The Spring Journal: Spring Tree Study

We participated in The Outdoor Hour's Spring Tree Study. I am not sure who enjoyed this study more, me or the kids, but I think it might be me. I love the changes that Spring brings and we have taken our time observing the changes to get the most out of this study. Once a week, since the beginning of Spring, we have observed the changes in our trees. The changes were very subtle at first and I began to wonder if Spring would really come to Wyoming, but then the changes were more evident and now I can't believe we have leaves on our trees! Winter goes long into Spring in Wyoming and begins in early fall; in fact, it is snowing and the wind is howling as I type this.

Here are a few pictures from our study.

We had a beautiful pouring rain one day last week. . .

The water was running like a river on the sidewalk. . . calling young feet.

I wonder if she thinking of jumping in that little puddle or just watching the ran drops ripple in the water?

Since we observed our trees over several weeks, we got some good shots of the leaves and buds forming.

Sometime soon, these buds will open up to pretty pink flowers and they will cover the tree. This is my favorite time of the year - it is so pretty to see the Flowering Crab Apple in full bloom. I will have the children observe the tree again when it blooms.

The boys did leaf rubbings for their journal. I had them pull out their botany book and make a note of the leaf margin, shape and venation.

Here is our Winter Tree Study for comparison. We have already started our Dandelion study. We have lots of young greens, but only a few flowers in our yard, so we are waiting for more to bloom before we journal about it.