Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Posted by Cindy on August 31, 2009
Here are the wildflower nature study resources that were in my August sidebar. In September, we’re movin’ on to a nature study about fruits and nuts – which you can find in the sidebar now.
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”
Posted by Cindy on August 19, 2009
Mahayla on the wildflower scavenger hunt.
Caleb checking off his scavenger hunt list.
Eli scavenging wildflowers to hit with a stick.
After the scavenger hunt, each of the big kids had to go in search of one flower that was new to them to bring back to the blanket. They had to identify it and write down various characteristics and information on a notebooking page.
Filling out a notebooking page for the flower of their choice.
Caleb's flower = Heal-All
Mahayla's flower = Evening Primrose
As usual, we had such a lovely time basking in God’s creation! You can find the notebooking pages we used (and more), plus TONS of wildflower activity ideas in the NaturExplorers unit Wonderful Wildflowers.
Posted by Cindy on June 21, 2008
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
