Here we choose a tree to study through the seasons. I chose a small garden tree called a Pompom tree (Dias cotinifolia) as it shows quite dramatic changes over the seasons and carries masses of beautiful flowers.
It is named for the abundant beautiful pink flowers, which really do look like pompoms, which it bears in Spring. The tree is still covered in these pompoms now, which have died and are now losing their petals very messily, and the wind is swirling them all over our driveway and garage.
On the day of our tree study, we started off enthusiastically, even though the children weren't happy that we weren't going to travel far and wide in search of a tree, but just stay in our garden. But when I brought out ladders for us to climb to get the view from inside the tree, they perked up and thoroughly enjoyed it.
What could we hear? Mmmm, nothing but building sounds from the neighbours... eventually a bird.
What could we smell? Maybe the flowers, although really they were dead...
What could we see? Obviously the tree, with its bright green leaves, a couple of late flowers and loads of dead ones, and the old seed pods.
What other living things are in the tree? We couldn't find anything for a while, but climbing the ladder we suddenly caught sight of a spider sitting on her beautiful web. On checking up in our Nature Guide later, it seems that this was a Garden Orb spider. What was really exciting is that we are reading Charlotte's Web, so there were excited cries of "There's Charlotte, there's Charlotte!" We could compare this web to Charlotte's and imagine the words in it.
The output problem:
Although we started filling out our Nature Pages, we had to rush off and I planned to complete the drawings later. That's where the problems started. Both in Handbook of Nature Study and the blog that inspires our challenge, it is stressed that the importance of Nature Study lies in the observations, and that Nature pages are beneficial but not absolutely necessary. We had had a good time studying the tree and the spider, but I wanted something to show for it i.e. there's got to be some output!
When we tried to complete our pages the following day, both children weren't happy with the previous days' work and decided to start again. This time they drew what they felt like and not what was actually there. This resulted in tears when I wasn't satisfied with pretty topiary-shaped tree pics that looked nothing like our messy-shaped tree. We were all frustrated - certainly not the happy Nature Study that I had in mind.
A couple of days later we tried again, and this was the result:
What a great tree to study for a year...very pretty during your summer study. It will be interesting to see what changes happen as you approach your autumn.
ReplyDeleteI love that you found a spider and it was a great idea to climb up into the tree to observe. Brilliant.
Thanks for sharing your study,
Barb-Harmony Art Mom