Beginning our Nature Journal

Last week we had beautiful weather, and spent much of it outside. Today we had a chillier day, and some rain here and there. But we found lots of fun things to do in the house. One of them was working on our nature journal. Last week we had pressed some dandelion and pansy parts. We checked them today and they were all dry, except for the pansy leaf. We added them to our nature journal page that we created.

Our dandelion page.

Some things we learned about the dandelion...

• comes from the French word "dent-de-lion", meaning lion's tooth, and refers to the leaves
• In the aster family
• though it appears as one large flower, it is actually a composite of many tiny flowers that are clustered together
• flowers open in the morning and close in the afternoons.
• originally brought here from Eurasia as a food crop. The leaves are high in vitamins and minerals. The long taproot can be roasted and ground for a coffee substitute.
• they are responsible for much water contamination as homeowners treat lawns with chemicals to eradicate!

Our pansy page...

Things we learned about the pansy:

• pansy comes from the French word "pensee" meaning thought, referring to how the flowers look like a face leaning downward in thought.
• they are one of the oldest cultivated flowering plants, so old that their origins are unknown
• the flowers are edible and taste like grapes and mint.
• their wild counterpart are called Johnny-Jump-Ups, and a bunch of other nicknames!
• Wild pansies are used to treat eczema, acne, impetigo, and other skin conditions
• Also believed to be good for the heart, hence another nickname, heartease or heartsease
• The flower of wild pansy protects itself from rain and cold by dropping its head so that only the back of the flower will get wet.
• they are in the viola family
• they are a cool weather favorite

The girls have also read their current issues of their NWF magazines. Georgia's is Ranger Rick, Olivia's is Your Big Backyard. Very interesting and informative magazines! Georgia was interested in entering a nature photo contest, so she'll be learning to work the digital camera and taking some pictures next time we are out and about. She also browsed their website, answered some surveys, and is interested in sending in some of her artwork as well. Olivia learned about animal babies, what they are called, how they are carried, and she made the mini-book that was included in the magazine. Olivia wants to send in a picture of hers, too.

They've also read some of their Wild Ohio Kids magazine put out by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. You can read it too! Click here!

And another NWF goody....Green Hour! I just discovered this site through a friends blog. We'll probably blog about it when we've read it some more!