Nature Study – Pond Resources
Posted by Cindy on November 1, 2009
What a wonderful month studying ponds! Here are the resources that have been in the sidebar. November = rocks!
Nature Study at the Creation Museum
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?
Wild Turkeys
Posted by Cindy on September 23, 2009
As we were finding giant turkey prints on a farm walk, one of the giant turkeys who had been hiding in some brush decided to get out of dodge. I know you can’t see him very well, but in the middle of the bottom picture is the very fast flying turkey skedattling across the field to safer hiding places.
This is a two-year-old hand beside one of the prints we found.
This is a nine-year-old hand inside an even bigger print.
Bye, bye Mr. Turkey!
Fungi of Summer/Late Summer
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!
Ending our Month Spent with Wildflowers
Posted by Cindy on August 28, 2009
I admit that wildflowers are quite possibly my favorite of all nature studies. I’m always in awe of God’s creativeness, beauty and majesty through such delicate little things like wildflowers. I’m also amazed at how each season presents me with new flowers that I’ve never noticed before – each with awesome characteristics that are different from any other flower.
A field of wildflowers can move me, while a single wildflower observed closely makes me marvel at the constant, yet diverse design that makes a flower a flower. And to think that wildflowers are “planted by God” reminds me that He cares about me enough to bring me flowers!
I have posted at Shining Dawn Books about this week’s identification walk. I hope you’ll take a minute to hop over there and read An Abundance of Wildflowers as it’s somewhat of a continuation of this post.
Last week, we took a very up-close and personal look at wildflowers through comparisons and dissection. There was no long nature walk involved – only long enough to collect several flower samples to bring back inside. Since the yard wasn’t off limits for picking, the kiddos brought in a couple of flowers that aren’t considered wild. No matter, it made for a great opportunity to discuss the difference between the two!
The first activity was to compare two completely different flowers for similarities and differences. This is another of the notebooking pages that comes with the Wonderful Wildflowers NaturExplorers unit.
The second activity was flower dissection to identify all the parts of a flower.
We own a very old dissection kit that made the dissection not only easy, but exciting for the kids.
We were able to see the ovules (eggs) in the ovary on this hollyhock (not a wildflower).
Eli always gets in on the action!
The third activity was drawing the cross-section of a flower and labeling all the parts.
And the final activity was to complete a watercolor still-life of wildflowers. We have been studying Cezanne, who painted several still-life works, so this tied art and nature study together quite well. And to get composer study in the mix, we listened to a CD of Chopin (our composer of the month.)
“Wildflowers in the Rain”
