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.