Outdoor Hour Challenge ~ Spring Weather

For our ongoing seasonal weather study, we didn't go far. We stepped into our backyard and looked up at the sky!

The weater has been beautiful here in South Western Ontario these past few days and today again. The temperature is 18 degrees Celsius, with a light breeze. It is very sunny with only a few high cumulus clouds.

We made a sundial but realized that there was still a bit too much wind to use this paper sundial, which led to a short talk about what materials would be best to use for a more permanent sundial.

For more ideas on weather observations, you can visit the Handbook of Nature Study Weather Observations post.

Outdoor Hour Challenge ~ More Signs of Spring

We have had a few more signs of spring since my last post. This time all photos are from around our house. We all paid close attention to see what was showing signs of spring...

Here is the first one:

We started working on our garden patch. Last summer, my husband built us 2 big rectangles for us to plant our vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Celeste and Andre both helped me with pulling all the weeds out and raking.

We have had a few birds visit, including this Mallard duck couple!

I guess they liked our garden.

The small maple tree in our yard is home to our homemade bird feeder (a juice container) and one Red-Winged Blackbird keeps on visiting.

We also saw lots of new buds growing in our yard and some plants growing already:

This big green one at the front was here when we moved two years ago. We will need to identify it this year. The red one was also here, as well as the one in between.

The two photos above are from the same bush. My aunt gave it to us as a house warming present and called it a Burning Bush. It has beautiful red leaves.

These cute buds are from our blueberry bush. We planted this one last year and it looks like it made it through the winter.

The lily of the valley plants were in the front of our house, in full sun when we moved in. They were planted by the previous owners. I moved them to a different spot, that doesn't have as much sun. I can't wait to see those beautiful little flowers and bring them inside. I love their fragrance.

These two photos are both from an Hydrangea that I planted last year. It looks like it survived too!

We loved looking for signs of spring right in our backyard!

Here is the post at Handbook of Nature blog that can help you get started on your search for signs of spring: Signs of Spring Bonus Challenge.

Outdoor Hour Challenge ~ Seasonal Tree Study ~ Spring

Spring is here!

We are continuing on with our nature study and with the Outdoor Hour Challenges.

This past week we completed our year long seasonal tree study.

We measured our birch tree and noticed that the height is about the same, the tallest point is measuring about 6ft 4. The main trunk is 2.5 inches.

We noticed little buds popping out, but no leaves yet. There were no birds or insects in the tree when we observed it, but we have seen birds stopping on its branches before (which makes the tree bend!).

Andre measured and sketched the tree onto our notebook page.

We really enjoyed looking at our birch tree and noticing the little buds. We only planted it last year, so this was its first winter and we were really happy to see that it survived!

If you like to find more about how to participate in this spring nature study, please visit the Handbook of Nature Study blog.

Outdoor Hour Challenge ~ Signs of Spring

We went for a walk this afternoon, in our usual spot, past the farmer's field near our house. I gave the kids the Spring Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt page and told them to try to find the items on it during our walk.  Adrienne took charge with the clipboard and started delegating to her younger siblings who would be looking for what. I just backed away and let them do their thing!

They saw lots of mud, some dry, some squishy, some really wet:

some new green grass, poking through the mud, which counted as "something moving in the breeze" and something that they smell:

A bright red bug that we need to identify:

They heard many birds and saw a few as well, like this robin:

They saw and heard water running in the little creek (one spot had a little current):

They felt many things during their scavenger hunt:

something warm from the sun - sticks and twigs

something cool in the shade - metal fence

something moist or wet - mud

something soft or smooth - rock

They also had a lot of fun playing in the muddy part of the creek, and crossing from one side to the other (many times)!

I had a lovely time watching them, taking photos, and sitting with Orion (our dog)!

We agreed that we need to do this scavenger hunt again in a few weeks, since we didn't notice any wildflowers, blossoms or new leaves on the trees. We also didn't see any bees or worms.

This was part of our Outdoor Hour Challenges. You can read more about this particular Signs of Spring one here.

Outdoor Hour Challenge ~ Winter Series ~ One Small Square

This week we took part in the Outdoor Hour Challenge by completing the One Small Square study. We gathered some yarn, rocks and a measuring tape and measured out a small one foot square in our own backyard. We looked at it closely and wrote down what we saw, starting with on top of the grass.

Here is what we wrote for what we saw on the surface:

grass, some green, some dead

a little snow

dirt.

We then started to dig a little. The ground was still frozen so the digging was difficult.

Once we had a little hole dug up, we looked a little closer and recorded what we saw :

dirt

roots

clay

pebbles

We didn't see any bugs where we dug. We all agreed that we should do this study every season and see the differences in what we can find.

Celeste was walking around our backyard and called me over at one point to ask me to see what she had found under a pile of snow.

That looked like rabbit droppings to us!

Andre looked at our square a little closer with my father's magnifying glass and told me that there were "little caves" in the dirt.

This was another interesting nature study for us, taking the time to observe nature right in our own backyard.

For more nature study ideas, visit the Handbook of Nature Study blog.

Frosty White

We skipped our usual morning routine yesterday to enjoy the beauty of winter. We love seeing everything covered in frosty white. We also saw (and listened to) a Northern Cardinal, beautiful with his red coat against the white snow, but we weren't able to capture him with our cameras...maybe next time!

Outdoor Hour Challenge ~ Winter Series ~ Winter Birds and the Great Backyard Bird Count

Last weekend, Adrienne and I participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count. It was very simple, all we had to do was watch for birds for about fifteen minutes and write down which we saw. We don't have a bird feeder on our yard, but can see our neighbour's from my bedroom window.

Adrienne is much better at me for looking at the details of each bird which helped us identify them!

Here are a few photos taken during our observations. It was early on a cloudy day, so the lighting isn't the best.

After we were done counting the birds over the three days, we decided to pick one and read a bit more about it. We chose the Dark-eyed Junco. We found out that while most juncos migrate south for the winter, it is common to see a few in Ontario during the cold months.  They like to eat the seeds that fall from bird feeders.

The male has the dark slate grey feathers on top, while the female has lighter brown. Both have white belly feathers. 

See the bottom of the post for our list of birds that we submitted.

Great Backyard Bird Count - February 13 to 15, 2010

Mourning Doves: 14

European Starlings: 17

Black Capped Chickadees: 10

House Sparrow: 20

Dark-eyed Junco: 4

We included this information to our Nature Journal along with a Dark-eyed Junco colouring page from the (free printable) Feeder Birds Colouring Book.

This was part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge Winter series (even though we didn't go outside!), more can be found about it at Handbook of Nature Study blog.

Outdoor Hour Challenge ~ Winter Series ~ Pine Tree

Last week, we visited a new-to-us conservation area. It was about a fifteen minute drive from our home, and had a short walking trail. I had looked ahead in the Outdoor Hour Winter Series and knew we were going to be looking for pines. Since we hadn't been there before, I wasn't sure if we would find any pines, but we did!

We also found that somebody had constructed a shelter under the pine trees, big enough for one person to sit in:

And a smaller one, perfect for dolls (Celeste didn't bring hers for this walk to test it out though):

We found a huge tree fungus:

And some more pine trees, we think this is a white pine:

A close up of the branches and needles:

Back at home, I read part of the Pine section aloud to Adrienne in the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock. I finally ordered the book. Up until now, I had been printing the pages from the free online version. We measured the needles (4 inches) and counted how many needles per bundles (5). We also sketched the pinecone we brought home. The first one is Adrienne's, the other is mine.

We have been enjoying these winter nature studies more than I would have imagined! To find out more, visit The Handbook of Nature Study blog.