At the Creek
Our nature group is doing a lesson together every other week on a term topic this year. For fall term, we're studying trees. Our first lesson involved making a mental painting of a tree and narrating it to the group. We followed that up with journaling.
The moms went first. We chose this huge sycamore. Lots to see, share, and wonder about.
I especially loved this curly crook in the branch!
Then we split into groups and did the same thing with moms and kids together. My "team" observed this maple.
Both of them went into my nature journal.
And of course there had to be some climbing, which is always the kids' favorite part!
At the Beach
It has been a chilly summer at the beach here generally speaking. Plenty of bright blue days, but lots of gray days too. I don't mind! Luckily neither do the kids.
These two keep close to me. Their favorite thing to play with is seaweed. LOL
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| a dried-up holdfast with sea rocket growing out of it |
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| salp! |
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| not sure... |
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| a big jellyfish that washed up on shore |
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| beach bur |
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| dune trails |
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| coastal sagewort |
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| lizardtail |
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| the dunes are my fave |
At the "Pond"
We were delighted to find our vernal pond completely dried up at last week's outing! (To compare, you can see what it looks like the rest of the year here.)
Left behind in the pond's dry bed was pale, cracked earth. Tree frogs were hiding in the cracks!
Those black areas that look like water in the picture above are actually upturned earth from rooting boars -- wider, shallower, and rougher than wallows. We could follow their tracks from one circle to another. So fascinating!
We also had some other neat finds while we were there:
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| sacrum from some kind of bird, maybe a turkey vulture -- NOT a snake skull like the kids' wished it were LOL |
And the wildflowers of late summer here: vinegar weed, bull thistle, yellow star thistle, hayfield tarweed, and hood canarygrass and heliotrope below...
Hi!The Y1 excitement is SO cute. I love how she's excited to get her own gear and how she views it as such a privilege to do this with the big kids!
ReplyDeleteWhich nature journals are you currently using? Do you like the smaller size?
Hi Jen! We have two different brands that we are using in this size:
DeleteStrathmore - https://amzn.to/2N4syZV
Moleskine - https://amzn.to/2NalpqR
(I think you can get them cheaper at Dick Blick.)
We have been testing these two out side by side for the last year. :) I like the Moleskine best. The paper is a bit thinner but still takes water well. But the thing I like best about it is the smoother texture of the paper compared to other watercolor paper. Both of them, though, are very durable, lie flat, and are great to work with. :)
The nice thing about this size is it fits in these little packs that we got. So we have a whole kit nicely bundled. You can see a photo (and the links) at the top here: http://joyouslessons.blogspot.com/p/products-we-love.html
Hope that helps!
We have only used the larger size, about 9x11. Though I like the durability of the hardcover, it gets heavy in their packs. And the spiral binding is great for opening flat, but some have pages that are sneaking out. I like the idea of having a smaller book and going through them more often. And lighter to carry:) I'm going to check these out. Thanks!!
ReplyDelete