Nature Study Week 1: The Winter Sky

One of my goals for 2017 was to be more intentional about Nature Study for the four youngest children (5,7,9, and 11).  I want to do Nature Study once a week around a specific theme.  I remembered a friend mentioning a resource she bought at the beginning of the school year and after taking a look at it decided this might be what I needed to help make sure I actually get it done.  I bought Exploring Nature With Children , an ebook with 48 nature study ideas, a poem to go along with your theme, the name of a piece of art work to look up, books, and extension activities.  She also lists coordinating pages from Handbook of Nature Study if you have that book and are interested in looking up more information.

For Week 1, we did a study of the winter sky.  In their Nature Journals, they recorded the date, the temperature, and the time the sun rose and set.  Then they did a sketch and colored in their pictures.  The sky proved a difficult thing to capture because it was so cloudy that day it looked completely white!  But they gave it a try.

We read the poem and looked at the suggested piece of art work, but did not do any of the extension activities.