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nature walk

Fungus….Ewwwwwe!

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Even though we’re mid Fall,
recently I’ve been noticing lots of different colors pop up in the yard.

So today,
as crisp and cold as it was,
we donned our hats and gloves,
and headed outside for a small nature walk.

We brought cameras, a small rubbermaid bucket
and we quickly captured Fall life all around us.
They were all so pretty that we spent all our camera batteries just taking photgraphs!

Some Fall FUNgus for you:

You can imagine how excited the children were as they found each new specimen.

We immediately took off for the library and found this wonderful book
called, Mushrooms of North America and it was filled with beautiful photographs
and information about each different kind of mushroom.

Over the next week, we will be notebooking in our journals about the variety of fungus in our area.

How fun that we can just step outside and marvel at God’s creation.
So glad we got Math worked out so we can have some more days like today!


What’s That Bug? Notebooking Printables

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So if you’ve been following us on Facebook this Summer,
you’ve been treated to a plethora of animal and bug photos.

We’ve been visited by many NEW and interesting creatures this Summer,
and most of them we’ve needed help in identifying.

As handy as the internet it, sometimes it’s hard to look up a bug by description.
We use these sites quite often, they are the best we’ve found:

What’s That Bug
What Bird
Animal Track Guide
Printable Animal Track Identification Guide
Another Printable Animal Track Chart

But, we have come to realize that’s it’s much more efficient to simply post the photo to Facebook.
Within a few minutes we have gotten some very interesting and often accurate identifications.

It’s gotten to the point that directly after we catch a new critter,
my son says, “Post that to facebook so we can find out what it is!”
So I must say a BIG Thank you wise Facebook Followers for all your help!

You have made my job as Mommy/Biologist so much easier.

Just to prove I’m thankful, I whipped you all up a few identification printables.

What’s That? Notebooking Printables

There is a sheet for Bugs, Birds, and Animals.
These would be great to have on hand as your children come to you with their backyard discoveries!
I’m a big supporter of impromptu research sessions, and these will help guide young children through the identification process.

It’s Child-led learning at it’s finest.
I’m convinced that this is one of the best, easiest, and longest lasting styles of teaching.
You simply capitalize on their excitement,
and milk it for every educational drop you can get out of it.

So next time your little kiddos come to you with something crazy looking like this:

or this…

or even one of these…

Stop what you’re doing and take them on a learning adventure!
They will love you for it!