Natural History Club- Astronomy

At it again!  I hope the fall study of trees has been a helpful for everyone.  No matter if we studied alot or just a little, every bit of progress made is progress and should be delighted in!  I know more about trees now than I did a few months ago and that is a joy :)

On to the night sky!  Initially I thought that winter time would not be a great time for star gazing as its pretty cold for us northerners!  But then another mother reminded me that it is dark much earlier and that is the advantage.  So, here is another hobby to pick up through this dark and cold season!

The Handbook of Nature Study is our guide.  Please read through the section on the skies starting on page 814.  This will give you some foundation to begin to guide your family with.  There are many wonderful books that can be read aloud or assigned.

Find the Constellations by HA Rey
Stars, a New Way to See Them by HA Rey (more advanced)

Some Let's Read and Find Out titles:
What Makes a Shadow?
What Makes Day and Night?
The Planets in Our Solar System
The Sun: Our Nearest Star
The Sky is Full of Stars

100 Things to See in the Night Sky

Star Stories for Little Folks

Sabbath Mood has plenty to get you started here.  They also have a two different study guides available, one for Form 2 and one for Form 3.

Also, there is a recent movie out called Hidden Figures which might be of interest. 

For observations you can print a wonderful current sky map here.

We are blessed to have a wonderful  local astronomy club and they have monthly nights open to the public for viewing.  Take advantage of this wonderful resource!  The members are passionate about the skies and it's so fun to learn from them.  Telescopes are out and available to look through.  Last month we were out and saw Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter through telescopes and the moon.  

Mayo High School and Bell Museum have planetariums.  It is possible to organize a home school group at Mayo if you desire!  We have done this in the past.  

Suggested outings.

December 10th Bell Museum Planetarium (FULL I'm assuming many people are participating in this, as Nancy had this shared on FB)
January 11th 6pm Rochester Astronomy Club- Watson Field (Like their FB page for updates on events)
January 21st 9:30-11:30 Watson full lunar eclipse RAC
February? If RAC schedules a night out, that will be it!  

A few more resources from Marcia Mattern:

-An example of a nature journal astronomy entry from the Armitt.

-Phenology wheel for upper forms with the moon. 

-Sky Sketching.

-Music related resource. 
"Enjoy Gustav Holst’s suite, 'The Planets'

Listen in its entirety or pick the planet that matches your studies."

That should be enough to get everyone started! Feel free to share what you learn on the FB Natural History Club page or here in the comments. Enjoy!

Natural History Club- Trees and Vines

Hello again!

We get to jump into our special studies with trees and vines this fall.  Fall is a fun time to study both, as we get to watch the leaves change and the hiking is wonderful :)  I hope you are able to enjoy some refreshing time outdoors with your family in the next few months and grow in wonder at all the Lord has made.

Again, Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study is our main guide for parents as we go through each term.  Refresh yourself on her overview of nature study and read through the section on trees.

Special studies reading should only take 15-20 min per week.  Here are some book suggestions to play with.

I'm a big fan of the Let's Read and Find Out series for younger kids. Here are some of their selections and some you can even find on youtube if you don't want to read!

Down Come the Leaves by Henrietta Bancroft
Redwoods are the Tallest Trees in the World byDavid Adler
A Tree is a Plant by Clyde Robert Bulla
Be a Friend to Trees by Patricia Lauber

Here are some others that may be of use in your family.

Ten Common Trees by Susan Stokes
Tree in the Trail by Holling Clancy Holling
The Tree on the Road to Turntown by Glenn Blough
Christmas Trees and How They Grow by Glenn Blough
Trees and Shrubs by Arabella Buckley

Perhaps for an older student something like Edwin Way Teale's Autumn Across America would be of interest?  Sabbath Mood has other great suggestions here.

It's always fun to find the right book, but the bulk of this time for study is for outdoors and observation!  The reading is complimentary!  "The thing is the thing" like Nancy Kelly says ;)

Remember DAILY observations.  WEEKLY journal entry.  Good simple goals!  Take a couple hours each afternoon outdoors.  Take one whole day a week to ramble around. Even a half a day.  Put it on the calendar.  Make it a habit.

Other resources that might be helpful:

https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/page/vines

This one I thought was fun, as I have many of these in my yard!  I know where we are headed first!  http://www.restoringthelandscape.com/2010/07/native-vines-in-our-yard.html

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/forestry/education/treeforallseasons/nativetrees.html

And don't forget a good LOCAL field guide :)

https://www.amazon.com/Trees-Minnesota-Field-Stan-Tekiela/dp/1885061390

Also, Marcia Mattern has some fun suggestions for wondering questions to ask and some math applications if you want to try them out on her blog here.

Last but not least, Nancy Peters has graciously set up some fun Friday morning classes at Whitewater this fall!  These will be our monthly outings for this term.  There is no charge and even your daily vehicle pass is free.  Just check in at the visitor center.

August 24th 10:30am - Making walking sticks and learning about invasive species
September 21st 10:30am- Forrest/ Tree ID/ Elba Fire Tower/ prescribed burning
October 26th TBD- Watershed Field Experience for middle to highschoolers!  Very cool opportunity! RSVP to Nancy if you think you want to be involved in this.
November 16th 10:30am- hiking and journalling???

***Additional Help for study***

This outline was made by Nancy Peters for implementing special studies in her co-op.  So helpful!

Below is an outline of the Natural History plan for this term - all about TREES.  I was doing a little pre-reading about trees in the Handbook of Nature Study (Anna Comstock) and this suggested outline developed from ideas listed in the book.

Week 1: take classes outside, "tour" grounds and share group observations of the trees.  Guide observations by asking "what do you notice about this tree?"  And then more specific questions like "what do you notice about the bark?  the color of the leaves?  the shape of it's crown?  how wide the trunk is" etc

Likely trees will be dropping leaves by that last week of september so we could ask kids to collect 3-4 leaves each before we go back inside.  In small groups (3-4 kids?), put ~dozen leaves together and ask kids to decide how to classify the leaves.  Will they classify leaves by color?  by form? by size? by smell?  by texture?  (there's no right or wrong, it's more the practice of looking closely at whats in front of them and finding similarities and differences, and working as a team)

if time allows, students choose 1 leaf to paint in their journal

Week 2:

tell students to choose a tree from those we viewed last week.  That's the tree they get to check each week for the rest of the term, and track if leaves are falling ( a little or a lot?) and when is the tree bare?

While checking their tree, also notice (and record in journal ;-) the color of the tree.  Show the shape of head, and relative proportions of head and trunk.  The following file may be helpful to us? 

http://www.lessonsforhope.org/pdf/guide_to_tree_sketching_pdf.pdf

Week 3: roots and bark - talk about purpose/function and size of root system and purpose of bark.  Students look at "their tree" and imagine the size of roots, could do a bark rubbing.  Back in class compare bark rubbing with other students' bark rubbings from same or different trees

Week 4: Leaves - observe and describe shapes, edges, color above and below, veins, ribs, length and thickness of petiole, opposite vs alternate leaves.  Students select two leaves from same tree to draw in notebook, trying to find two leaves that look the most different (from the same tree)

Week 5: fruit or seed - going back to "their trees" and looking for fruit or seeds.  Describe and paint it.  Ask students how they think it gets scattered and planted?

Week 6:  watch youtube video about dichotomous keys for identifying trees.  hand out guides and students finally get to learn (or confirm) what kind of tree they have been looking at each week.  

other activities that can be inserted or substituted :

making leaf prints

finding (short) tree poems to display on the chalkboard for optional copywork - if they're done painting and waiting?

writing parts of tree, parts of leaf, etc on the board so it can be copied and/or used in journal

Many of the weeks above can be moved around, based on weather.  If it's wet outside, we can't do bark rubbing but we could still pick up two leaves to take inside and paint in journals.  Or run outside and look at fruit/seeds for 5 minutes between rain showers. 

Natural History Club- Wildflowers & Flowerless Plants

Round two!

Again, we'll be continuing with the AO nature study rotation.  As the weather warms up I'm hoping to gain some momentum.  The Handbook of Nature study is the go-to resource for us parents.  It's not a great read aloud, but will give you knowledge and confidence as you guide your children into a relationship with nature.

I suggest, on top of reading the opening section on how to study nature, page 453 on "How to Begin the Study of Plants and their Flowers."

As the sections are laid out I suggest a course of study as follows, taking 2 weeks for each:

Flowers Anatomy
Spring Wildflowers
Ferns/ Horsetail
Mosses
Mushrooms
Mold/Bacteria

These special studies time should only take 20-30 min per week.  You could add more time for older students.  Also, it is only natural that the youngest of children will be more interested in flowers, whereas the older ones may have more capacity to study bacteria/mold.  Don't worry too much and let the children take what they will from the "feast."

This is a wonderful time of year to be considering plants!  Many of us are getting gardens ready, starting seeds, and visiting plant nurseries.  Perhaps you could plant some natives in your yard?  I've heard that Sargents has a good selection.  Involve the children in whatever you can.  Learn the plant anatomy and use the correct terms in conversation.  The HONS talks about this.

Wildflowers of Minnesota has been a useful field guide for our family as we've gotten aquatinted with flowers over the years.  It's very easy to use and narrows down the choices to search through, versus a general Peterson or Audubon guide.

Make daily observations around your yard to see what is coming up as the season changes.  Encourage weekly nature journal entries, including not only drawings but also notes and observations.

This is a subject where you could play around with flower pressing or printing.  You could also start an herbarium!  So many fun examples if you search google images!  Like this site!  These kinds of things would be fun to share with each other, too.  It is my hope the kids (and adults!) would have journals and such things that they would be proud to exhibit to each other.

Consider the relationship between insects and plants.

Whitewater and Carley have some fun flowery/mushroomy activities you may enjoy as a family.  https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/event.html?id=54959
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/events.html

Again, you can look at Sabbath Mood's science book suggestions for living book ideas.  Feel free to share on the FB page as we go along, any books or resources you're finding helpful or fun!  We've been enjoying the "Let's Read and Find Out" science book series here.

ADE's podcast episode on special studies may also be of interest.

This website has some tips on what wildflowers to look for during the term.  There are also a couple of Facebook groups here and here that are good places to connect with local wildflower enthusiasts.

The dates for our monthly outings are:
4/17 Nerstrand State Park
5/22 Carley or Whitewater (depending on the bluebell blooming time)
6/19 Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

(*Note*  I altered May's date to be the 4th Tuesday since my family will be in the middle of theatre production week on the third week.)


Also hoping to have a naturalist share for a short time before each outing.  Will update via FB.