Our Tree Study - Autumn Follow Up

Nature study this month has taken on a very leaves/trees theme yet again this month.   I guess it's been kind of hard for it NOT to when we've been in the peak of autumn over this past month.  What's not to like about the beautiful colors and piles and piles of dry leaves to crunch through and play in?   Given that we won't get an 'autumn' again for another 3-4 years...we've been trying to live it up while we can.

 

We did take some time to make some autumn observations of our silver maple outside our apartment.   Interestingly enough, it was one of the very last trees in our neighborhood to start changing colors.   Finally one day while we were out we noticed that the leaves were starting to turn yellow just around the edges.  Eventually the whole tree turned yellow. 

 Sadly, I never got a picture of it in its prime. A storm blew through and blew most of the leaves down all at once.   Now it is completely bare.  "Just like when we got here, mama."   Michelle also noticed the "little buds left on the tree that will grow into new leaves in the spring...but we'll be gone by then."

We gathered some of the leaves that had fallen from the tree to sketch in our nature journals.

Michelle also wrote a final stanza to her "Tree in All Its Seasons" poem.  (As another side note, she wrote this completely by herself directly in her journal.  At the beginning of this year she was doing very little writing independently - mainly she was copying from things she dictated to me.  Her writing skills have blossomed this year, and her nature journal is such a wonderful record of this.)

Autumn Poem

Colors, Colors!

Different, different!

Nice, nice, good, happy happy!

Lovely, lovely

Red, green, yellow, gray, brown!

 



We're a little sad to be leaving the northern hemisphere with its seasons behind (in only 6 more weeks..eek)...but I was excited to read Amy's blog post here about how their family has noted seasonal variations in the tropics.   I'm looking forward to what there will be to explore in our new surroundings.   But in the meantime...we're hoping for a good snowstorm first. ;-)