Outdoor Nature Hour 17

We are slowly trying to get back into the swing of participating in the Outdoor Nature Hours.  We went outside on a hot, humid afternoon last week and gathered some leaves from trees around our yard.  We learned the parts of a leaf, drew them in our nature notebook and pressed them in our homemade flower press.

Our nature time began with a few seconds of sitting in out garden quietly and listening to the sounds all around.

We heard...
bees buzzing
doves calling
rooster crowing
and an unidentified bird calling

After our quiet time the boys gathered some leaves from the trees in our yard.  They choose
pecan
sweet gum
dogwood
oak
purple coneflower (flower in our yard)

The boys choose a couple of leaves to draw in their nature notebooks.  After drawing the leaves we placed them in our homemade leaf press.

Here they are choosing a leaf to sketch in their nature notebooks

We observed the parts of the leaves...

petiole

midrib

veins

blade

the little ones also observed that the purple coneflower leaves were rough and the others were smooth.

Here we are a week later taping the pressed leaves into our nature notebooks and labeling the parts.