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.
Pond Plants
Posted by Cindy on October 14, 2009
Our nature topic of the month is ponds. We’ve been having so much fun studying plant life, water birds, erosion, pond sources, pond health and so much more! Our most recent trip to a pond focused on pond plants. Below are some pictures of the wonderful finds – even in October!
Algae
Duckweed
Rush
We think the foremost plant might be water buttercup.
Pondweed
Possibly hornwort
Measuring the perimeter of the pond
This particular pond is stream-fed and a stream leads away from it, too. We followed the stream and the kids decided to build a bridge across with some downed limbs.
Just a little quiet time. Oh, how I wish there were more! 
An underwater root
Tons of ideas for learning about pond plants can be found in the NaturExplorers unit Peaceful Ponds.
Energy
Posted by Cindy on October 7, 2009
Well, another unit bites the dust! We had a great time learning about energy, with a main focus on heat and electricity. This slide show gives you just a glimpse into some of our hands on experiments.
What turned out to be THE BEST of all the curriculum we used was the Electric Kitbook. In fact, I liked it so much, I’m going to do a review about it soon at The Curriculum Choice.
At the end of the unit, I gave the kids a test that you can find on my Homeschool Launch page. I’ve been enjoying adding more tests to the curriculum this year. It keeps everyone on their toes!
Below is the resource list that’s been in my sidebar. I hope you find some treasures the next time you need to plan an energy/electricity unit!
Energy
Moving Beyond the Page Energy Unit
Next stop – Presidential History!
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!
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”
Great Spring Nature Finds
Posted by Cindy on May 29, 2009
Here are some more very cool discoveries from a recent nature walk.
Can you see inside the hole? The picture below this one shows the mushrooms that were growing in the hole – and they were huge even if the picture doesn’t show that very well.
We wondered who enjoys this cozy little burrow.
Ants were busy, busy, busy going back and forth on this little path they had created between two ant holes.
Conks aren’t a good sign for the health of the tree, but they sure are pretty to look at!
We have several old brick piles from a house we tore down on the farm. Take a look at this amazing and fuzzy orange fungus! We believe it might be called Spreading Yellow Tooth.
Can you see the puff of pollen floating off of the plant? Every time we stepped on one of these plants, pollen dust went flying through the air like a little bomb.
What cool nature finds have you made lately?
