Spring Time Nature Study Idea

A quaint little nest made with twigs, moss and carpet fiber.

Spring time is here and with it comes warm temps, sunshine, flowers and of course, birds. Birdwatching and feeding are excellent ways to spend some time doing Spring nature studies. Bird feeders and even birdhouses can often be made for free with items around your house or for a low cost. Here are some pictures of some of our yard guests over the years.

How many worms can one robin bill hold anyway?

Nesters in our basketball goal pole

Are you interested in feeding the birds? Most "feeder" birds prefer black oil sunflower seeds although they will eat others. Some birds love fruit too.Popcorn and peanuts are always a hit with our blue jays. here are some neat feeder ideas.
1.pine cone smeared in peanut butter and rolled in birdseed. Tie a string around it and hang .
2.old baking pans or cookie sheets. Fill with seed and place on the ground,an old tree stump or mount on a wooden post .
There are tons of great sites online with FREE bird feeder plans. Here are just a few. They range from the simple to WOW :)
http://wayneofthewoods.com/bird-feeder-plans.html
http://www.birdwatching-bliss.com/bird-feeder-plans.html
http://www.bird-house-bath.com/wp/bird-feeder/suet-bird-feeder-plans-build-a-simple-suet-feeder/
http://lessonplans.craftgossip.com/simple-bird-feeder-craft/2011/04/10
http://www.ribena.co.uk/download/Ribena%20Activities%20-%20Make%20a%20Bird%20Feeder.pdf
And how about if you want to host a family of birds? Well check out these links (and search online for more) to find great ideas and plans for making birdhouses.
http://www.nabluebirdsociety.org/nestboxplans.htm
http://www.50birds.com/d50bh.htm
http://www.freebirdhouseplans.net/freebuildingbirdhouseplans.html
http://www.makingfriends.com/animal/birdhouse.htm
http://www.nesquik.com/adults/activities/makesomethingfun/birdhouse.aspx
 And for those who like to notebook their studies:
http://www.coloring.ws/birds5.htm
http://www.first-school.ws/theme/animals/cp_birds.htm
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/bbimages/PDFs/ColoringBook.pdf
I hope you enjoy these links and the birds :) Blessings! ~ Nikki

Secret Sale At Currclick

Check it out here Secret  Sale. There are some neat freebies too. Blessings! ~ Nikki

January Freebie!

I found this on another blog today and thought someone out there might enjoy it. Blessings! ~ Nikki

Funnix

Science Lessons On The Road...Literally

While in town yesterday, we saw a wonderful snake on the road. It was an eastern hognose snake. At first I thought it was a rattlesnake because of its coloring and posture. When we turned around to get a second look though; it had its head flared out like a cobra. We were hooked lol. We once again turned around to come back and get another look (we couldn't stop for long  in the street because its a pretty busy road). Sadly by this time it was crawling off into the grass. Of course we had to find out what it was so we Binged it from my phone. Turns out it was one of these very interesting hognose snakes.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="438" caption="eastern hognose snake with "hood" flared"][/caption]

Turns out they mimic both rattlesnake and cobra behavior. For more info and pictures on these great snakes check out bugsinthenews.com.

Blessings! ~ Nikki

Our Autumn Challenge # 1 HBNS

We have been back to school since the 13th. Things are going great. We are having fun and learning alot. I will post later on what we are studying. This is actually a post for the Handbook of Nature Study Blog's Autumn Challenges.

We took a walk today to see what we could find :) I made us a worksheet for our notebooks, you can find it here : Four Signs Of Autumn , Our job today was to sketch four things we saw today that showed us that Fall is here. I took pictures of some things we found. Enjoy ! Blessings! ~ Nikki

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="288" caption="Persimmon"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="288" caption="Chestnuts"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="288" caption="Acorn"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="288" caption="Dogwood Berries"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="288" caption="Fallen Leaf"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="288" caption="Ironweed"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="288" caption="Spiderweb"][/caption]

Weed ID

OK just because it is Summer and school is not "officially" in for us doesn't mean we can't learn something new. Right? Roosie and I were out exploring the yard, watching squirrels and hummingbirds  when we came across these interesting weeds. Now I have seen these all my life but just never knew the true name for them. Time to Google :) Using the University of Tennessee (GO VOLS!) website we were able to properly ID these . So there, we did some learning this summer :) Wonder if I can count that toward our 180 days? HMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Sorry about the fuzzy pics. Camera batteries are dead so I used my phone. I'll give the link to the website though so you can check out the pics there.

dallisgrass

http://www.tennesseeturfgrassweeds.org/Pages/weed.aspx?ID=72&Name=Dallisgrass

yellow foxtail

http://www.tennesseeturfgrassweeds.org/Pages/weed.aspx?ID=85&Name=Yellow%20Foxtail

Weekly Planner

I uploaded the new planner I created for our homeschool this year. It is set up for planning for two children for their individual lessons; except for social studies and science. I left those in one big block to plan for unit studies that we do together. I also added a weekly grade log to this planner so I can keep easy track of weekly tests and just have to fill out my main grade sheet once every 9 weeks. Let me know if you like this planner :) Blessings! ~ Nikki

Find it HERE.