Shining Dawn Books » Fruits and Nuts Activities

Wild Blackberry Walk

Cindy — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:02:51 +0000

In our neck of the woods, July is wild blackberry month. Over time, we’ve located several wild brambles growing along fence lines around our farm. I have to admit that harvesting is a tad difficult because of all the thorns, but well worth the effort. I wanted to share just a few pictures from our walk that day.

The big kids are busy picking berries. The three-year-old decided that thorns don't make for much fun.

Beautiful, ripe blackberries are almost too hard to collect. Everyone wants to eat them before they hit the bucket. Sound familiar fans of Blueberries for Sal?

I couldn't resist showing you the beauty of an uncut hayfield in July.

As hard as we tried, we never made it home with enough for jam or freezing. Oh well, the walk sure was yummy!

Searching for Seeds

Melissa — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:04:38 +0000

As part of our Fruits and Nuts study this month we’ve also spent some time learning about seeds. After all it’s the fruit and/or nuts that protect the seeds, therefore they go hand in hand. On one of our nature walks we set out to search for seeds along with fruits and nuts. We were looking specifically also at how God made seeds to find their way into the dirt to grow. Through this hunt, I as the teacher learned so much right along with my kids, and we were amazed at all the varieties of seeds and the ways they travel. Here are some snapshots from our walk.

Thistle Seeds

Queen Anne's Lace Seeds

While my daughter was walking in the creek there were acorns from an Oak tree above falling on her head!

We collected lots of acorns.

Berry Bush

Berries on Tree

Berries, nuts and seeds that we collected.

We made a final stop at our raised bed garden to collect some last of the season fruits, Roma tomatoes.

After our walk we spread out our “finds” on a cutting board and spent some time looking at them under a magnifying lens and experimenting a bit with them. Do you see the beautiful colors of acorns?

This time of year is such a wonderful time to study about fruits and nuts and everything to do with them! Now, this weekend we’re going to the produce department at the local supermarket to buy some apples and walnuts to bake my favorite fall dessert, Apple Crisp! Which, by the way, this scrumptious recipe is included in the Fruits and Nuts unit!

Finding Fruits and Nuts

Cindy — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:20:03 +0000

Our weekly nature walks so far in September have been so exciting as we’ve been on the hunt for fruits and nuts. This is the perfect time of year for finding an abundance of them!

My favorite find so far has been this pile of Ohio buckeyes that some sweet little creature has been working diligently on. Can you see how the coverings are separated from the nuts?

We've found a bazillion perfect little nuts on trees and off.

Wild fruits and not-so-wild fruits hang prettily from many trees, bushes and wildflowers.

We've used notebooking pages to compare fruits, compare nuts, note the way seeds travel and go on a scavenger hunt for fruits and nuts.

If you’re also studying fruits and nuts this season, I’d love to hear about some of your adventures!

~Cindy

Fun with Fruits and Nuts

Melissa — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:13:16 +0000

This month we have began our study of fruits and nuts during our schooling time. We started off by heading outside for a fruits and nuts hunt in our backyard. It didn’t take long for us to begin finding some. We have a several large Black Walnut trees and lots of Hickory trees as well that provided us with samples of nuts to take and we also found bushes with wild berries growing on them.

Wild Berry Bush

Wild Berries

A Squirrel Chewed On this Hickory Nut

Top of Black Walnut Tree

My Son Found Lots of Hickory Nuts

Give a Boy a Hammer and Watch Out!

Broken Hickory Nuts

Close-up of Hickory Nut

Fruits and Nuts we Collected

Notebook Entry for Hickory Nuts Labeling the Layers

We finished off our day by reading one of our absolute favorite books, The Hickory Chair!

I’ve been amazed at how much fun we’ve had learning about fruits and nuts so far! You can find suggestions to do all of the above things plus lots more in the Fruits and Nuts themed study.