Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Outdoor Hour Challenge #29

Ok, so I've given in. I read about this on other blogs, but never paid much attention to it and never clicked on the link. Last night I stumbled across Barb's nature blog and the challenge was about sunflowers. They just happen to be one of princess's favorite flower and we just happen to have some in the field next door. So how could I pass it up! Last night I downloaded the Handbook of Nature Study and read the first 30 pages plus what I needed for the sunflower project.


Today we skipped science, usually our Friday's are light so we will just double up then. We gathered up a towel, markers, pencils, contact paper and a journal that I had been saving for something. I am feeling a bit under the weather today, so it was good to get out for alittle. We laid out our towel in front of a sunflower plant.

We talked about how the suflower is a composite flower and examined two flowers up close, they were at different stages of development. Here they are.


Finally we pressed some of the parts in our notebook and then drew what we saw. Princess wanted to add alittle more color! She also wanted to press in a dandelion she found. When we got home we printed out some of the pictures and pasted them in. Here's a view at our sheets from today.



All in all it was very successful and I think that we will make this a permanent feature! Thanks Barb for doing this for all of us!

4 comments:

Dawn E said...

This is inspiring! I am so far behind...but you've given me a much needed push. Thanks for sharing.

Audrey said...

Looks like fun. I wish I had been able to keep up with it! :)

Anonymous said...

We've loved doing the outdoor challenges so far and we did sunflowers today too! I feel like I'm learning just as much as they are which is challenging when I'm trying to guide them through some of the challenges.
I'm sorry you're feeling under the weather, I've got horrible hay fever right now as well. I hope you get feeling better. :)

Barb said...

So glad you decided to jump in and a really big pat on the back for reading the first thirty pages of the Handbook....I love to read it every so often to remind myself of all the great concepts.

It sounds like you had a great sunflower study and your journals are fantastic.

Thanks so much for joining this week and I hope to see more in the future.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom