I’m not entirely sure what to say about this week. Due to illness, as well as an impromptu two-day unit study on nature, we certainly didn’t have a normal week of school! But sometimes (illness aside), those are the best kind of weeks!

On Monday, we spent a combined four hours walking around two different parks, including the magnificent Forest Park in St. Louis, gathering items related to nature: leaves, nuts, pinecones, pods, and whatever else we could find. I had planned to do a leaf identification project this year, and then Moose brought home a nature walk assignment, so, since he had the day off on Monday, it was the perfect time to go looking!

On Wednesday, after a day of illness, we got to work identifying all of our specimens. I had the children look at the edge of each leaf to determine if it was toothed, untoothed, or lobed. We also labeled them as simple or compound (only one compound leaf out of the many we found!). We also tried to identify each leaf by name, using the same field guide I used in fifth grade, although, some of them were a little challenging! After we finished with the leaves, we also identified the three different pinecones we found…they were much easier to name. We laminated everything to make a mini nature book, so we can remember all the different things we learned!

We also got out the microscope and looked at some of the leaves up close. It was so interesting to see how their colors dispersed, and how much they look like little cities…the network of veins certainly looks like a bunch of roads!

Wednesday was definitely another fun, hands-on day!

The rest of the week, we just played catch-up with some of other subjects. We definitely didn’t get everything done that we were supposed to, but we still learned a whole lot! We have continued to work on our Thankful Tree, and since Moose was home, he got to add a leaf, too!

Next week, we’ll continue working on our Thanksgiving memory work (the hymn, “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come”), and read more of our Thanksgiving books!