Nature Journals Week 8

We have been super busy lately and not able to do too much nature journaling. These were our last few pages.

Jadyn drew a before picture of her pumpkin and and after picture. She carved a bunny in her pumpkin for her pet bunny. She did a really good job doing it too!

Kaleb drew an alligator catching a fish, another fish, and his pumpkin. I love his alligator!

Nature Journaling - Week 7

Due to the great weather we were having, we were able to do our nature journaling outside this week. We went exploring a nature preserve and brought along our pencils, watercolors, and journals. Next time, though, I think we may need sit-upons as we got somewhat wet being on the ground! Oh, well, live and learn. (Another item to add to our pack:)

Kaleb had great eyes during this trip. He found an eagle sitting in its nest high in a tree and a baby alligator wading into the wetland before us. It was awesome!

We just had to sit and record what we saw. And for once, the weather wasn't so blazing hot!

Kaleb's page (left) included the eagle and the alligator that he found. J's included a dragon fly that she thought looked pretty.

She made a few pages - she added the eagle we watched, the tiger that we learned about during Science, and the beginning of her pumpkin.

My page included the eagle and the alligator. I was so startled by seeing the alligator, I didn't even get a picture! Oh well, maybe next time!

Nature Journaling - Week 6

Nature journaling has been one of our highlights each week. The kids choose something they learned about or seen about in nature and draw/write about it in their journals. I love seeing the improvements in their drawing (as well as in mine:).

J and Kaleb both drew an owl since this was the week we dissected owl pellets. We had a ton of bones from each pellet. I was amazed at how many the owl can pack into one pellet.

My journal also included owls, a couple of drawings of bones we found, and one interesting thing that happened - a squirrel fell out of our tree into the road. We didn't want it to get squished and yucky right around our driveway, so we buried her in our back yard. My true homeschooler wants to unbury her in a few months to check out the skeleton. Haha! I love homeschooling:) See you soon.

Nature Journaling - Week 5

Every week, we try to add to our nature journal. Sometimes, I ask them to draw something that we did or something we saw. Other times, they add drawings of animals that they learned about during Science. It varies but I have loved the results. I also love being able to paint together. We nature journal together and we enjoy it.

After our visit to the corn maze, I had the kids sit down and break out their journals. Kaleb decided to draw a stalk of corn.

J decided to draw some of the animals she encountered at the farm - several horses, chickens, and cows.

Here are their journals - J included a horse that she hand fed and a chicken that she pet. Kaleb is more a simple man - He added a corn stalk and an ear of corn. Both were painted with water colors.

My journal included the corn maze but also our simple experiment to see more wildlife in our yard. We added birdseed and Cheerios (we were desperate) to a clay dish and placed it where we saw some squirrels in our yard. We were hoping to be able to observe them. But, they didn't come. It sat in our yard with no visitors. No one came - not even the birds. We were bummed out:( Oh well, you live and learn:) Have an awesome day.

Nature Journaling - Week 4

With trying to catch up after Hurricane Irma, we haven't been able to spend the time we wanted to on our nature hikes. But that doesn't mean we haven't had anything to journal about. This week's journals contain animals that we learned about during Science as well as some other cool things we saw:)

This week, we learned about otters and skunks. I love the use of the danger sign!

J also drew a dinosaur that she saw at Dinosaur World. I love the colors. And she drew her bunny Gwin.

Kaleb shared a picture about the moon jellies that we saw at the Aquarium. HE even drew himself in front of the case!

Here is Kaleb's bear - complete with humps on the back because he learned that grizzly bears have humps on their back.

My journal which includes a skunk and a dinosaur. We have been outlining our pictures with sharpie markers and they are bleeding through our pages. Next time, I will buy journals with water color paper instead of all purpose paper. Our journals are becoming a great memory of our learning this school year so far. See you soon.

Nature Journaling - Week 2 & 3

We were stuck inside during the terrible hurricane Irma so we were unable to work on our nature journals outside. But something amazing happened - when I was walking outside our house, I found a complete butterfly laying in our flower bed. It had already died but it was intact. So we collected the butterfly and decided to learn about it.

We studied the butterfly and found out it was a Gulf Fritilary. J wanted to try to preserve it so we stuck it in the freezer. Well, we lost power after that so I am not sure we preserved it well.

Our journal entries for the week, we learned about porcupines, moles and our butterfly.

Then, we waited for Irma and worked on our journals. We learned about deer as well.

J added a few more pages because the heat was getting to her:) And it was hot! She drew a coyote, mountain lion, and a rex rabbit which she owns. I love that she is really getting into journaling. Now that we finally got our electricity back on....we will be going on our weekly nature hikes. Yay! See you soon.

Nature Journaling - Week 1

We went on our first nature hike and we began our new Nature Journals. The kids are super excited about these and I hope that they will stay that way throughout the year. At the end of this last school year, we began dabbling in nature journaling with water colors. J loved it so I decided to bring it to our homeschool science. We went on our hike, came home (because of the rain), and journaled.

Kaleb found my drawing books that I bought this summer and he went to town. I was surprised that he liked drawing so much. He flips through the books and draws what he can find. Here, he is drawing a dragonfly that we saw on our hike.

We recently saw a bear on our drive home from meeting Grandma and Grandpa. We were so surprised and excited that I felt it should be our first entry into our journals. J is working on her bear entry.

The journals I bought for our science offered a design your own cover pocket. They maid their covers - Kaleb is currently reading Night of the Moonjellies and he added a jellyfish. J loves birds and bird nests so she added those to her cover.

Their first entry - Kaleb (left) found a fingerprint animal book that he wanted to try and he added several fingerprint animals. His bear is right smack in the middle with a small fingerprint, no body. J painted the black bear and added some facts. She also added a butterfly - we saw so many on our hike. I am adding my journals as well....

I am not an artist but I was pleased with the way they came out.

Hope you can enjoy some nature today. :)

Nature Hike

We just started our Science program - All about Animals through Winter Promise. As part of our Science, I want to work on nature journaling. We became enamored by them after my last camping trip and we haven't looked back since. I bought several nature guides, watercolors, paint pens, and small journals to take with us on our nature hikes. Today was our first nature hike and, although we had only an hour or two, we made the most of it.

The morning started out rainy so I thought we would have to cancel. But the sun came out just long enough for our hike. We packed our nature bag - and while hiking, we discovered a few things that we need to pack next time. Live and learn, right?

We discovered the wing span for a bald eagle. Wow, isn't that amazing? We didn't get to see any bald eagles - maybe next time.

The kids are trying to hold up a fallen tree. Because of time constraints, we didn't get to walk as far as we were hoping but that didn't stop us from finding some cool things.

We found an interesting grasshopper that we hadn't seen before - Giant Orange Grasshopper. It was huge and it didn't run away. The red and orange colors tell predators that they are toxic. When we got home, we promptly looked it up and read all about it.

We found a mourning dove at the top of a trimmed palm tree. Not sure if it was a nest or not, but it seemed content to stay on top of the tree. After our hike, we came home and worked on our nature journals. It was a good Science day:)