Sunday, November 20, 2011

Fall Nature Study: Milkweed

We have been doing plenty of nature study this fall with Barb's More Fall Study from the Handbook of Nature Study blog. I love her notebooking pages and the easy directions she provides.

On my daily walk, I noticed the perfect stretch of road with milkweed growing. I determined to take the kids on an adventure to find it. We picked a late afternoon just before it was time to be at lego robot practice which happened to be during the school dismissal which proved to be equally unwise! We walked amid many buses until things cleared out. We didn't have much time, but it was worth the effort. Do you all make time for nature discoveries?

Fluffy stuff...

The seed pod...

These are along my walking route and just a few days earlier I had broken a stem and seen the white liquid inside...how quickly things moved on because we didn't find any on our walk. Disappointing because I wanted to try and see how rubbery it is.

For autumn in central NY, we've had some extraordinary days...which has been lovely considering how wet September was. Love these sunny pleasant days in November!

J6 has took a One Small Square nature class at co-op this semester and was able to share his expertise on the seeds of the milkweed. See how they are all together in a pine cone shape?

With me holding the pod, he reached right in and grabbed some out.

These little petri dishes are perfect for sticking in your pocket during nature walks and pulling them out to hold a treasure that can be pressed later or observed under our microscope.
Back at home the next day, we worked on our notebook page for our nature journals. I'm keeping one too so we all participate.

I had the kids check off the things we did back in October.

Soon after this lesson was completed, we had Thistle Day at our house. Stay tuned for details on Thistle Day and our Nesting Cycle lessons at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. October and November have been rich with nature study and I'm excited to share our fun with you all.

5 comments:

Fairly local said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fairly local said...

Fluffy stuff! LOL! That is so scientific.

I deleted my other comment because I asked about the notebooking pages and then realized you did say in the beginning where they came from.

Anonymous said...

Did you know that milkweed is the only thing that Monarch butterflies eat? Our resident neighborhood Monarch butterfly man explained that to us. So, go back in the late summer and you may find the tiny caterpillars that you could take home to raise a few butterflies. I could get the details for you then if you needed them, but with Mom the scientific guru, you probably would not need them. love, Grandma

Barb said...

Loved your entry Heather! I love that you made the extra effort to make this nature study happen...I do that all the time. Our closest cattail spot is along a busy street and we have to walk on a very narrow shoulder to get there and then climb down into a ditch but it is worth it. :)

I love the idea of little petri dishes to carry things in your pocket...I will need to put one in my nature pouch.

I would love for you to submit this to the OHC Blog Carnival:
http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_9182.html

Thanks for the great entry!

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