Here are some pictures from the Outdoor Challenge we did today. Jessie chose a Red Cedar (her favorite climbing tree) in the backyard. Sam chose an Ash… in the front yard. So I spent some time going back and forth at first. 
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| Jessie’s Red Cedar Tree | Looking up the Cedar Tree |
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| Sam’s Ash Tree | looking up in the Ash Tree |
This exercise is courtesy of Barb’s Outdoor Handbook of Nature Study Website.
We plan on studying these trees all year. Today I had them fill out Barb’s Seasonal Tree Study page and make a short list of things they observed with their senses. We all enjoyed the time outside.
Next time I think I’ll have Sam use some ideas from Clair Walkers’ Tree Guide. (link found on Barb’s website above) Might have him do a sketch a week using the different ideas there. Not so sure with Jessie. Might just climb the tree with her once a week so we can talk about what we see and help her journal it. ‘Course if brother draws his tree she’ll prolly want to draw hers too. LOL!
Oh! Forgot to have them measure the girth of their trees. Okay, next time we’ll do that too.
Love your trees….look at how high that cedar goes! I look forward to watching your trees all year, one evergreen and one deciduous. This should give you lots to talk about right there.
I still have trouble drawing trees. I try to make the bark brown and it is rarely brown at all.
Thanks for sharing your study.