Tomorrow I will begin teaching a class entitled Nuts About Nature at our homeschool co-op.  It dawned on me recently that it would be wonderful if I could share the lessons and activities in this weekly class with my blogging friends.  Also, this would be my way of keeping myself accountable to get my planning for the class accomplished each week.

 So, this is an invitation for you to join in on our class if you would like and complete the weekly lessons with your children too!

 Here is a little about the class:

The class will run for 11 weeks, starting tomorrow January 23rd and ending on April 3rd. For the first week we will get acquainted with what nature study is and why we should do it. Then for the next 5 weeks we will focus on topics for the winter season, and for the last 5 weeks we will focus on topics for the spring season.  

Each week in class we will be completing an easy nature experiment. Most of the ideas for the experiments will come from these great books: Nature in a Nutshell, by Jean Potter and Explore Winter and Explore Spring, by Maxine Anderson. You will not need these books to participate in the class.  After we complete the lesson and experiment, we will also complete a quick nature notebook entry on what we have learned.

In addition to the experiments each week, we will also work on a nature notebook entry that will show what you learned from the experiment that week. I will also be giving the children a very simple “nature challenge” in relation to the lesson and experiment each week to complete in between classes.

This class is all about practicality and ease in nature study.  I don’t plan on doing anything that would require lots of unusual supplies or lots of time.  My goal is to get kids interested in nature by igniting their curiosity and also showing the parents that it can be done in a simple, easy way.  And most of all my goal is to begin showing children how to see our Creator in nature.

Following are the topics the class will be covering:

Winter Focus:

January 23rd

Welcome to Class! – Why study nature? Can we learn from nature? Let’s get started on our nature notebooks.

January 30th

Winter Has Arrived – Why do we have winter? What is the winter solstice? Where did the daylight go? Why is it winter here and summer in Australia?

February 6th

Coping with the Cold – Where did the animals and plants go? Why did some disappear and others didn’t? How do animals stay warm? How do you stay warm?

February 13th

Staying Green – What are deciduous, evergreen, and conifer trees? Why do evergreens and conifers stay green all year round?

February 20th

Water and Ice – How Nice – What is the water cycle? What happens when water freezes? What effects does salt have on ice?

February 27th

All About Snow – What are snowflakes? What do they look like? Why does it get quiet when it’s snowing?

Spring Focus:

March 6th

Waiting for Spring to Arrive – What are some early signs of spring? How can we bring spring indoors a little earlier? 

March 13th

Windy Weather – Why does the wind blow? How can we tell which direction it is blowing? What causes a thunderstorm?…a tornado? How does a tornado spin?

March 20th

Beautiful Birds – What kind of birds live here? How can I observe them? What materials do birds use to build nests? 

March 27th

Spring is for Babies – Why are so many baby animals born in spring? Where do they live and how do they keep safe?

 April 3rd

Sensational Seeds and Soil – How is soil created? What are the parts of a seed and how do they grow?

 

My intention is to not make this a challenge or theme, I will not be doing a Mr. Linky, but to simply give you an opportunity/inspiration to do some nature study activities with your children.  I do not want to interfere with any other nature challenges you may be doing.  My only request is that if you would like to participate and if you blog about it that you link to my blog using the above button or just a link, so that others may participate if they would like.  And I would love for you to come back and leave a comment to let me know that you blogged about your studies so that I can see what others are doing!

If you are interested in this, would you let me know by leaving a comment?  This way I will see if there would be enough participation to make the weekly blog entries worthwhile.  Perhaps you could spread the word too?  My plans are to hold the class on Friday and then blog about it on that weekend so that it would be available to you for the next week.

Tags: nuts about nature

This entry was posted by Melissa on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 2:53 pm and is filed under Nuts About Nature Class. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.