Nature Study: Tree Study

I was planning to do the Outdoor Hour Challenge #39 Weather Challenge #1 today from the Handbook of Nature Study blog, however as you will see in some of the pictures, there was not a cloud in the sky today.  So, instead I decided to go back and complete the Autumn Tree Study .  I have been meaning to start the tree study, but have just not gotten to it.  This was the perfect opportunity.  Plus, then we have an excuse to get outside again this week to complete Challenge #39 when we have some clouds.

We chose this tree, which is in our front yard.  Bill and I thought it was a Maple, because of the shape of the leaves, but were confused by the fruit on the tree.

We checked out the leaves and fruit...

and the bark.

Madeline checked in this book...

to see if she could find our tree.  Which she did.  It looks like it is a Sweetgum tree.

Then we examined the tree further and the girls wondered if anything lived in this hole.

Then, we noticed these collections of leaves in the tree.  We wondered if they were just dried leaves, or if they were something more.

We got to use almost all of senses while we explored the tree.  We felt the bark and leaves and fruit, we looked at the tree and all of its parts, we smelled the leaves and fruit, and listened to the leaves as the breezes past through.  We did not taste, but evidently some people do chew on the gum-like sap that comes from the tree, so I guess we could have.

When we went inside we took these items in with us.  Sorry about the shadows, but if you look carefully, the dried fruit that we brought in released a small seed, so we go to examine the seed as well.

The girls go right to work drawing in their nature journals.  Isabella decided to draw a leaf and a fruit.  She even traced around the tiny seed so that she could show that!

Hailey decided to trace around a leaf.

Madeline decided to draw the entire tree.  She looked at Claire Walker Leslie's Guide to Sketching Trees, as suggested in the Outdoor Hour Challenge.

Here is Isabella's completed journal page.  I was impressed that she even wanted to include the name of the tree, since she dislike writing so much.

We also learned that the fruit is sometimes painted and used for decorations on the Christmas tree, so after they were finished with their journal entries Madeline and Isabella went back outside and collected some to paint.  All in all, I would say it was a very successful nature study.