Spring Things: Nature Printables

I can't believe spring is here! And it has been such a nice spring so far. My kids and I have been enjoying the warmer weather and have been spending lots of time outside.

 

We've pulled out all the bikes and ride-on toys.

And we've picked lots of flowers.

Oh how nice it is to spend time outside! We've visited our local gardens several times (which if you are in East Central Indiana, Minnetrista has wonderful gardens that are perfect for nature studies!) I just love this time of year!

 Spring Nature Journal Page

On our list for this week is spring nature journaling and drawing. Speaking of drawing-- check out the free art tutorials over at HodgePodge! As soon as I get a set of pastels, we will be doing these!

I also have a new set of Nature I Spy Cards. If you are a subscriber, you can find the link at the bottom of your feed or email, or if you are a friend of Spell Outloud on Facebook,  you can find the link under the gift tab.

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Birds Writing Center

This week is the Great Backyard Bird Count! Thanks to my Facebook subscribers for reminding me a couple weeks ago. I thought that since there is a big focus on birds this month, that I would love to incorporate the theme into our homeschool somehow. After reading a series about writing centers on the WriteShop blog, I knew that I was going to create our first-ever writing center. Using mostly printer-ink and supplies I had on hand, I set up a simple bird-theme writing station at home.

I tried to provide materials for all age-levels in my home--- 1yr to 13yrs. old. I have the station set up by a window so that they will hopefully be inspired by any winged creatures they see outside too.

-- various bird-theme lined paper for writing (see below for details)
-- bird fact cards (see below for details)
-- bird booklet for my little girls
-- letter B plus Birds writing paper for my little girls
(You can follow my bird Pinterest board for even more ideas)

I have a whole set of bird photo cards that I picked up a couple years ago from the Dollar Tree. There are writing prompts listed on the back. I figure my younger children can look at the photos and then tell me about what they see. My older children will have the option of using the prompts on the back or not.

In the green bins are writing prompt cards from WriteShop. I printed out StoryBuilders: World of Animal cards for some creative writing inspiration. Each card is color-coded and students pick 1 of each color and use them to write their story:

Character Cards - Blue
Character Trait Cards - Yellow
Setting Cards - Green
Plot Cards - Lavender

The download contains printable cards plus instructions for different ways to play this writing game. I am excited to see how my kids use this component this week. I think this will help with the "Mom, I don't know what to write," reply I hear when they are asked to write.

I also printed out bird cards and placed them in our table-top pocket chart. My 5yr. old daughter has been the first to explore this activity. She helped me place the names of the birds we already knew on the bird photos.

You can download these bird-themed papers for free! I appreciate all who read and subscribe to my site, so I'm planning on periodically creating some special downloads just for you. If you are a subscriber, you will find the download link at the bottom of the post in either your inbox or RSS feed:

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It's Fall!

I love fall. I love the change in temperature (most of the time), I love all red, yellow orange tones seen in the leaves, mums and fall decorations. I couldn't resist picking up a couple packages of these fall-colored jewels.

I had my tot sort them by color. Then she and her 3yr. old sister played pirates and made the jewels their treasure. :)

Hopefully this week we will get around to our fall nature walk. We usually go visit a local garden and document what we see. (Here's last year's fall nature walk)

And I hope to do some pumpkin activities this week, especially since my 3yr. old has been asking all about them.  I might even make my favorite pumpkin dessert:

What are your favorite things about fall?

Signs of Spring: Nature Walk

Today it was such a nice day out that I knew we needed to get out of the house and head to our local garden for a nature walk.

Each kid was armed with their clipboards, pencils, and their spring nature study worksheet. Our mission was to look for signs of spring.

DS pulled up a chair and started sketching. (Another sign of spring here is baseball season!)

We saw lots of flowers blooming on our nature walk.

3yr. old DD did her "homework" too. It cracks me up to see her sitting like this. She took her work seriously.

We spied bushes and trees budding.

Painted turtles sunning. (Here's a toddler turtle unit that I pulled together recently.)

And several geese nesting.

It felt good to get outside, observe God's creation and stretch our legs.

Other Nature Study posts:
Fall 2009 Nature Walk
Fall 2009 Nature Walk Con't
May 2009 Nature Walk
Drawing Nature

Fall Nature Walk

Yesterday we packed a lunch, our clipboards and colored pencils and headed out for a nature walk at a local public garden. It was such a beautiful day, and where we live, the weather could switch in a moment. I wanted to be able to see fall before it was gone. (I can't be the only one who still can't believe it's fall---wasn't just yesterday summer?) I love the idea of nature walks, but this year we haven't done as many as I would like. We are working on incorporating more nature study times in our week. Most of the time all it takes is walking out your door, not necessarily having to go somewhere. My friend Jimmie has written what nature study is about if you'd like more information.




Each of my kids (even the 2yr. old) has a clipboard that holds paper and pencils. Periodically during the walk we would stop and they would sketch. On our walk I had them look for signs of fall and document that on their page.


My son couldn't keep his hands out of the water. He spied something at the bottom of the pond and wanted to show me what it was.

It was a big snail, still in the shell. He was facinated that the foot closed up the opening as a way to protect the snail. Yes, he did put it back ---eventhough he did ask to bring it home :)

From the path you can look down on the river, and the kids were thrilled to see all the turtles sunning themselves on logs.
I have so many pictures that I broke it up into 2 posts, so be sure to see part 2.

Fall Nature Walk Continued

Bugs er Insects er Bugs?

Oh I am so blessed to have friends who like to teach and don't mind if my kids join in! A local friend and her mom are teaching a small group of kids all about insects using Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the 5th Day as the basis of the class. The cool thing is that the class is held outdoors on a farm, where there are lots of opportunities to find living examples of the concepts being taught. Oh I like that!

So normally my DD#2 wouldn't be posing for a picture holding a bug, er, insect, er bug--I'll have to ask them what the difference is---there is a difference! She had found a praying mantis nymph. It was actually pretty fascinating. It kept jumping all over her hand, and when she would try to put it down, it would jump back onto her hand.

Now when we are out and about, the kids are noticing the things that are flying around them, instead of automatically swatting them. We marveled at the iridescent color that we saw on the dragonfly by the creek.

We thought it was so cool to find a moth camouflaged on a tree during a recent hike.

We are having so much fun looking for insects. I can't believe I'm actually photographing them and enjoying it. Do you think this might be a good enough excuse to add a macro lens to my photography toolbox? Ok, I'll just keep on wishing .... ;)

Here are some good insect resources that I've come across:

Connections ~ Insects: listing of units, lapbooks, Five in a Row books dealing with insects
Insect Print-outs @ Enchanted Learning
butterfly hand-prints: geared toward toddler/preschool
butterfly cards - you can use these for identification or print it off to create a memory game

Oh, I asked about the "bug" question. Here's what my dd read from the book, "Bugs are a special group of insects that have interesting wings and belong to the order Hemiptera."
Exploring Creation with Zoology1 by Jeannie Fulbright.

Nature Walk

Last week I had to get all the kids out of the house for several hours so the ladies who clean my house could clean without kids being there (this was my Christmas gift this year!) Since the weather was finally nice, we headed out to Minnitrista. We have just started studying Botany this spring, and with it we have added nature journaling. My DD#1 really got into the journaling/drawing part on this particular day. I didn't even tell her to bring it--she just did--and did it without me even saying anything. Now that's the kind of work attitude I like to see! :) Here are some of the things we saw on our walk:





Um, yeah, what is this stuff? My DS said, "Mom, come check out the earwax on the bench!" Anyone know? I was afraid to Google "earwax stuff"--lol!