Passing Down a Way of Life with a Simple Garden Journal--and a The Ultimate Nature Study Linkup!

This activity can be used to address the following Next Generation Science Standards 

K-ESS2-1.	Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time

K-ESS2-2.	Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.

We had one next door neighbor when I was a girl.  Miss Evie was already somewhere in her seventies when we moved into our new home in the late nineteen eighties.  I was exactly seven.  She lived in the same home where she had grown up, where she had lived as a young married woman, and cared for her husband and parents as each had left this world.  

I used to get her mail on warm summer afternoons in hopes of being invited into the immaculate 1950's era kitchen she cooled by a cunning system of opening windows in the morning then shutting both windows and curtains as the day wore on.  I would sit bare foot on the red company chair by the door, and we would discuss the health of our cats and the progress of our gardens.  She would tell me stories handed down from her relatives who had lived through the Civil War or of her own experience living through the Great Depression.  Our whole family loved her dearly, and I think that in some ways we filled a spot her own children and grandchildren would have held, if she had had any.  That might be one reason she gave it to my dad.  She might have given it to him because of his love for growing things.

It was an old fashioned notebook filled with careful notes in a squarish antique hand.  Miss Evie's father had kept careful notes about his little farm for years.  He recorded where, when, and what grew , and how he tended it.  For my dad, who was now tending plants in the same location, it was treasury of helpful information.

This spring was our in our new home.  I wanted my children to keep journals based on our yard and garden, but was struggling to get them started.  Then I realized, they were not the ones who needed to keep a journal.  I was.   I grabbed a notebook and started filling it with notes .  I measured some plants, counted blossoms, and wrote down some temperatures and rainfalls.  Soon my kids were eager to join me, and they ask if we can do our. "Garden journal".

Our little journal is not all that amazing, or even organized.  It is a start though.  I hope my kids are learning the importance of paying attention to the natural world around them.   Not just as a fun summer project, but as a way of life. The systematic careful attention to how and why things grow that Miss Evie's dad practiced is a tradition I want to pass on to them.

Today, I am joining some other bloggers in hosting a Nature Observation blog hop.
Take a moment to look at the great ideas from my co-hosts!  As you look through the posts, I hope you can find a few methods that allow you to bring the richness of natural observation into your experience, and that of your children. 

July 2 update.  Now that I've had a chance to look at everyone's post, I'm even a bit more excited.  Check these out!

Suzy Homeschooler This is a must read, especially for those of you who are facing extreme weather like we experienced in the Middle East and in Arizona.

Homeschool Antics A great tutorial on how to turn backyard observation into a full fledged  nature study.

Houseful of Chaos  A lovely reflective approach, with a couple of interesting twists.

Study-at-Home Mama If studying nature is a little overwhelming to you, this post has the practical ideas you need.

Inspiring NH Kids Is showing us a great demonstration of a weather phenomenon we often, face.  I will be coming back to this!

My Blessings Homeschool Ideas for creek exploration.  My kids are going to enjoy this one!

Kid World Citizen A great list of fun hands on ideas.

There's also a multi- topic link-up.   I am looking forward to reading ideas you have for observing nature!

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Pretend Elevators with Bottle Cap Pulleys

This activity can be used to address the following Next Generation Science Standards

K-2-ETS1-1.	Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
K-2-ETS1-2.	Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
K-2-ETS1-3.	Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

Project Recycle! and Create! has provided me with some much needed motivation to do creative projects with my kids this year.  This month's challenge is to make an activity with or for our kids using bottle caps.

We made play animal elevators with operational pulleys.

 My children helped engineer their elevators and enjoyed using them for pretend play when we finished.  It was a fun introduction to a simple machine.

Materials: bottle caps, preferably of a few different sizes

A Box

String 

Glue

Clothes pins

Small play animals

I let my children choose where to place the initial bottle caps, then hot glued them in place.

I tied string to some clothes pins.  They attached the animals.  My daughter put her favorite little turtle in a car made from a candy box.

I originally envisioned a multiple point pulley system, but they were intrigued lifting their animals with just one.  

My son was frustrated that the string kept slipping off of the pulley.  We solved the problem by gluing a larger lid on the outside of the pulley.

This kind of physical play is great for developing an intuitive understanding of physical properties. We also worked in a little problem solving.  I would like to come back to this concept and add some complexity when they are ready.  For today,  they naturaly made it into pretend play, while I slipped off to get dinner.

Lids have provided us with a few other great solutions. Including:

A drain stop  done by the Pony Artist

A lesson in Circular Motion at the Breakfast Table initiated by T-Rex

Check out these projects from my co-hosts.

Sink or Float Experiment by AlterNative Learning

Memory Game by Powerful Mothering

Solar System Model by Still Playing School

Bottle Cap Art by P is for Preschooler

Flower Card by There's Just One Mommy

Pattern Play by Teach Me Mommy

Or do you have a great bottle cap/lid project?  Link it up!

An InLinkz Link-up

Project Recycle! Create!: Egg Carton Boats

This activity can be used to address the following Next Generation Science Standards

K-2-ETS1-1.	Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
K-2-ETS1-2.	Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
K-2-ETS1-3.	Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

April's challenge from Recycle! Create! is to use egg cartons to do a project with or for your children.   

Unfortunately, for the environment, eggs only come in Styrofoam in our area.  I decided to ask my children to make boats from the egg cartons.

It took a couple of weeks, but last weekend we finally got the perfect day at the park.  After a family bike ride/walk  we finished off our morning at the cool stream. They even got to do some wading.  

A few things I think they may have learned through this project: school glue does not hold up in water. Tying your string to the boat works better.  Water currents follow the same pattern on their way down the stream. There are tadpoles in our local stream.  

For more great egg carton ideas check out these from my co- hosts.

Volcanoes from Still Playing School
Fairy Houses from P is for Pre-schooler
Easter Cross from Teach Me Mommy
Sculptures from There's just One Mommy
Building with Mud from Planet Smarty Pants
Rainbow Garden Mobile from Lemon Lime Adventures
 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Play Figures  from Sugar Aunts

If you have an egg carton project of your own there is still time to linkup.  Click here to go to the link up.

Library Treasure: In the Garden with Dr. Carver

This activity can be used to address the following Next Generation Science Standards 

K-ESS2-1.	Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time

K-ESS2-2.	Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.

In the Garden with Dr. Carver is a book that that will benefit any child, or adult for that matter.

In this piece of historical fiction, aka "pretend biography" as my children described it, a fictional girl named Sally interacts with the Dr. George Washington Carver as he travels the Alabama country side teaching agriculture.

Susan Grigsby portrays Dr. Carver so vividly that the reader gets excited about gardening and inventing with items from the dump.  She gives us all an opportunity to be impacted by the character of this great man.

After we read the book the first time, my son spent an hour watching and sketching the wild life in our front yard.  He asked me if he can teach gardening like Dr. Carver.

I am thrilled that he has deepened his interest in nature and inventing, and that he has found a hero in Dr. George Washington Carver.

Our own "Dumb Soldiers": Robert Louis Stevenson project

This activity can be used to address the following Next Generation Science Standards 

K-ESS2-1.	Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time

K-ESS2-2.	Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.

April is poetry month, and we are doing a few simple poetry projects.  Poetry has always been one of my favorite subjects.

Last week, we read A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.

We started by reading "The Dumb Soldier", a poem about a toy soldier left purposely in the yard so that he could report on the goings on there.   I pointed out how Stevenson chose words that paint a beautiful picture.  We went over a few terms that I expected to be tricky, like "dumb".  We talked about what was meant by "sea" of grass, and whether the soldier could actually see.

T-Rex and the Pony Artist created their own soldiers from our store of clean trash and a few other craft supplies. Before they started, we discussed what types of material would do well outside in the rain.

Here are the finished soldiers!

They found stations for their soldiers in the yard where they felt they would be safe.

All week we enjoyed more selections from A Child's Garden of Verses. T-Rex  and Pony Artist enjoyed their own yard and the spring weather.  On Friday, they were eager to bring in their soldiers and write their own tales.

Thank-you to Christy of Christy's House of Chaos for inspiring our poetry studies.  She wrote a fascinating post on Christina Rossetti  includes some great extension activities. You can check it out at http://housefulofchaos.com/christina-rossetti/.

Happy April Fools!  In honor of the holiday, I purposely included some misinformation in this post. Can you guess what it is?