Shrub branches

Today’s nature calendar task:

Place more shrub branches in water in the classroom.

We are on our second set of flowering branches. The first set we tried were some forsythia branches from our backyard. They bloomed a beautiful yellow. We noted that the flowers came out first, and then the leaves.

Currently we have two different shrubs in our vase on the table. The first is from a decorative crab apple. The leaves came out first, and the flowers are just about ready to bloom. The second is a decorative plum. It has small white flowers first, and then the leaves appear.

crabapple blossoms on our kitchen table

My kids have taken a liking to the Red Osier Dogwood shrubs that we see everywhere while we are hiking. The bark is a striking red colour. That will be our next shrub branch cutting. I'll just have to remember to bring my pruning shears on our next hike.

Willow tree cuttings

Today’s nature calendar task:

You may start new willow trees by placing cutting in water.

We happened to do this last fall. Willow branches root very easily in water. We will go and visit the willow at our park and do it again. We didn't plant our willow in our yard, since it would take up the entire space in a few years. I love the long, drooping branches of the willow.

Click here to read about our experience in October growing the willow roots.

Tree branches in water

Today's nature calendar task:

Place twigs of cherry, apple or plum in water.

I've been enjoying the forsythia that we put in water from March 5th's nature task. I think I'll have to find a new container for the apple and plum, we're not done watching the forsythia yet!

I've found it very interesting how the flowers and leaves are coming out. First the flowers, then the new branches are forming. Not just one leaf has come out, but a series of leaves along the new branch. I suspect that when the flowers die the leaves will come out along the old growth.

We have a nice litte crab apple tree in the backyard, and some ornamental plums. I'll trim a bit of both and put them in water.

Maple syrup

Today's nature calendar task:

From maple sap to maple sugar.

On Monday we visited a local conservation area that runs a sugar bush. We had a lovely day in the forest, and the sap was running! The kids saw some old ways of making maple syrup, as well as the more modern methods.

Last year it was too cold for the sap to be running on the day we went. Not so this year!

They were heating the maple sap in a log using rocks heated in a fire. You had to use the right type of rock or they could explode! They used sticks to lift the rocks out of the fire and drop them into the sap.

The Chickadee had a sample of maple syrup. She savoured every drop. She licked the bottom of the tiny paper cup. I think she contemplated eating the paper cup, but thought better of it.

Structure of roots

This week we took another look at our tree seedling to examine its roots. For their nature notebook I had them draw the roots. We talked about the main tap root, the side roots and when we looked very carefully we could see the light fuzz of the root hairs.

I took out our magnifying glass to try and see the root hairs better but for some reason they were easier to see in the vase. Perhaps when I transferred them from the water in the vase (where they have been sitting for about a week) the root hairs might have flattened against the root.

I would have liked to talk more about the function of roots, but we were rushed and it didn't happen today.

A few weeks ago I pointed out a very large willow tree on one of our walks and gave each child a long branch to play with. They enjoyed the flexibility of the branch, using it as a fishing pole, and pretending it was a very long piece of hair on their heads. Since then they have been pointing out willow trees to me as we drive around town.

That evening I read about the willows in my copy of 'The Handbook of Nature Study', and I was intrigued by this part:

Although the seed of the willow is produced in abundance, it is hardly needed for preserving the species. Twigs which we place in water to develop flowers will also put forth roots; even if the twigs are placed in water wrong side up, rootlets will form. A twig lying flat on moist soil will push out rootlets along its entire length as though it were a root; and shoots will grow from the buds on its upper side. This habit of the willows and the fact that the roots are long, strong, and fibrous, make these trees of great use as soil binders. There are few things better than a thick hedge of willows to hold streams to their proper channels during floods; the roots reach out in all directions, interlacing themselves in great masses, and thus hold the soil of the banks in place. The twigs of several of the species, notably the crack and sand-bar willows, are broken off easily by the wind and carried off down stream, and where they lodge, they take root; thus, many streams are bordered by self -planted willow hedges.

So, we took a piece of our willow branch and placed it in a vase to see if it would grow roots. The children gave up hope rather quickly of its ability to grow roots, but I just left it on the table to see what it would do. I thought it might not grow roots since it was so late in the season, perhaps the tree somehow knew that October was not a good time to try to grow a baby plant.

Just yesterday I took another look and there was the beginning of a new root! There was also a leaf budding out as well.

It would be neat to see the root hairs under a microscope. Do you have a microscope at home? What age were your kids when you got it?

Parts of a tree

For this week's nature notebook we labelled the parts of a tree. I thought this would be a fairly routine exercise, but there always seem to be surprises along the way when we study nature.

Here is the Nuthatch's drawing of a tree (I wrote the words for him).

I asked him to draw either a deciduous or a coniferous tree. He chose to draw an evergreen, and added a Christmas star at the top. He decided to draw spots all over the tree to represent the needles. He was trying to use the word 'stump' for 'trunk', so we had a little discussion about the difference between those two words. On the trunk he drew a magnifying glass and then drew the rings inside, something I had not been thinking about.

He still hadn't drawn the roots of the tree, so I asked him the simple question: "So, what is keeping the tree from falling over?" He looked at me blankly, and then said that the trunk was what held the tree up. I held a pencil up vertically on the table to represent the tree trunk and we watched it fall over together. It was not the trunk holding up the tree. I didn't want to just give him the answer, so I told him to go into the backyard and look at some of our trees. He came back and told me the branches were holding the tree up, because they were leaning on the tree next to it. (Hello? What is this kid thinking?)

Finally, I dug up a tree seedling growing in our yard (it was a weed, it was going to get pulled at some point anyway) and the lightbulb finally went on (finally!). He rushed in and finished his drawing. I've left the tree seedling on our kitchen table in some water so we can look at the structure of the roots in a different lesson.

Apple Cross-section

Our first foray into studying trees was to look at an apple. The Handbook of Nature Study had some interesting observations. I read through the section on my own (pages 667 to 670) one evening, and then when it was time to work on our nature notebook I was ready.

The thing that I like the most about the Handbook of Nature Study is that it has interesting tidbits of information that are things that I have just never thought of before. In the case of the apple, it mentions that "The carpels, or seed cells, are five in number, and when the fruit is cut across through the center these carpels show as a pretty, five-pointed star; in them the seeds lie, all pointing toward the stem." (pg. 668). I always cut my apples in the other direction, and thus have never noticed that the seeds in the apple are always in a five pointed star. Intrigued, I sliced open an apple and lo and behold, there it was!

We made a lot of interesting observations during this activity. We learned that the bottom of the apple is where the blossom used to be and is called the basin. The kids noticed that the seeds were brown on the outside but white on the inside. They discovered that each seed cell contained two seeds. They drew several diagrams of the apple and labeled the different parts.

We examined only one type of apple, but it would be interesting to extend this activity by comparing different varieties of apples. There is more in the Handbook of Nature Study about apple varities, picking and storing apples, and the structure of the apple.

Update:

The following week we tried the same activity with some pears we had in the fridge. The pear we cut open also had five carpels, although two of them had not been successfully pollinated. It was very similar in structure to the apple. The Nuthatch noticed all the tiny spots in the skin of the pear.

Fall focus on trees

After some deliberation I have decided to focus our nature study on trees for the fall. I was torn between focusing on something in particular, or just continuing to explore whatever interested us at the moment.

I have been hesistant to specialize in one area. I have enjoyed looking at anything and everything with the kids for the last 6 months. I wanted to develop their observation skills and their enthusiasm for nature and provide them with a general knowledge base to start building on. At this point though, I think it would be helpful to us all if we delved a little deeper into one subject, and developed a greater understanding of one aspect of the natural world we are exploring.

I thought trees would be a good initial focus area for a number of reasons. They are large and easy to find. They don't move when you're looking at them. The kids won't need any special skills like being able to use binoculars. The leaves will be changing colours soon. They are relatively easy to identify (unlike our brief foray into lichens). We have learned the names of a few trees already, so we're not starting something from scratch.

So, what will this look like? This doesn't mean that we will look at nothing but trees on our nature hikes. I will probably try to point out some aspect of trees on each hike, but then we'll continue on our merry way of exploring and examining whatever crosses our path.

I will ask that the Nuthatch's weekly nature notebook entries have something to do with trees. I'll still follow his lead to some extent, but I would like to start looking at deciduous trees while they still have leaves. We can always look at the conifers in the winter. We also have some firewood in the garage that we can take out to look at the structure of the rings and the bark. And it is apple picking season, that will be a great place to start as well.

The Bluejay on our apple picking trip last year. He even ate the apple cores!

I have put the Handbook of Nature Study next to my bed for a bit of evening reading. I read a section and then try to casually point out some things to the kids as we are hiking. They usually come up with their own things they are interested in. The Handbook has a large section on apple trees and a part about how to do leaf prints.

We were camping this past weekend and I informed the Nuthatch that we were going to study trees. He found some sap oozing out of a tree and we talked about how it is like the blood of a tree, and it comes out of the tree where the bark has been injured. Here is his photo of the sap:

That's our plan for this term's nature study. I'll continue to post on trees as we progress through the term. The Bluejay seems to think that 'Lichen tree' is a type of tree, so perhaps we'll try to clear that up first.

Update:

I've discovered that the Handbook of Nature Study blog is also looking at trees this fall. Here's the link for the first Outdoor Hour Challenge about trees. This is a great source of information if you are looking for ideas for studying trees.

Here are my posts of the tree activities we have done so far:

Apple Cross-section

Parts of a Tree

Structure of Roots

Storytelling on our nature walk

When I was in Banff in April I had the opportunity to take lots of nature walks. On these walks I started thinking about the 'stories' that nature had to tell, and I started wondering how I could use stories to share the experience of nature with my children. It would be easy enough to make up a little story about the squirrel tracks in the snow,

or the mountain crocus pushing its way through the snow to be the first flower in the spring,

or how the mountains came to be, with their majestic lines showing the layers and layers of sediment pushed up from deep within the earth.

I came home and we quickly got back into the routine of life and I forgot about the nature stories.

This week I was reminded again from a number of sources that I should try out this idea of making up my own nature story. I recently got a few books from the library about storytelling. Basically, your story needs a main character, and that character has a problem. They have a few adventures trying to solve the problem and then the problem is solved.

So, on our walk today I gave it a shot. We walked by a small pine tree and I began to make up a story about a pine seed. The little pine seed wanted to grow into a big pine tree like its mother, but it was trapped inside a pine cone. It couldn't get out, because the cone was closed too tightly. Winter covered it with snow. In the spring the rain washed it into a river and it was carried downstream. Finally it washed up on shore. Then a squirrel carried it high, high up into a tree. He began peeling back the sections and eating the seeds inside. He was just about to eat the little pine seed when he was startled and dropped it on the ground. The little seed sprouted, grew roots and became a tiny pine tree. Soon it grew into the small pine tree we had passed by, and one day it hoped to become as big as its mother.

The kids loved the story, and were begging me for more, but I thought one story per walk would be more than enough.

It is tempting to stuff my kids full of endless nature facts, but telling a simple story seemed to resonate with them on a different level. I enjoyed it as well, pausing in places and letting them fill in parts of the story as we went along. No one knew quite where the story would take us as we walked along the shady path.

Woodland Mystery

There is a small wooded area near our house where I like to take the kids for walks. This week we noticed some rather mysterious happenings in our little forest. Follow the clues with us and see if you come to the same conclusions.

Clue #1 First we have some of the trees painted with orange dots near the base of the tree. Perhaps it is some graffiti, although why anyone wants to paint one orange dot at the base of some of the trees is odd.

Clue #2 Then we have a log that has been burnt. Explaining this was easier, the wood is located next to two high schools, I'm sure that the students might occasionally build a small fire in the woods. Except the ground around the log was not burnt at all...hmm.

There were lots of burnt logs in the forest. A fire by high school students could be explained by one log, but many logs all through the forest? Again, there is no trace of the fire on the ground, and only the bark has been burnt off.

Clue #3 Another tree with the orange dot on the bottom. Notice the odd angle of the trunk, it has a slight lean to it.

Clue #4 More graffiti. This is on the trunk of the leaning tree.

Clue #5 Many of the trees in the forest have been cut down with chainsaws. This trunk has been eaten through by an insect infestation.

Clue #6 Here's a freshly felled tree. They've stripped of the bark but haven't had a chance to burn it yet.

You can see the damage caused by the insects just underneath the bark.

We figure that the forest has been infected by either the Emerald Ash Borer or the Asian Longhorn Beetle. The parks and forestry department must be cutting down and burning the trees in an attempt to contain the insects. I had my suspicions in March when so many trees seemed to be damaged. The orange dots mark the infected trees. The "BTU" probably means that they will burn that tree. We still haven't figured out how they burn the trees without catching the rest of the forest on fire.

Sneak preview

I have lots of fantastic photos that I will start posting next week. Here's a sneak preview of things to come. In my world it is still winter. I am going to miss it when it's gone.

Ominous signs

This morning we were walking in the small forest near our house, looking for signs of spring (we didn't find any, they are all covered with snow). The kids found another hollow tree and called me over to take a look.

To a child, a hollow tree is fascinating. It looks like a great place for animals and insects to hide, for birds to build nests. It has lots of possibilities. All of these things are true, however, I am starting to see a different story unfold.

All forests have trees in various stages of growth, some are brand new saplings, others are dead stumps rotting back to the earth. You expect to see some dead trees in a forest. What is becoming worrisome though is the number of trees like the one in the above photo. They have been eaten from the inside out by insects.

There are two main culprits that come to mind, the Asian Longhorn Beetle and the Emerald Ash Borer. Last summer when I was walking through this forest I noticed some unusual contraptions hanging in the trees. When I looked closer, they had a note attached to them stating they were insect traps for a scientific study. I suspect it is the Emerald Ash Borer. I haven't identified the trees we are finding, next time I'm out I'll look a little closer to see if they are ash trees. It's hard without the leaves.

I am wondering what the little forest will look like this spring. If it is the Emerald Ash Borer, they will come in and remove the dead trees. The forest will look very different this year if that is the case.

A lichen tree!

A number of weeks ago I pointed out some lichen growing on a tree to my three year old. Ever since, he has been very enthusiastic about lichen, running from tree to tree in the forest yelling "A lichen tree! And another lichen tree!" and so on, since nearly every other tree has a least a little bit of lichen growing on it.

I've never tried to identify lichens before, so I thought I would give it a shot. First of all, there are very few field guides to lichens. I managed to find a guide in my library by Mason Hale called "How to Know the Lichens".

The lichen on the tree above is a foliose lichen, which means it is flattened and leaf-like. There are 3 types of lichens, the other two are fructose (shrubby or hair-like) and crustose (crusty). I didn't bring my field guide with me, and I didn't collect any lichen to bring home, so that is as far as I'm going to get today in my identification attempts. Even if I did manage to find out that it was called Parmelia crinita, what does that mean to me? Maybe we will just make up our own names.

The kids don't really need (or care) to be able to identify the lichens. All the brilliant colours they come in have been amazing, we've seen orange, yellow, blue, black and grey lichens. They might be best enjoyed in a nameless, mysterious way.