Nature Journaling - Perennials in your Nature Area

 The perennials have the advantage of having all the food they stored last year so they can grow early and very quickly in the spring when they wake up. 

Your job this week is to find two interesting perennials in your natural area and draw what their growth looks like so far this spring.  

One should be Woody Stemmed, and one should be herbaceous stemmed with new growth coming from the ground since only the roots survive the winter. 

Be sure to take note of which plants you draw so you can come back in a month and revisit the same plant to see how it has progressed.  Try to really capture details! Look close! Use words to describe them because they will be changing a LOT in the next few weeks.  

Here are my examples: The first is in progress, showing how you should use a regular pencil to capture the shape and proportion and to label you drawings. 

The second is closer to being finished with some added color and more labels describing what I was seeing. 

Choosing your Natural Area to study

Over the next few weeks we will be studying Ecosystems in class and thinking about how organisms can still be wild and live and grow even in the City of Chicago where humans have changed the environment drastically. 

In order for you to do your own study, your homework this week is to identify an interesting natural area near your house that you can get to without any trouble at all. As you think about what spot to choose, keep these things in mind. 

 - Easy Access  - Be sure that you can get to this location easily and quickly so that you can visit it when your family's schedule and the weather give you a window. Don't choose an area that is going to be a hassle for you or your family. Good options are your yard, your neighborhood park, or areas along your street where animals and plants are growing and living wild. 

 - Make sure you can identify a number of different plant and animal populations that live in your natural area even if it's very small. (We will try to identify the organisms you are observing, but it's ok if you are not sure the actual species names. "Tall grasses, red ants, a rabbit, Pine tree, moss"  - these can be specific enough for this project. 

 - Make sure that your natural area has at least one woody stemmed perennial like a bush or a tree. Something that has bark. 

- Spend some time in a few different areas before choosing so that you know you have found an interesting natural area to spend time observing. 

Once you have chosen your location, complete the description page we set up in our journals. 

If your natural are is very large like a park, be sure to describe what part of it you will be focusing your work in. 

Here is a picture of the blank journal set up if you forgot to take yours home.