A fun late summer time nature study activity.
*Be aware of insects that are attracted to these.
I think I remember seeing lots and lots wasps around them.
When we started our study [we were going to do this for our co-op group lesson but the day was cancelled so my kids and I did this activity alone], we did some research and read through the story the
On One Flower by Anthony D. Fredericks [got thru the library]. It is geared for pre-K through about 3rd grade level but it has great artwork and is a good intro book, so it should it work for most situations. I actually didn't find too many stories relating directly to the Goldenrod-so this was the best I could do. We then moved to the
Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock. We read pages 503-506 and did lesson 132 noted in this section.
Essentials: Tool kit [they each have their own-I just took a pic with one] with all the goodies: magnifying glasses, paints, pencils, tweezers, erasers, and so on. It was early Oct. when we did this so the flowers were moving into the end of their season,so there were not many fresh and full flowering Goldenrod to collect. But we only need two-so we were happy with that and put them into the flower press to have for their notebook page.
The kids' field study sheets.
You can see the obvious difference between a 10 yr old and a 17 yr old's work. I do not require the younger kids to get too detailed, unless they choose to do so. They both still had to add the Latin names, and the boy needed to add a poem to his page when I took this picture but it gives you an idea of what you should aim for. Once they had added some color to their flower and had done the other noted things, they went into their Nature Study binders. I also brought along my camera to take some nice color pictures. You could also just print a few pics and have your child glue those into their notebook page. This is a great option for children with low frustration thresholds or for those who are young/have dexterity issues.
