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.

I will also be moving to WordPress soon! So if you read this blog via Google Connect, could you please resubscribe either via email or RSS? I appreciate all of you!

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Nature I Spy Printable - Winter Edition

It has been an unusual winter in our area. We usually get snow. We expect snow in the winter. This year though, has mostly been rain with a couple spring-like days teasing us. It's been a dreary, muddy winter. It is this time of the year that we start to feel cooped-up in the house.We need to get out.

When I start feeling this way I find that going for a nature walk helps change our mood. It might be a quick walk around the block or sometimes a trip to our local gardens or state park (I will admit that I only take longer walks on warmer winter days. I'm a wimp---lol!)

I created a winter edition set of I Spy cards (see related Fall I Spy Cards) for our next nature walk. Now I realize that winter looks different in the Midwest than  in other areas. I tried to make most of the cards usable for any area. Just print and laminate (optional), place on a ring and carry along on your nature walk. See how many of the items you can find.

Nature I Spy Cards: Winter Edition Download

Please share the link to this blog post and not the direct link to the printable. Thank you!

You might also be interested in my winter notebooking page for young children too.

 I've joined several other bloggers today who are sharing free nature printables too. Stop by their blogs and see how they are enjoying nature this winter.

1. Cindy from Our Journey Westward
2. Maureen from Spell Outloud.
3. Jimmie from Jimmie's Collage
4. Lauren from Mama's Learning Corner
5. Amanda from Hearts and Trees.
6. Barb from Handbook of Nature Study

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Our Muddy Meanderings

We've had unseasonably warm weather in our area. In fact, we haven't had a significant snowfall yet, which is really weird. Most of our winter has been rainy. Last week though, we had a beautiful day. I hadn't planned on going anywhere, but it was too nice to be inside. My mom happened to be over and suggested a local state park. I totally forgot the entrance is free during the winter! So we dug around the house for socks, shoes, and jackets and headed for an impromptu nature walk.

The first stop was the natural spring. My mom needed a couple of gallons of water to feed her water kefir. No, it's not a pet. She makes it into a drink (see previous link for more details.)

For the first part of the walk, we took a road down to the river. That way Lil Pumpkin could get some energy out and walk on her own. She was so excited! She babbled and babbled the entire short walk to the river.

The trees' shadows lined the road. We spotted a couple of woodpeckers. Saw a couple dogs being walked, but I think our noise drove most of the wildlife away. :) Harmony Art Mom suggested doing a Silent Nature Walk. I don't think that would be possible with my group. I like the idea though!

The best part for the kids was that it was ok to walk in the mud! Good thing since the trails were mud. A stroller + mud= hard work. I probably should have worn Lil Pumpkin in the carrier. The kids went to the river bank and spotted various animal tracks. We saw deer, raccoon and maybe coyote tracks (could have been dog prints though--I'm no track expert.)

Breaking up the monotony of brown and grey tones were the occasional splashes of green--mainly from moss.

It will be interesting to come back in a couple of months and see this whole area bursting with color.

If you are looking for some winter nature studies ideas, you might want to check out Harmony Art Mom's Winter Nature Study e-book. She has a ton of resources and information on her Handbook of Nature Study blog. Reading her blog has inspired me to get my kids out more to learn. :)

I also have a nature notebook page for each season of the year. You can find them here: Nature Notebook Pages 

Not sure what notebooking is? I highly recommend reading Notebooking Success by Jimmie. You can use this tool for any curriculum and any subject.

Do you incorporate nature studies into your year? How?

Enjoying Nature

We had a chance to squeeze in a nature walk before the weather turned yucky. It was a beautiful day—probably one of the last warms days of the season. I wasn’t in the mood to hike that day, but my girls begged. Once I was there, I was glad we took the time to go.  Here are some of the things we saw:

 I love the purple against the yellow. Such beautiful color-schemes found in nature!

We were very surprised to see frogs and tadpoles at this time of the year.

 Prairie grass blowing in the wind. It made us think of the first pioneers having to cross this type of terrain. We could see how someone could get lost! It was taller than my 3yr. old.

  A nice hike with my girls!

You Might Also Be Interested in:

Fall I Spy Cards
Drawing Nature

Fall I Spy Cards

Fall is my favorite season of the year. I love the cooler (but not too cold) weather, the changing colors of the leaves, the many festivals and outdoor activities, and fall food (apple-anything, pumpkin anything.)

 

One of my family’s favorite places to go is our local museum. There are many walking paths and gardens to wander through, so it is fun to see the changes each season. I decided to create a set of I Spy cards for my little girls on a recent trip. You can get the printable version of this set over on Minnetrista’s website.

Since I know not all of you are in the ECI area, I created a fall set of cards for you too.

Printable fall I Spy Cards for toddlers

 

 One of my favorite photos from last year

You might also be interested in:

P is for Pumpkin
Fall Notebooking page

Alpaca Farm Field Trip

 
My kids and I went with a group of local homeschoolers to visit an alpaca farm in our area this week. Nothing beats walking around the farm in almost 90 degree weather with one kid who didn't want to walk but be carried. :) Thankfully, her big sister helped out a lot.

First we got a tour of the barnyard area. There were chickens, ducks, geese and rabbits. I think my youngest two would have stayed there all day and petted that rabbit.

Helping us with our tour was one of the farm dogs. I'm sure he/she has a name, but I wasn't paying attention at the time. I was probably trying to keep track of my 5 kids. :) My 3yr. old loved this dog! She walked right next to him with her hand on his back for a good portion of the trip.

Mama goose. She wasn't very happy we were there.

Baby goose---I just couldn't resist!

Alpacas! Like I said, it was hot! Most of the alpacas were down by the river to keep cool.

More alpacas. I had never been so close to an alpaca before. They were really quite fascinating and beautiful.

Thanks to Julia for setting this trip up! She was instrumental in setting up our local Homeschool Explorers group. Basically it is a local email loop where anyone can set up a field trip. It is then posted to the list and if you are interested, you contact the field trip coordinator. I love that I can pick and choose field trips that my kids will be interested in, and I also love meeting other homeschoolers from our area and surrounding areas that I probably wouldn't have met otherwise. This group has been a rich addition to our homeschooling experience by providing real-life experiences I probably would have never done on my own.



Alpaca Resources:

Alpaca Coloring Page
Alpaca Facts
Listen to an Alpaca

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