Outdoor Hour Challenge-Winter Series: Cattails in Winter

Here we go again with another series of challenges. This format has opened my eyes to a unique style of nature study. Keeping my thoughts on the changes of the seasons has become the backbone to our family's nature study. They cycle of seasons is a natural beginning to awakening a child's interest in knowing more about the world outside their very own back door. This is real life and real nature study.

We may all start out on the same topic for each challenge, but in each and every family the challenge time looks completing unique. The variety of personalities in each family, the varied terrain of our natural world, the ups and downs of temperatures and pressures gives us our own little view of the universe.

Recently a mom commented on her blog that she finally "gets" nature study. She started off with one idea in mind but it has evolved into something very different. What was once an exercise in just getting outdoors has now brought her closer to knowing our loving Creator. She sees the small and the big as all part of one huge gift to unwrap. I rejoice in my heart when I see another family taking the time and steps to keep at nature study and mold it into something that brings their family a deeper understanding of all that is around us.

Beauty is different things to different people.

So start fresh or start anew, it all counts with our children.

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Winter Series #1
Cattail Study-Winter

Inside Preparation Work:
Read the section on cattails in the Handbook of Nature Study on pages 500-503. Pay close attention to suggestion #7 on page 502. If you completed an autumn cattail study, you may wish to pull out your nature journal page and refresh your memory with how your cattail looked a few months ago.

Outdoor Hour Time:
Take your Outdoor Hour Time and visit your cattail location if possible. Many of us were surprised that we actually had cattails close to our homes and it will be fun to revisit the area now that winter is upon us. (If you do not have cattails in your neighborhood, see the alternate activity below.)



You may wish to take along your nature journal or your camera to record how your cattails look during the winter. Use your best observation skills and observe as much about your cattail as possible.

You might include:

• Is your cattail still growing in water or has it dried up?
• What does the “cattail” parts of the plant look like now?
• What color and shape are the leaves?
• Do you see the cattails seeds or balloons?
• Can you pull some of the fuzz from the cattail and observe it more closely?
• How do you think the seeds spread, by wind or water?
• How crowded are the cattails growing together?

Follow-Up Activity:
Follow up your outdoor time with a chance to draw the cattail in the nature journal. You can use the notebook page I created for the Winter Series (available only with the ebook or notebooking page purchase-see link below), the notebook page from Autumn, a blank page in your journal, or any other general notebook page listed on my sidebar of my blog.

Alternate Study:
If you don’t have a cattail study started or you do not have cattails in your area, you can choose another plant to observe over the course of a year if you would like. Just about any plant would make a great subject if you observe it closely. The idea is to start to see how the seasons and plants change around you.


If you would like all the Winter Series Challenges in one book, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. The ebook also contains art and music appreciation plans for the winter months as well. Please see this entry for more details:
Winter Nature Study Ebook Now for Sale.