Big dipper

Today’s nature calendar task:

Which way is the big dipper facing at 8 pm?

We have had snow here this week, and the skies have been cloudy. When we have a clear night, we'll go take a look. I found a good book about the big dipper from the Let's Read and Find Out Science series. It is called 'The Big Dipper' by Franklyn M. Branley. It is a good book for younger children, ages 3 to 5, although my 6 1/2 year old enjoyed it too. I also highly recommend the books by H.A. Rey, The Stars, and Find the Constellations. They are very good for older children, perhaps ages 6 and up.

Updates on past nature tasks:

April 4: Build a toy windmill

I attempted this yesterday, and since it involved hammers, nails and a handsaw, it was a project for me, not the kids. After getting very frustrated making a rather pathetic looking weathervane (I am too embarrased to post a photo) I decided I either need to develop some woodworking skills or I should leave all such projects to my husband. He suggested that he teach me how to use power tools. The jury is still out on this nature task.

March 10th: The song sparrow is due.

It often takes a little while for the birds that have arrived to find my backyard. I had heard the song sparrow much earlier, and I saw one on a hike, but yesterday he showed up in my backyard.

I was delighted to see that he had chosen the 'feeder' that I had put out just for him. In the book 'Projects for a Birder's Garden', they suggested putting out a shallow rock, and filling it with birdseed containing millet. They also suggested having a shrub for cover nearby. (Page 3, if you happen to have this book).

I put my rock with the millet next to my scruffy brushpile by a shrub. That's exactly where the song sparrow was!

The photo isn't particularly good. You can see the snowfall we had this week. The song sparrow has a stripey breast with a little 'bow-tie' and the black spot in the middle of his chest.

Charting day length

Today's nature calendar task:

Complete the chart started March 15th. What conclusions can you make?

Sunrise: 7:06
Sunset: 7:40
Length of day: 12 hours, 33 minutes

We have been tracking this information for a few weeks now. So far we have only looked at the daily records, I need to put it all together so we can see the changes better. I have a book from the library called "Sunshine makes the seasons" by Franklyn M Branley from the Let's-Read-and-Find-out Science series. It has a great experiment in the back using an orange, a pencil and a flashlight. Franklyn M. Branley has many excellent books about science for kids.

We have learned that the length of the day changes fastest at the spring and fall equinoxes, and slowest at the winter and summer solstices. Since we have passed the spring equinox, the change in the length of day should be starting to slow down until the end of June, where the day length will stay approximately the same for almost 2 weeks.

Day length chart

Today's nature calendar task:

Add to the table started March 15th. What changes? Sun rises? Sun sets? Length of day? Difference?

Sunrise: 7:17
Sunset: 7:33
Length of day: 12 hours, 15 minutes

I discovered that the day we had exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness was not March 20th, the first day of spring, but March 17th. I don't know why that is. It would be neat to graph the changes in day length.

I also looked at June to see how long the longest day would be. It was 15 hours, 26 minutes. At that time, the day length changes very slowly. From June 16th to the 25th, the day length is the same. Right now the day length is increasing by about 3 minutes a day.

Charting day length

Today's nature calendar task:

Record the sunrise, sunset and length of day on the following days: March 15th, March 19th, March 22nd, and March 29th.

Sun rises : 7:30

Sun sets : 7:25

Length of day: 11 hours 54 min

Wow! We have gained 1/2 hour of daylight in the last 8 days. We had daylight savings time last weekend, so the results are a little weird compare to our last recording on March 7th.

Sun rise, sun set

Banff, April 2008

Today's nature calendar task:

Record: Sun rises ____ am. Sun sets _____ pm. Length of day _____ hrs _____ min.

We recorded our sun rise, sun set info today. Sun rise: 6:44 am. Sun set: 6: 15 pm. Length of day: 11 hours 30 min.

I used our local weather website to get this information.

On February 19th we had recorded this same set of information for that day's nature calendar task. Sun rise: 7:10. Sun set: 5:53. Length of day: 10 hours 43 min.

It was fascinating to see that in only 16 days we had an extra 45 minutes of daylight! Daylight savings time is tomorrow. Our next date for recording sun rise, sun set data is on March 15th. It will be interesting to see how the Nuthatch will try to understand what happened. Today he was definitely trying to figure out how the day could be longer!

A long time ago we did a simple experiment that showed how the length of the day changes. It used an orange, a pencil, and a flashlight. I think we found it in the book "What makes day and night" from the Let's Read and Find out about Science series. I think I'll check it out from the library again.