Nature Study - Vegetable regrowth

We have been doing a lot more nature study this year. I enjoy it so much and the kids are starting to get on board with the idea. We try and talk nature walks once or twice a week. I don't always have the kids do entries in their nature journals, but they often do without prompting. We follow the monthly Outdoor Hour Challenges from Barb at Handbook of Nature Study. We try and pick a few each month that give us more of a purpose when going out on our walks.

Today we set up a simple experiment for following the growth (or not) of tuberous vegetables. This is a very simple set up, easy and fun to follow. This challenge was in the January Outdoor Hour newsletter. We picked five different root vegetables, turnip, radish, carrot, rutabaga, and yam. We cut off part of the bottom, pocked toothpicks around and set them in containers of water, with the base in the water. We got the instructions and notebook page from Hearts and Trees.

The kids used the notebook page to draw the set up. We will keep an eye out and note any changes we observe. We set the tray of containers on our nature table in front of a window. Hopefully at least some of them will sprout some growth.

Nature Study - Pond - January

Our weather has been very crazy this winter, with extreme highs and lows, not a lot of snow, but a few heavy rain storms. The last few weeks have been very cold with most nights below zero.

Today was a bit warmer, I think we made it to 20 degrees. We decided to do our monthly pond observation before we ran out of January days.

The wind was blowing hard on the big side of the lake. The snow was moving across the ice and we saw a few little twisters of snow.

Our pond side of the lake was much calmer. As you can see it is heavily iced over.

There was signs of our recent rain storm as the water from the river ran over the ice bringing a lot of debris with it. The ice was very irregular and you could see were some pieces of ice had pushed up over others.

Gabe loved the idea of walking on the ice and explored quite a bit out on the ice. The other guys weren't too sure although I assured them it was plenty thick enough. Dan finally did go out, but not too far. Hannah tried out the ice along the edge and Rachel stayed safely on land.

As we explored the area around the lake, we found very little signs of life. The wind had been blowing so maybe most animal tracks had been smoothed over. This little evergreen tree managed to push itself through the snow. We spotted some dried up fungi and a few very sad looking ferns.

This very interesting leaf print was very clear. I'm not sure how it was made. Perhaps a leaf was on the snow, causing the snow to melt underneath it and then was blown away. It was interesting however it was formed.

The highlight of the excursion was a little brook that runs into the pond. It was frozen over in most places, but there were a few holes open. This little waterfall was frozen in so many different little icicles and drops. You could hear and see the water still running underneath in places and right at the bottom of the falls was a sheet of ice that was very clear and you could see the water making its way to the pond.

One area showed a lot of grape vines strangling little trees and making a clear spot where it smothered out all other vegetation.

As the sun began to set, we made our way back to the van. Gabe wanted to walk across the ice. You can see all the windswept surfaces. It was a very beautiful scene and although we didn't see a lot, it was a fun outing.