Green Hour #11 - Our Tree

My kids are having a very hard time staying indoors anymore. They want to be outside almost from the very start of the day. So today I decided we would start out outside,so by the time the sun really got hot we would be indoors. Since we were already heading out, I thought it was a good time to start our Green Hour Challenge #11. For this challenge we are to pick a tree to observe throughout the year. Last night I had read from the Handbook of Nature study about trees and most of the trees that are described in the book, I don't have in my neighborhood. (Maybe I do and I just don't know it. There are tons of different types all around and I certainly don't know them all.) So when we when out to do this challenge, I decided to let Sophie pick any tree to study. She quickly ran outside and wrapped her arms around the first tree she saw.
It was one of the three trees that line our driveway and that I park under everyday. I grabbed the tree field guide and we sat down on the driveway to find our tree in it. It wasn't too hard to figure out it is a Birch tree, a Paper Birch, I believe.

I had printed out the tree study journal page with the observation questions so we started with those. We sat somewhat quietly and just looked at our tree. We talked about the branches and how they point straight up but at the ends they curve and the leaves make it look a little bit droopy. We didn't see any birds today because we were too noisy. But usually our house sparrow friends that are nesting in the carport frequent these trees. We talked about how the branches are thin and weak so squirrels would be too heavy for them.
When we tried to listen we had trouble being quiet. But we did see the breeze blow through the leaves and branches.
We broke out our magnifying glasses next and got a close up look at our tree. The boys found a little ant trail going up the tree and they followed it for a bit.

We all noticed the bark and how it was curling and was so easy to peal off the tree. Sophie described the tree as soft and crinkly. The boys just liked to watch the ants.


We took a little time to really look at the leaves. We looked closely and could see some new leaves still starting to come out and unroll.

We pulled a few off to smell them. They didn't really smell like anything in particular. We did a little rubbing of the leaves.
Sophie liked doing the rubbings so much she took the leaves inside when we were done and did a whole page full of multicolored leaf rubbings. We need to gather more leaves from different trees and do rubbings of them as well.

We pulled off a few of the catkins too. I had to look up the name for these clusters. Now I know the correct term for these little things that I find on my windshield every time we head out in the car. There were still some dried up ones from last year along with some fresh green ones. The dry ones of course break up easily and are blown about by the wind.
Since we are well into spring we have already watched as these trees went from their empty winter look to the full spring look. We did notice how the tree got more and more leaves a few weeks back. And could see some the new leaves still coming out. So these trees will be good for us to really look at and watch as it transforms from season to season.