Bursting with Color: Composite Flowers for Our Green Hour Challenge #14

This week's Green Hour Challenge for us was very enjoyable. Our flower garden is just bursting with color and with garden flowers as our focus we decided to read and observe a special kind of flower, the composite.

"Many plants have their flowers set close together and thus make a mass of color, like the geraniums or the clovers. But there are other plants where there are different kinds of flowers in one head, those at the center doing a certain kind of work for the production of seed, and those around the edges doing another kind of work."

"Can you see that what you call the flower consists of many flowers set together like a beautiful mosaic? Those at the center are called disc flowers; those around the edges ray flowers."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 503

We had a great time studying these flowers and now we are going to be looking closer when we see a new flower to see if we can tell if it is a composite or not.

Here are some of our flowers that we observed.

Close up of a pink gilardia...can you see the anthers?


Yellow gilardias



Tickseed or corepesis


Pin cushion flowers where you can really see the flower parts


Pink cosmos, first one of the season


Close up of the different kinds of flowers making up the composite. Can you see the disc flowers and the ray flowers?

My son's nature journal entry.


We then put the flowers in our press. I am planning on making a flower calendar to make a record of flowers blooming in our yard for each month of the year. This will be a beautiful way to document our flower study throughout the year by pressing some flowers blooming in each month, pressing them, and then affixing them to card stock with the month neatly labeled on each page. I will share our first month's page when these are ready to be added.


Another great week in our garden. My son and I both learned something new and enjoyed our time outdoors with a focus and purpose.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Nature Journal or Nature Notebook?

I had a really good question from Joy and I thought maybe somebody else might like to hear my response.

Here is her question:
First off, I have read all of CM's Original Homeschooling Series as well as Karen Andreola's Charlotte Mason Companion, along with various others (and I've read all that you have on your site concerning Nature Journaling). But, I am still left wondering, is there a difference between a nature journal and a nature notebook? For example, the notebooking pages that are offered along with the GH challenges (that Tina made) would go into a nature notebook. However, I really like the nature journal idea, with the dry brush method, etc. and it would seem that this would be a different thing all together. The nature journal would seem to be a sketch book whereas the notebook would be something that would go into a 3 ring binder. So, how do these mesh together, and should I have my children do both? I know these questions are possibly silly to those who have done this for a while, but since I am just starting out, I don't want to overwhelm my little ones (2nd grade and 1st grade). I really just want a streamlined way to encourage them to interact with what they are learning outdoors.

Now my answer:
First off I think this is a really good question and if you ask ten different people, you will get ten different answers. But I will take a stab at it since it relates to the Green Hour Challenges. Clarifying things is always a good opportunity to fine tune our ideas.

I did a little research on what a "nature journal" is and the best explanation of it I found was in Clare Walker Leslie's book, Keeping a Nature Journal. She explains it this way.

"Simply put, nature journaling is the regular recording of observations, perceptions, and feelings about the natural world around you. That is the essence of the process. The recording can be done in a wide variety of ways, depending on the individual journalist's interests, background, and training. Some people prefer to record in written prose or poetry, some do it through drawing or painting, others with photographs or tape recordings, and still others through musical notation.....Many people use a combination of these techniques."

In the Handbook of Nature Study, Anna Comstock calls the nature journal a "field journal" but it is still the same thing, a nature journal. In Charlotte Mason's original homeschooling series in volume one, she refers to the nature journal as a nature diary. The idea is all the same idea, to record personal observations and thoughts about the world around you.



So Joy, to answer your question with the short answer, either method is still considered nature journaling whether you use a spiral bound sketch pad with watercolors, markers, or pencils or if you choose to use sheets of paper slipped into a 3-ring binder when you are finished. In our family, we do combinations of both recording in the nature journal and on paper.

Your children are still very young so you may wish to have them work on individual sheets of paper and slip them into sheet protectors when they are finished and store them in a binder. You may at a later date start them in their own spiral bound nature journal. Either way you can include many different types of mediums.

You can still watercolor and slip them into the binder. You can press flowers and slip those in too. If you come across a nature notebooking page you like you can fill those out and put those in the binder. The notebooking pages are nice for younger children because most of them include lines to write your notes on which is easier for younger writers. I have one son that likes the notebooking pages because he hates a blank page. If it is in a notebooking page format, he can easily think of things to fill it up.

I hope that clears things up a bit. I know there are a lot of choices and you will eventually come to the answer for your family about which one works the best. Nothing is set in stone either. You can start one way and change at any time. It depends a lot on how you are going to use the nature journals and how your children feel about recording in them. When my boys were little, we filled up lots of pages each year so they loved starting fresh each fall. Now we perhaps make an entry a week and we have slowed down considerably in the volume of notebooks.

Here is a slideshow of a few pages from my son's nature journal from about age 5 to age 7.
Flickr Slideshow of Young Child's Nature Journal

As you can see, he used a variety of methods for making his entry and it has made a unique keepsake of his observations. He has become more sophisticated as time goes on but the principle is still the same in that he chooses how to record his ideas and experiences.

Make nature journaling a pleasant experience. I know that many times for myself I end up not liking a page until it is all done. It has taken me many years to develop my own style of nature notebook. Want a glimpse into my nature journal? Here is a link:
Drawing in Your Nature Journal

And I always remind new families that the journal page is the icing on the cake. The most important part of nature study is the time spent outdoors together with your children. You are successful whether you end up with a page in your journal each week or not. :)

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Fresh Strawberries: Gardening Rewards the Patient

Look what we picked this morning before the sun got too hot...mmmmmm. Fresh strawberries smell so delicious and I can hardly stand to wait to wash them before I pop them into my mouth.

"Of all the blossoms that clothe our open fields, one of the prettiest is that of the wild strawberry. And yet so influenced is man by his stomach that he seldom heeds this flower except as a promis of a crop of strawberries."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 608

More on strawberries and how to include them in your nature study are found on pages 608-610 of the Handbook of Nature Study.

Gardening brings such sweet rewards.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Garden Flower-Learning Our Parts Green Hour #13

We have so many garden flowers blooming right now that it is hard to pick one to draw for our nature journal....too many choices. Not a bad problem but still not enough time to do all that we want to.

Here is my son's day lily drawing.





Here is my azalea drawing.


We have had fun looking closely at all the flower parts and deciding how each insect is attracted to each particular flower.

Here are some other interesting things from our garden.

Snakefly


Green beans growing really fast in the heat


Zucchini....only one plant this year

That was our formal nature study this week....we have spent parts of every afternoon in the garden watering, weeding, and putting in more seeds and seedlings. Now that the hot weather has hit, we will see them come to life. The sunflowers are growing so fast I think you could sit and watch them get taller.

We will be putting some flowers in the press this week and I will share a fun project that I found to do with them in my next GH post.

Here is an entry from challenge #12 that I wanted to share with you. I love this idea and I am going to be doing it in my garden over the weekend.
Chocolate on My Cranium's Challenge #12 -Focus on Flowers
Make sure to scroll down to the photo with the kids and the wheelbarrow!

Have a great week,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Our Egg Hatched! It's a Lacewing!

In a previous post I shared a photo of a egg sac that I found on a leaf in my yard. I put it in my clear observation box and this morning there was a green lacewing in the box and the egg sac was empty.

Try as I might, I could not get a clear shot of the insect but he was a beauty.

"The lacewing fly or goldeneyes, as she is called, is the mother of the aphis lion. She lays her eggs on the top of stiff, silken stalks. The young aphis lions when hatched, clamber down upon the leaf and feed upon plant lice, sucking their blood through their tubular jaws."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 357

I never expected to learn so much about this type of insect in the Handbook of Nature Study. Anna Comstock writes with such an easy to understand style and now I can share the information with my kids when we see these helpful insects in the garden.

I found the egg sac on the leaf of my chrysanthemum and now it makes sense. This plant is always covered in little aphid like bugs and I now know that is the favorite food of the green lacewing.

You can find more about the lacewing on pages 356-358 of the Handbook of Nature Study.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Green Hour Challenge #14: Pressing Flowers

“Making and mastering a simple collection-a bookshelf museum, an aquarium, a garden if possible-will help in educating the habits of open eyedness, accuracy of vision, order and neatness.”
The Study of Natural History as an Educational Discipline-Part II by J. Arthur Thomson. Parents Review volume 7, No. 6 1896

“If the mother lacks a knowledge of plants, a good field guide will be indispensable, especially if she can find one that includes little facts and fun things about the plants. To collect flowers, press them and glue them to cardboard with the name in English, what kind of habitat it grows in, and when it was found…This is fun and educational.”
Charlotte Mason volume 1, page 51

We are now three weeks into our eight week focus on garden flowers. By now you should have had time to find some garden flowers to observe, perhaps have planted some seeds of your own, learned a few names for flower parts, and are ready to start a pressed flower collection.

I made a two minute video explaining how to make a very simple flower press for this week's challenge. Please watch the video and you will see that anyone can do this and be successful. (Please note that the videos that come up after my video are not mine so I do not know what they contain...just a caution.)

Green Hour Challenge #14 Pressing Flowers

1. Gather a few common materials to use for pressing flowers. For your outings, select an old phone book or an old reading book that you can use to press flowers between the pages as you collect them. This will help transport your flower specimens home to where you can put them into a press. There is no need for anything fancy. We have been using cardboard, copier paper, and rubber bands to make a handy flower and leaf press. See video for an explanation.
(Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyuK6qwlqBg)


2. Take your 10-15 minute outdoor time to look for some garden flowers in your local area. Observe your seeds that you planted in challenge 12, if you did that part of the challenge. Remember to use the correct labels for the plant parts that you read about in challenge number 13. Gather a few flowers to bring home to press in your own flower press.

3. Follow up in the Handbook of Nature Study with any flowers that you saw during your Green Hour time and that are listed in the table of contents. Use the observation ideas for your next outing to learn more about that particular flower.

4. Give an opportunity for a nature journal entry. Work on drawing another garden flower. Remember that we will be working on flower drawing skills in week 15. If you have seeds growing, record their progress in your nature journal.

5. Add any new flowers to your list of garden flowers. If you are making field guide cards for your garden flowers, add another card this week. If you make one card per week, by the end of this focus period you will have eight cards completed.

6. Take the flowers that you gathered during your nature time and add them to your press. There is a definite technique for getting them to lay flat as you place them between the paper and the cardboard. Some flowers are better at laying flat and others you will have to squeeze sideways. Experiment as the next few weeks go by.

7. Post an entry on your blog sharing your experiences and then come back to the Green Hour Challenge post and add your blog link to Mr. Linky. All the challenges are listed in a drop-down menu on the sidebar of my blog.

Please note: Mr. Linky is for linking to your Green Hour Challenge blog post only. Please do not link to your blog in general because then when others want to read your challenge post, they have to dig around in your blog to find it.

If you would like to print this challenge out, here is the PDF to download.
Green Hour Challenge #14 Pressing Flowers

Barb-Harmony Art Mom



Tina at Jetihoja Academy has put together notebook pages to go along with the Green Hour Challenges that she would love to share with you all.
Green Hour Assignment Notebook Pages

Melissa at In the Sparrow's Nest has graciously offered to share her bird list download with all of us.
Taking Note of Birds List

Please note that the "Green Hour" is a term from the National Wildlife Federation that I have used to describe my nature study blog posts.
www.GreenHour.org

If you wish to use their banner, here is a link:
Green Hour official banners

The "No Child Left Inside" slogan is not one that I came up with either. You can read more about where the term came from here:
No Child Left Inside

Gardening Reveals The Beauty of Creation

This bee was making his rounds in the alyssum on the deck yesterday morning. He was a big time hummer and grabbed my attention right away. Make sure to click to enlarge this one so you can see his fuzzy back. Amazing.


This shot captured two with one blow. I know they are not exactly beautiful but still awesome in their design.


Click to enlarge this photo and you will see an amazing egg sac. I have put this in a container on our science shelf to see what will emerge.


Here at last is my new rose. I posted about the gift of the rose from my husband and now it is blooming. It is a delicate pinkish-orange color and the hummingbirds love it.


I caught this guy in the feeder...we definitely have a group of hummingbirds feeding in our various feeders and flowers. I love to hear them in the yard as I work.


Okay, I know this one is definitely not a "beauty" but I couldn't help including it since it is a one of the biggest of his kind that I have ever seen. We have an abundance of lizards in our backyard this year for some reason. This one was hanging out under the deck to escape the cat's notice.


Last but surely not least, our pink little strawberries. We have already harvested a batch but we ate them so fast that I didn't get a photo. So sweet and delicious and I can hardly wait to eat this next round.

Hope you enjoyed my garden photos for the week. There are so many things to look at right now in our yard. I spend a few minutes early each morning just taking a look to see what is new. Then after lunch I do my hand watering and that gives me another opportunity to see interesting things. Don't forget to investigate your little plot of green today!

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Ponderosa Pine: Yosemite

Ponderosa Pine bark-Yosemite National Park

Can you see the "puzzle piece" look to the bark? I found this to explain the bark's appearance:

Approaching 125 to150 years old, the furrowed Ponderosa Pine bark again transforms, taking on the flaky reddish-orange to yellowish colored bark of old-growth trees. Composed of numerous thin layers that resemble jigsaw-puzzle pieces, this colored bark gives the trees their nicknames “yellowbellies” or “pumpkins.” Resembling an impressionist painting, the bark pieces are a subtle mosaic of yellow and brown hues.
Ponderosa Pine-DesertUSA.com
(I would recommend reading this whole article because I found lots of really great information on the Ponderosa pine from it.)

"The pines are among our most ancient trees. Their foliage is evergreen but is shed gradually. The pollen-bearing and the seed-producing flowers are separate on the trees. The seeds are winged and are developed in cones."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 674

There is a whole section on various pines along with observations ideas on pages 670-675 of the Handbook of Nature Study. I found that most of the ideas are applicable to any variety of pine tree.

My field guide says this about the Ponderosa Pine:
"Sooty grouse, California quail, and both red and gray squirrels eat the seeds: porcupines feed on the inner-bark, deer browse the twigs and needles. Native Americans are reported to have used the seeds for food and the trunk resin to waterproof fiber and wicker containers."

I love learning more about my local trees.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Watching New Ferns Unfolding: Yosemite

This past weekend we took a hike at Yosemite National Park. The ferns were all coming to life and unrolling their new growth. I found the soft greens a delight for the eyes.

"All of the parts of the frond of a fern are tightly folded spirally within the bud and every fold of every leaflet is also folded in a spiral. But the first glance at one of these little woolly spirals gives us but small conception of its marvelous enfolding. Every part of the frond is present in that bud, even to the fruiting organs..."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 698 in the section "How a Fern Bud Unfolds"

Here is a look at what the fern looks like after it unfolds. Beautiful.



Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Green Hour Challenge #13 Flower Parts

Welcome to the new home for the Green Hour Challenges. I have moved all the activities for challenges one through twelve over from my other blog and you will now find them on my sidebar. Mr Linky should work for challenges one through twelve on either blog if you are ready to enter your challenge entry. Like all changes, there will be some glitches so please leave me a comment if you have any questions or a link does not work.

“The points to be borne in mind are that children like to call things by their names because they are real names, and they also like to use “grownup” names for things; but they do not like to commit to memory names which to them are meaningless.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 456

This challenge will continue our eight week group focus on garden flowers. Please feel free to continue with your own focus if you are in the middle of something your family is enjoying. You can save the garden flower challenges for a future time if you wish.

Oriental poppy

Our family has found renewed interest in gardening this past week. We continued working on a new section in our butterfly garden and we also planted some new and interesting things in our vegetable garden. Each week I think I know what we will learn or discover with each challenge but then something new comes up and I am pleasantly surprised. There is always something new to learn about.

Little baby lemon

This week's challenge seems simple enough and even though we already know the names of the flower parts, I am going to challenge my boys to actually use the correct labels as we spend our time in the garden.

Gardenia bud

Green Hour Challenge #13
Practicing the Flower Parts

1. Continue with the eight week long focus on garden flowers. Read page 456 in the Handbook of Nature Study-How to Teach the Names of the Parts of a Flower and of the Plant.

“All the names should be taught gradually by constant unemphasized use on the part of the teacher; and if the child does not learn the names naturally then do not make him do it unnaturally.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 456

Here is a link to a diagram that you can print out showing the proper names for the flower parts. This is for you as the parent/nature guide to use to educate yourself on the flower part names. If you start to incorporate these proper labels as you observe your garden flowers, the words will gradually become part of your child’s vocabulary.

Flower Parts Diagram and explanation:
http://www.naturegrid.org.uk/qca/flowerparts.html
(Note that you can print this out, label it, and put it in your own nature journal.)

2. Take your 10-15 minute outdoor time to look for some garden flowers in your own yard or neighborhood. If you already have some of your own garden flowers blooming, pick one to identify and see if it is listed in the Handbook of Nature Study. Observe your seeds that you planted last week if you did that part of the challenge. Start to use the correct labels for the plant parts that you learned about in step one. If you learn one flower part and use it each week of the focus period, you will know most of the flower parts by the end of that time.

3. Give an opportunity for a nature journal entry. An excellent part of the entry could be the progress that your seeds are making as they start to push out of the soil. Be sure to keep watering your new seedlings as the week goes by. Careful observation with a magnifying lens will open up many interesting things to draw in the journal. If you did not plant seeds or they are not sprouting yet, work on drawing another garden flower in your nature journal. We will be working on particular flower drawing skills in week 15.

4. Add to your list of garden flowers that you have planted in your garden or that you have seen during your outdoor time. Check the table of contents for any flower you may be able to read about after your Green Hour time.

5. If you are going to make field guide cards for your garden flowers, add another card this week. If you make one card per week, by the end of this focus period you will have eight cards completed.

6. Post an entry on your blog sharing your experiences and then come back to the Green Hour Challenge post and add your blog link to Mr. Linky. All the challenges are listed in a drop-down menu on the sidebar of my blog.

Please note: Mr. Linky is for linking to your Green Hour Challenge blog post only. Please do not link to your blog in general because then when others want to read your challenge post, they have to dig around in your blog to find it.

If you want to print out this challenge, here is a link to download it in PDF format:
Green Hour Challenge #13 Flower Parts

Barb-Harmony Art Mom




Tina at Jetihoja Academy has put together notebook pages to go along with the Green Hour Challenges that she would love to share with you all.
Green Hour Assignment Notebook Pages

Melissa at In the Sparrow's Nest has graciously offered to share her bird list download with all of us.
Taking Note of Birds List

Please note that the "Green Hour" is a term from the National Wildlife Federation that I have used to describe my nature study blog posts.
www.GreenHour.org

If you wish to use their banner, here is a link:
Green Hour official banners

The "No Child Left Inside" slogan is not one that I came up with either. You can read more about where the term came from here:
No Child Left Inside

Picking New Garden Flowers-Green Hour Challenge #12

I thought I would share a little of our family's gardening history in our Green Hour Post this week. We have always been a gardening sort of family and the kids have grown up with their hands in the dirt. Each child has had their own garden box and when spring rolls around they get busy planting. This is my youngest son working in his garden in 2001....that would have made him five years old. I think the look on his face says it all.

This year he has planted a zuchinni, some spinach, and is now going to add some dill and some violoas to his box. He has herbs from last year growing...chives, oregano, and basil I think.


We went to Home Depot to look for some new things and he wanted something colorful and he wanted seeds so we found some on this really big rack of seed packets. He also picked out a pepper called "garden salsa" and this one he wanted as a seedling. I picked up some morning glories after being inspired by Jenn and I also picked out some coleus seeds for my pot on my back deck.



Our nature study this week has been filled with observing each morning the signs of a skunk in our backyard. Here is what it looks like. They make swirly holes looking for grubs and other tasty treats. I am so glad they are doing this in the unlandscaped side of our yard and not in the grass....yet.

Can you believe how busy these guys are looking for things to eat? Here is my son's drawing for his nature journal of a striped skunk.


We had another relaxed Green Hour week with a little time each day in the garden and observing birds and reptiles in our backyard. We did have one really sad incident. The baby blue jays that we had in a nest near our window were taken by some bird and then the nest was damaged so there are no longer any babies for us to observe. It has been hard on everyone to watch the "circle of life" drama this week.

I hope that everyone else has an enjoyable week for their Green Hour. Remember, you do not have to focus on garden flowers if you are into another focus or you have something else in mind for your family. I am giving suggestions and you can use your Green Hour time any way you want to....please share using Mr. Linky.

Thanks,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Wildflower Walk-Purple Chinese Houses, White Globe Lily, Indian Pink, and More

Trail with poppies-it is a steep hike but very rewarding

It was a family hike day down our near-by trail. We just discovered this trail over the winter and have now been hiking it for the last few months regularly. We are finding that every time we venture down it, we find something new and exciting waiting for us.

This afternoon we found lots of new wildflowers blooming, some familiar and some new to us. We also saw at least three different kinds of butterflies and heard a new bird but never discovered who it was.....shy bird with a lovely call. We need to come back with binoculars and spend some time quietly sitting and waiting with a field guide.

"Everyone should have the privilege of enjoying the natural beauty of the countryside. Such enjoyment is impossible if a relatively small number of people insist on picking and destroying native plants for their own selfish interests."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 460-461

Here are some of the beauties we saw on this particular hike.

Some kind of pea flowering on a vine.


California Indian Pink....showy color and you couldn't miss it!


Purple Chinese Houses
These are some of my favorite wildflowers. Not only are they purple but they are really big. On this trail they line both sides as you walk the upper part.


White Globe Lily or as we call them Fairy Lanterns. They are also know as Snowdrops, Indian Bells and Satin Bells. Whatever you call them, so pretty.


This is a new flower to us. I love the little purple dot on each petal and the yellow center. The interesting stems and leaves make this unusual shape. They were all over the trail...in the center as well as the edge. I have not identified this wildflower yet....any ideas?


This was so sweet smelling as we hiked along...deer bush, California lilac, or wild lilac. The bees loved it.

This was a wonderful way to spend our Green Hour this weekend. So many families have thanked me for starting the Green Hour Challenges but the reality is that this whole process has blessed me more than you can imagine. I have renewed zeal for finding ways of weaving nature study into our life too. It has been a mutually beneficial experience. :) So thank you to all you families who are participating.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Our Green Hour #11 Year-Long Tree Study

For this challenge we were to choose a tree to study for a year, observing it in each season to notice the changes. My son and I used the Tree Study sheet to prompt our observations but in the Handbook of Nature Study on page 625 there is a section on "Spring Work" to use with your own tree.

My son has suddenly taken an interest in basketball and is bouncing a ball in every spare moment. I tore him away yesterday afternoon to have him to pick his tree and do a quick observation. He picked one of the sweet gum trees that we have growing just off our back deck. We have four of these trees planted as a shade break for the hot summer afternoons. They are perfect for shading us for the late summer sun and then they loose all their leaves in the winter and allow the sun to hit our house in the winter to make it light and cheery. They also turn the most magnificent colors in the autumn and make the view out our back windows very colorful and enjoyable to look at....I can see them as I wash dishes at the kitchen sink. they are not native to our area but they are very popular as tree plantings in neighborhoods and in yards for shade and their beauty.

So here is a copy of his notebook page for his journal. I am going to slip it into a sheet protector and hopefully the leaf will survive for the year that we have ahead. At least we will have the scan of the page so we can compare on the computer if we need to.



Here is a little sampling of photos from his tree taken on May 3, 2008.


(note the bouncing basketball....I don't always get rapt attention for nature study)


(click this photo and you will see an ant on the bark)



You can join the Green Hour Challenges at any time. Look on the sidebar of this blog for links to all the challenges.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Green Hour Challenge #12 Focus on Garden Flowers

Many of you have expressed the desire to have a group focus for the Green Hour Challenges. I hesitated at first because among the participants there are such a variety of habitats involved in the Green Hour Challenges. We have those participants that live in the rainy Northwest, some live in the hot Southwest, many live in urban areas, and then there are families that are just getting their feet wet with nature study all around the world.

After much thought and consideration, I managed to convince myself that we could all share in a focus area to some extent and if you choose not to participate in the group focus, you are certainly welcome to pick your own focus area and share with everyone week by week as well. I want the Green Hour Challenges to be positive and encouraging and I will strive to maintain that goal.


If you are new to gardening and need some tips, I will give you some easy instructions. Growing plants from seeds is easy. We use yogurt cups filled with a little potting soil to start our seeds. Follow the directions on the seed packet for seed planting depth, watering, and transplanting. Good first choices are sunflowers, zinnias, marigolds, and petunias. In general you can grow just about anything in a little cup or pot as long as it gets some sun and a little water each day. If it is still cold at night where you live, you may want to sprout your seeds indoors. Our weather has warmed up so we are growing ours on our back deck. As an experiment you could keep some cups outdoors and some indoors just to see the difference in their growth. (That's extra credit.)

Green Hour Challenge #12
Start Your Engines…I Mean Seeds

1. Begin an eight week focus on garden flowers. Follow along with us as we adventure into the garden, whether it is your own flower pot with seeds in it, a square foot garden, a park with some flowers to observe, or anything in between. Read pages 453-456 in the Handbook of Nature Study-How to Begin The Study of Plants and Their Flowers.

“The only right way to begin plant study with young children is through awakening their interest in and love for flowers.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 453

This would be a great week to take a field trip to a garden nursery to observe the variety of colors and textures in garden flowers that are available in your local area. While you are there, let your child pick out a flower to add to your home garden. You can pick out seeds to grow, a plant already growing in a pot, or both. If you haven’t started a garden yet, pick a flower that you can grow in a container either on your back porch or in a window. (Please note that in week 16 we will all be starting sunflowers and you may wish to pick those seeds up while you are at the nursery.) If you are starting some garden flowers from seed, make sure to water them according to the directions on the package. In general you will want to keep them moist during the germination period (until you see the plant popping out of the ground).

2. Take your 10-15 minute outdoor time to look for some garden flowers in your own area. If you already have some of your own garden flowers blooming, pick one to identify and see if it is listed in the Handbook of Nature Study.

3. Start a new list in your nature journal of garden flowers that you have planted or that you have seen while on your field trip or during your outdoor time. Make sure as you start this study of garden flowers that you turn to the Handbook of Nature Study’s table of contents to the “Garden Flowers” section and mark or highlight those garden flowers listed that you think you will encounter during your nature study time. Each week pick one flower to read about before you have your Green Hour time and this will help you have some interesting information to share with your children. If you found a new flower during your nature time, be sure to follow up with a reading in the Handbook of Nature Study if it is listed in the book.

4. Give an opportunity for a nature journal entry. Drawing flowers is a very enjoyable experience for most children. In week 15 we will be concentrating on how to draw flowers.

5. If you are going to make field guide cards for your garden flowers, start those this week. Try to make one card per week and at the end of this focus period you will have eight cards completed.

6. Post an entry on your blog sharing your experiences and then come back to the Green Hour Challenge post and add your blog link to Mr. Linky. All the challenges are listed in a drop-down menu on the sidebar of my blog.

Please note: Mr. Linky is for linking to your Green Hour Challenge blog post only. Please do not link to your blog in general because then when others want to read your challenge post, they have to dig around in your blog to find it.

Here is the challenge in PDF format for you to download.
Green Hour Challenge #12 Start Your Engines....I Mean Seeds

Barb-Harmony Art Mom





Tina at Jetihoja Academy has put together notebook pages to go along with the Green Hour Challenges that she would love to share with you all.
Green Hour Assignment Notebook Pages

Melissa at In the Sparrow's Nest has graciously offered to share her bird list download with all of us.
Taking Note of Birds List

Please note that the "Green Hour" is a term from the National Wildlife Federation that I have used to describe my nature study blog posts.
www.GreenHour.org

If you wish to use their banner, here is a link:
Green Hour official banners

The "No Child Left Inside" slogan is not one that I came up with either. You can read more about where the term came from here:
No Child Left Inside

Spider and a Ladybug: Tangled Webs

My son's keen eyes spotted this drama happening right on our back deck. The spider was spinning this ladybug up as we watched. Click the photo to see it more clearly. The spider is gorgeous.

"Perhaps no structure made by a creature lower than man is so exquisitely perfect as the orb web of the spider.....There should be an orb web where the pupils can observe it, preferably with the spider in attendance." Handbook of Nature Study, page 441

Barb-Harmony Art Mom