a few things here and there to amp things up a notch. So, besides the {wonderful} notebooking pages that come with Considering God’s Creation, we did the activities and worksheets below, too.
Sadly, I don’t have links to most of the worksheets since they came from a folder of things I began collecting years ago as a teacher in the public school system. Likely, you can search for similar freebie worksheets online.
Skeletal System – A large skeleton put together with brads helped Caleb practice matching bones to their names.
Circulatory System – A colored chart of the heart reinforced how oxygenated blood comes from the lungs and is pumped into the arteries from the left side of the heart, and how blood carrying carbon dioxide and other wastes comes in from the veins and is pumped into the lungs in the right side of the heart.
A blood compatibility experiment allowed Caleb to decide what types of blood someone could safely receive if in need of a transfusion.
Nervous System - The Ectomy Game from Ellen McHenry’s Basement Workshop was a great addition to learning about the functions of various parts of the brain.
Digestive System - Along with a study of the digestive system, I had Caleb read a book on nutrition. He also completed an experiment to see which foods contain fats, designed a day’s menu following the food pyramid guide, created a model of the teeth, and experimented with the effects of soda on tooth enamel. (We used a cow tooth found on a nature walk.)
Respiratory System – Nothin’ special beyond Considering God’s Creation and a library book.
Muscular System – Well, the plan was to have a magnificent drawing of the major muscles. This is what I got. Ahem, someone was in a hurry to get outside to enjoy the unusually wonderful March temperatures. At least he can name the muscles, right?
We also completed a muscular graphing experiment. Caleb had to push a clothespin open as many times as possible within 20 seconds and note the results on a line graph. He did this four times with only a moment’s rest between each trial. The point (besides adding a little living math to the study) was to examine muscle fatigue.
I don’t often give tests, but I have to keep Caleb on his toes, so a test fit the bill after this unit. It was actually quite simple to put together. I just took a ton of workbook pages from The Human Body by Frank Schaffer, stapled them together, gave him a due date and slapped a grade on the packet.
Did you know March 14 is Pi Day? Celebrate with some living math fun! If you can get your hands on Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi, it makes a great starting point to the celebration.
A lesson idea: This lesson is a quick and easy way to demonstrate Circumference = 3.1416 x diameter. Taking several sized lids, I asked the kiddos to trace five different lids on a piece of plain legal-sized paper. Using a centimeter tape measure, I asked them to measure the circumference and diameter of each lid and jot that down on their papers beside the appropriate drawing.
Using their measurements, I held my fingers on the tape measure to show the circumference and diameter of each lid. I asked them to think about what they noticed that was similar about each of the measurements. (The diameter is always about 1/3 of the circumference. You can show this by folding the tape measure in thirds each time.)
Once they saw this “almost 1/3″ measurement concretely, I told them there was a way to figure out the circumference accurately every single time. All they need to know is the diameter of the circle. I secretly held a calculator and asked them to give me the diameter of several of their lids. I would multiply the diameter by Pi (3.1416) and get their circumference measurement every time.
This, piqued their interest of course, and they couldn’t wait to find out the magic trick. So, I showed them the formula (C = ╥ · d) and allowed them to use the calculator to find several circumference measurements around the house. It was a great lesson inspired from Family Math, pg. 97!
Other lesson ideas:
These are mostly appropriate for middle school and older children, but be sure to check them out even if you have an upper elementary student.
Best Pizza Buy – money comparison activity(at the bottom of the PDF), plus another worthy idea or two
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has been the spine curriculum for our 6th grade human body study. As always, I added a few things here and there to amp things up a notch. So, besides the {wonderful} notebooking pages that come with Considering God’s Creation, we did the activities and worksheets below, too.
was a fun review of all the body systems.
, stapled them together, gave him a due date and slapped a grade on the packet.
