In The Sparrows Nest » Nature in Autumn

Observing the Sun’s Position Notebooking Page

Melissa — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:39:38 +0000

You may notice that I’m posting quite a few notebooking pages. I am teaching the Nuts About Nature class again to the kids at our homeschool co-op and I am making these to share with them for their at-home nature assignments. Here is the one for this week. It’s a notebooking page to keep track of the sun’s position in the sky through the seasons. Enjoy!

(this image is showing a huge black dot, it’s supposed to be a sun, but it appears fine when you download it!) Isn’t that ironic that we seem to be “missing” the sun a lot around here lately!! LOL

Finding Color

Melissa — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:38:18 +0000

My sweet Preschooler and I went on our very own nature walk today to seek out color on a somewhat drabby day. This November has been a very mild one, indeed, but also has lacked sunshine. So we determined ourselves to find our very own “sunshine” by finding colors in the brown of late autumn.

At first, it seemed everywhere we looked there was brown, which we still found beauty in.

Here, we found STARS! She said they look like fireworks too.

Then we started noticing all the pretty green around still, even after the frosts.

And the pretty green lichen and white fungi were plentiful.

We couldn’t decide if we wanted to call these berries “red” or “purple”, so we called them “red purple”.

And finally, there was this neat looking orange fungi. We thought they looked like orange fingers!

But the most colorful thing I found in nature today, was my sweet Gabby Rose.

Macro in Late Autumn

Melissa — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:37:24 +0000

I’ve been trying to focus in on teaching my children how to see the beauty in all seasons. Towards the end of Autumn when the leaves are mostly off the trees, and things have found themselves to be a dry brown color we focus in on details, because there is where we find remarkable beauty. Taking macro pictures helps us to see this beauty even more closely than our human eye can.

We find if we look close enough we can still find splashes of color.

What small details of God’s creation are bringing beauty into your life?

The Colors of Autumn

Melissa — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:35:38 +0000

Autumn for us this year has been very wet. Lots of rain and overcast skies. But, on those beautiful sunshiney days we’ve been sure to get outside to enjoy the brillance of the fall colors. Cranberry Red, Flame Red, Pumpkin Orange, Deep Purple and Golden Yellow are some of the colors we’ve been appreciating. Here are some photos from a couple our nature walks so I can share the beautiful colors with you.

Be sure not to miss getting outside during this wonderful, beautiful time of year with your children!

During the last few weeks we’ve been studying Deciduous Trees, I also wrote a post over at Shining Dawn Books about studying trees with Preschoolers and Toddlers. Check it out too if you’d like!

Migration and Hibernation

Melissa — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:34:37 +0000

As the winter season approaches many animals are preparing for what lays ahead. Plumeting temperatures and lack of food drive many animals to migrate or hibernate. Yet still some stick around to tough it out by adapting. This last week we’ve been busy watching the many signs of animals preparing. We’ve seen large flocks of migrating birds, insects disappearing, animals foraging for food to store up and many, many more.

Just two days ago my son came running in the house with a Monarch stuck on his jacket proclaiming that the poor thing just flew right over and landed on him. I was shocked that it was still here since I figured they were all well on their way migrating south.

Also, I shared previously with you a photo of our backyard groundhog. Well since the temperatures are plumeting even more he’s been getting a bit more daring by allowing us to get closer to get a photo! He’s fattening up for sure, looks plumper than the when we saw him the day before! Soon, he will snuggle down deep in his burrow for a long winter snooze.

We are trying our best to enjoy these wonderful creatures because we know it’s only a matter of time before we will have to say goodbye for the winter. What signs of animals coping with the cold are you observing? If you have a chance check out our newly released unit, Coping wih the Cold – How Animals Survive the Winter Season, over at Shining Dawn Books. It is a perfect nature study for this time of year and throughout the cold winter months!