challenge #2

As per Alex's request, we went out for another nature walk this week....
(side note... what is with the boy and his striped shirt and plaid shorts???)

I decided that this would be a good opportunity to do challenge #2 on the Handbook of Nature Study blog. This challenge was "Using Your Words". We were to just observe on our walk and take in the details so we could put them into words later.

This is one of Clara's favorite sights from our walk...
Alex became intrigued with these morning glories...

(He came home to look up why they open and close.)

We found a cicada shell...
and some signs of fall...
One of the neatest things we did today was look at all of the plants that had gone to seed. Alex had taken a science class at the nature museum last winter where they talked about seed disbursement. As we found plants that had gone to seed... Alex always stopped to investigate and speculate on how that seed was supposed to travel.

The driest seeds on this plant appeared almost feathery...
... he guessed that they traveled by wind.

I know I keep saying this... but I am constantly amazed by how interesting and easy our nature study has been so far... even with being in the city. I had no clue what we would find when we walked out our back door... I definitely had no clue that not even 2 blocks from our house we would find at least half a dozen different types of seeds to study.

So... as much as the kids love the nature walks themselves... they really love their journals.

We did the questions from the challenge blog orally and then they started on their journals.

This is Clara's...
She always wants to draw/paint EVERYTHING that she saw versus focusing on just one thing. This time instead of writing about the items, I had her give me some descriptions.

This is Alex's...
He painted the morning glories. On the facing page he wrote a description of the flowers based on his observations.

Here's my attempt...
I need some help on my descriptive words :-) Actually we all do... this was a really good exercise for us!