Fall Fun and Science

We took a quick walk around the block the other day, collecting leaves specifically to do a few leaf rubbings.

I forget how simply gorgeous leaf rubbings really are.

It's SoCal so...not too many varieties or fall-ish colors in my hood but we used what we could find and it was good enough. 

We attempted to do the rubbings using oil pastels, like I read on another blog but it did not work well. Back to good ol' crayola it was and that was great. The crayon rubbing really highlighted the veins of the leaves. 

After the rubbings, we took a closer look with our microscope. It's so fun to get such a magnified view. It's a school microscope but it's better then our natural eye. It still looks amazing and completely fascinating. 

To add to our Fall nature study, we did a classic craft: pine cone bird feeder.

I used the birdseed that I had left over from our summer sensory bin. We had actually tossed all the bird seed into the garden...but it was still in a nice pile.

We took a pine cone outside and poured (all natural!) peanut butter all over it. Then we rolled the pine cone in the bird seed pile, which was quite convenient actually!

I thought the perfect place to hang our bird feeder would be right outside our kitchen window. It's hard to reach from outside, so I hoisted Kurtis onto my shoulders and stretched on my tip toes until he could reach and hang it on the hook. Haha!

We also read this awesome book, Autumn Leaves. The pictures are great.

I love Autumn!

Autumn Inspiration

Isn't this adorable?

{*I was inspired by the online resources listed at the end of this post.}

I know my 1st grader definitely learns better with hands on activities, even though getting him to sit down for them is a moment by moment challenge.

We watched a simple but informative video about owls. It goes great with a few printable works sheets and graphic organizers I found and used from our fair field trip. We saw an owl there and had a great conversation with her handler.

Collecting objects like an Easter egg hunt! 

We started with a very short walk around the block to gather organic ephemera. We only collected what we found on the ground. We are experiencing another heat wave so being outside for only a few minutes was enough. We live in a nice suburban neighborhood where each block has a different set of trees planted. We headed straight for the pine tree block.

We collected pine cones, bark and from our lawn, acorns and acorn caps. We used those pieces to create our owl. Using hot glue, we attached the bits and pieces to a piece of bark to form an owl. Oh and a scrap of ribbon to hang it. 

What I love most is the unplanned excitement of learning new information. Each of my children, during their home educated childhood, has discovered the wonder of how these pine tree seeds fly. The seeds have light tails that cause them to twirl and spiral down through the air. This moment was no different. Kurtis squealed with glee and a smile that couldn't get any bigger. He couldn't wait to share his new found knowledge with his older brother. 

This keeps me going. You start out with some pine cones and an owl agenda...but learning is full of twists and turns, just like the flying seed. Our conversation moved along to the science of how seeds travel.
Owls to seeds. Nope, didn't see that coming. 

I am so grateful for free online resources. I have no problem NOT reinventing the wheel! I was first inspired by this owl unit study which led me to this simple craft. I definitely now subscribe to these educational videos too. 

First Grade Science: Nature Study

I acquired this Nature Portfolio to use with my 1st grader. It is totally MY style, I'll admit. I am in love with the idea of sitting and observing nature. What I did not realize that is that it goes along with the Handbook of Nature Study. It might be great to have a hard copy of this in the future but for instant gratification...I found a FREE copy of this in electronic form from archive.org.

You can use the Kindle app (or an actual Kindle) to read electronic books from Amazon or wherever. The app is FREE. I downloaded the archive e-book to my laptop. From there you email it to your amazon kindle account. It will then download to your device and you have instant and easy access. It's easier to carry around a Kindle device or use the app on your tablet or phone than carry around your laptop to read, isn't it?


Along with finding the book, it didn't take but a few minutes to of googling (it's not really a verb, you know!?!) to find a corresponding companion site, handbookofnaturestudy.com which offers plenty of great activities and FREE (see the theme?) nature study printables.

I love being outdoors and I believe my children do too. As much as I don't like to impose my idea of learning upon them, but rather allow it to happen organically, especially in an outdoor environment...I can't help but be attracted to the idea of nature journaling. Am I the only one who finds this romantic? (in a poetic, Walden-Thoreau-is sort of way)

Nature journaling combines my two favs: nature and journaling. How can you want anything more? haha. One more thing...keeping a journal of any time but especially a nature journal because it tends to include more pictures, it becomes the sweetest keepsake when your children are grown. It's lovely to look back at their childhood musings and elementary ramblings. It's too sweet for words!

How are you handling science this year? What are your favorite resources and style?