Green Hour Challenge #3 - Time to Draw

We are continuing with the Green Hour Challenges from Handbook of Nature Study blog.  Here are  our notes from our recent nature readings, observations, recordings, and this weeks Green Hour Challenge questions.

1. Read pages 16-17 of the Handbook of Nature Study.

My notes: 

~Nature study should be so much a part of the child's thought and interest that it will naturally form a thought core for other subjects quite unconsciously on his part.

~Nature study lessons give much excellent subject matter for stories or essays.

~ The correlation between nature study and drawing is so natural and inevitable that it needs never be revealed to the pupil.

~ When the child is interested in studying any object, he enjoys illustrating his observations with drawings.

2. This week take your 10-15 minute nature walk.  We have been having wonderful weather in Georgia.  We can feel Autumn beginning to arrive.  The humidity has died down,  the morning and evening air is comfortably cool, and the afternoon sun is still warm and inviting. 

We have been spending a great deal of our time outdoors in our own back yard.  John Charles and I have been lying on the trampoline beneath the canopy of shade trees talking and telling stories. 

As we've looked up into the blue skies to watch the birds flying overhead or to see the puffy clouds drifting slowly by, we've also been noticing the trees above. 

We've been looking for bird and squirrel nests, watching the leaves blow way up at the tip top of the trees , and trying to catch the single leaves that gently float down towards us.

We've also noticed that all the trees above us are the same kind.  They are all Oak Trees.  That has led us to our most recent nature study topic - Oak Trees.

3. Follow up with discussion and the opportunity for a nature journal entry.

We read about Oak Trees in the handbook of nature study and found that the Oak Trees around our house are called White Oaks.  White Oaks have small leaves and acorns.  There are also Red Oaks around our town.  They have large leaves and acorns.  On our nature walks we looked for the Red Oaks and collected a few leaves and acorns.

John Charles colored an Oak Tree coloring sheet and did rubbings of leaves found on our nature walk.

 

Zach did a sketch of the leaves and of the acorns.

 

We plan to continue collecting acorns on our walks to use in our seasonal crafts.

I thought I would also share our Nature Journal with you today.  We decided to create a family Nature Journal.  We are using a 3 ring binder with plastic page protectors that allows us to easily add pages and also keeps them clean and nice looking.