Sunday, November 8, 2009

Nature Walk

We have been having some very nice warm weather and luckily we've gone outside to enjoy these beautiful days. We've been studying nature during our science time. Last week we decided to take a nature walk around our place. Em brought the camera and our goal was to find tracks, rocks, leaves, flowers, wildlife on our walk and document them with either pictures or by collecting them.

The girls knew right away this was one of our deer tracks. They come nightly to feed now that most of the vegetation in the canyons has died.

We stopped by the girls rock quarry. This is where they have been excavating for a few months now. Most of the rock is caliche and limestone. But we do find a few other treasures around.

Most of our wildflowers have died, but we have plenty of these around. In fact they make some very cute Christmas angle ornaments. You'll have to check out my post on my Crafty Corner Blog.
Everything we collected they gathered on a tray for labeling. We are going to the library today to check out a wildlife and plant guides to identify all our items. Using our pictures and our collections we will be making a nature book. WB also took the girls to the Botanical Gardens where they took more pictures of flowers and butterflies. We stopped by our favorite park and took pictures of all the different ducks and collected more leaves. They are going to organize their books by area.
We might even do a collection for the different seasons. The activities are endless and the best part is the kids enjoy doing it. Even my 2 year old can identify most of the things we have collected.


How do you study the nature around your area?

5 comments:

  1. What a great walk, so much to see! I love your collection and the idea to do one for each season. I want to do that with my boys!

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  2. What a wonderful way to teach children. I love it. We have lots of deer in Michigan and need to be careful not to hit them with our cars. They just run out in front of you. Love the collections.

    Just want you to know that for some reason, your other blog showed a blue screen when I went to it and I couldn't get on. I'm so glad I could get back to you.

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  3. Hello Kara! (beautiful name) I loved taking your nature walk along with you - such vivid pictures. Thank you for sharing!

    I love that you brought some of your treasures, home, too! What a terrific learning experience, but more than that ... what a terrific human experience.

    Best Wishes!

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  4. How about studying it in different areas of Texas?? Around here, for instance, they will find a different size deer track, no yucca pods, less caliche, and still green plants...same time of year.

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  5. Thanks everyone it was a lot of fun! We are still trying to organize everything, but it is a fun ongoing project! Pat, that is a great idea. I'd like for them to study the different regions of Texas this year and that would be a great way to incorporate it into our science as well:)

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