Posted by Cindy on October 9, 2009
October is an awesome time for finding spiders and their amazing webs in my area. Take a look at the webs we found in and around a barn.
Orb Web
Sheet Web
Funnel Web
Tangle Web
And I couldn't pass up this picture of spiderlings that recently emerged from their egg sack!
I tell ya, once you start looking for things in nature, God is always good to give you quite a show!
Enjoy spider nature study with oodles of ideas in the NaturExplorers Spectacular Spiders study.
Posted by Cindy on September 30, 2009
We’ve had a wonderful month of nature study! I don’t know whether the fruits and nuts were abundant enough to make our nature studies such a success or the weather was so picture perfect that anything would’ve been a success. Either way, we had fun! We’re off to study ponds in October!
Here are the resources from the sidebar…
Posted by Cindy on September 28, 2009
When you think of the Creation Museum, the first thoughts that pop into your head are probably things like Bible truths, dinosaurs, Noah and the flood, the need for Jesus and so on. We took a tad different approach to the normal routine of simply touring the museum this time around. Even though it rained the entire day, we spent time enjoying the beautiful and wonderfully varied nature trails.
Even though we probably would’ve had a lot more time to observe and look closely at plants and such on a pretty day, the rainy walk was a great way to see things we might not normally see. God’s creation is beautiful in any weather!
Water was dripping from everything, including us!
They have several water areas like waterfalls…
marshland….
And ponds
Plant life is just as varied from native to tropical.
Five different bridges make for a fun walk. My children’s favorite is the swinging bridge seen here.
Water, water everywhere!
Even clinging to the spider webs!
Trying to stay dry… Caleb found the leaf a bit too late. If you can’t tell, he’s soaked through and through.
And my personal favorite find of the day - itty bitty, teany-weany, less than 1/4″ each Bird’s Nest Fungi! It’s hard to tell, but each little cup has little egg-shaped pieces that are actually the mushroom’s spores and are ejected into the air by the rain!! How cool is that?? Now, see what we would’ve missed on a pretty day?
Have more fun in the rain than you can imagine with NaturExplorers’ Remarkable Rain!
Posted by Cindy on September 21, 2009
Have you ever noticed that God made seeds with adaptations that give them the best opportunity to make it to fertile land and grow into new plants? Hooks, wings, feather, rolling shells, floating bodies and yummy fruit whose seed will be pooped out are several examples. We took time last week during our nature walk to observe seed adaptations using the notebooking page found in the NaturExplorer Fruit and Nut study.
Here’s just a sampling of the seeds we found. This time of year is wonderful for finding fruits, nuts and seeds!
Okay, not a seed, fruit or nut, but I couldn’t resist this picture! This friendly little Fritillary spent several minutes fluttering between this Queen Anne’s Lace and a stalk of Yellow Ironweed.
Posted by Cindy on September 19, 2009
Many people think fungi are only around during the wet and warm spring months. How are these for August and September fungi finds??
Unidentified Polypore
Silky Parchment
Mustard-yellow Polypore
Tapioca Slime
Likely another image of Silky Parchment
Likely some sort of Carbon Mushroom or a Slime Mold
Likely a Jack O'Lantern or False Chantrelle
This area of fruiting body was huge!
I have no idea what this is, but it looked like a mold.
Hairy Parchment
Possibly Carbon Balls or Red Cushion Hypoxylon
Possibly Bear Lentinus
I took these pictures near the edge of a creek on rotting logs and on a walk in the woods. They were everywhere! Finding fungi is one of my new nature study passions ever since writing the Fungus Among Us NaturExplorer unit! Since there are many thousand varieties of fungi, it’s sometimes hard to pinpoint exactly what you find. But that’s okay, just seeing them is enough for me!
