Outdoor Hour Challenge
Winter Series #10
Early Spring Flowers
“The tulips blossom early, because they have food stored in the bulbs the year before, ready to use early in the spring….These observations may be made upon tulips in school gardens or bouquets.”Inside Preparation Work:
Handbook of Nature Study, page 554
This challenge is to learn a few things about spring flowers and then observe some up close.
Suggested sections in the Handbook of Nature Study:
- The Crocus: pages 547-549 (make sure to note that it has corms, not bulbs)
- The Daffodils and their Relatives: pages 549-552
- The Tulip: pages 552-555
Outdoor Hour Time:
Spend your outdoor hour time this week looking for signs of spring bulbs or flowers. If you planted some bulbs in the fall, take a look for any new growth. You may have neighbors that have bulbs sprouting and blooming or there may be some at a near-by park. Many flower nurseries will have blossoming bulbs you can purchase and observe as well.
Follow Up Time:
Use a few of the suggestions from the Handbook of Nature Study (pages 548, 551, and 555) to study your spring flowering bulbs. You can record your observations on the notebook page from the Winter Nature Study ebook, a blank notebook page from the blog sidebar, or in your own nature journal.
Journal Suggestions:
- Sketch the shape of your flower and record the number of petals.
- Look for the different flower parts: stigma, petal, sepal, anther, stem, leaves. (See page 548, 551, and 554 of the Handbook for diagrams.)
- Observe the flower’s colors.
- Describe the stem’s shape and compare it to other flowers.
- Study and sketch a flower bulb.
- Watercolor drawings can be made of any of your early spring flowers.
Winter Nature Study Ebook Now for Sale.
We've had fun with this. Interested to compare our findings with last year's. Thanks.
ReplyDeletethese are the first bulbs we've planted that sprang up! too excited!
ReplyDeleteAhhh, warm air and sunshine! We really enjoyed being outside today!
ReplyDeleteWe had a nice study, and a beautiful day for our nature outing. Thank you for the challenge!
ReplyDelete