Science & Nature

Late Fall Fun

Not every nature walk has to be serious! Let your children take the lead during nature study often. It might not be just the thing you would’ve planned, but it will be exciting and worthy nonetheless.

Cold Measurement

I love to incorporate more than one subject at a time when possible. It not only saves time, but makes connections that are so important for children to understand. Last week, we were blessed with a dry snow that led to lots of snow drifts. I sent the kids on their merry way with a…

Moss and lichen on a tree trunk. An image for a blog post about nature study.

Lichen vs. Moss

It can be difficult during a nature walk to identify lichen vs. moss. These simple descriptions and pictures should help you learn the differences between the two. Lichen vs. Moss: What’s the Difference? Through the course of our nature clubs and writing the NaturExplorers studies, the following question has come up several times. “What’s the…

Dioramas

Some of the NaturExplorers guides suggest the completion of a diorama to go along with a research project. Dioramas are such a fun and creative way to model entire habitats or ecosystems. Even better, they can prove to be an informal assessment of your child’s understanding when you ask him or her to create a diorama…

Wild Blackberry Walk

In our neck of the woods, July is wild blackberry month. Over time, we’ve located several wild brambles growing along fence lines around our farm. I have to admit that harvesting is a tad difficult because of all the thorns, but well worth the effort. I wanted to share just a few pictures from our…

Green caterpillar with a bunch of little white eggs stuck to it.

It’s Caterpillar Season…

(This post contains links to my products.) It’s caterpillar and butterfly season, but those fast and furious butterflies won’t sit still long enough for me to snap a picture! Caterpillars love cameras. On a recent walk with my hubby – alone (do you know how precious a nature walk alone with my husband is?? )…

Rain’s A-Comin’

In our Remarkable Rain NaturExplorers unit, one of the suggested activities is to watch and document an approaching rain system. Our family had the awesome opportunity to do this not too long ago. Here are pictures taken over no more than a four minute time frame… Rain can be a very exciting, out-of-the-norm nature study….

Animal Signs Walk

Late Autumn and Winter (before everything is covered by snow) is one of our favorite times to search the woods for signs of animals. It’s funny I’m posting this today as we’re covered by about 5 inches of snow, but here’s a peek into our walk a week or two ago. There are wonderful nature…

Winter Nature Study about Conifers blog image with evergreen tree in the background.

Winter Conifer Walk

Nature Study in the Winter? Yes!  There are still plenty of wonderful topics to study during the winter.  I’ve written about several of them before in a previous post titled, well, what else – Nature Study in the Winter.  One great topic that always makes for interesting study is conifers.  Conifers are evergreens that produce…