Outdoor Nature Challenge {Part 5}

The goal of this week's outdoor nature challenge was to pick a focus group. The girls and I discussed this idea before heading out the door. We decided to look for flowers and hopefully draw a few flowers in our nature books. Unfortunately, when we got to our local nature center the only flowers we could find were dandelions. So, on the spot we switched to animals and that turned out to be a fantastic topic with lots of animals to discover.Not even onto the dirt pathway we discovered a spider on it's web. The kids used their magnifying glasses to really look at the details.During our "animal hunt" we talked about being silent so that we might be able to hear the animals before seeing them! The kids are getting so much better at this & they even heard the leaves "wiggling" together!

I really think that one of my favorite things was when we came across 2 older gentlemen {my grandpa's age} my kids LOVED that they were on a nature hike like us! They LOVED that these two men had binoculars & showed off their magnifying glasses :) Then these nice old guys complimented me of having our kids outside playing!Other animals spotted: butterfly, grasshopper, mosquito, goose, turtle & birds. I'm starting to think that we really need field guides so that we can identify what we're seeing {i.e. birds} I just have to figure out what kind to get.

{my favorite spot to write in our nature journals...there is a little poison ivy so we have to be careful}

After not doing nature hikes for a few weeks it was SO nice to get back outside with focus! We're definitely taking advantage of the beautiful spring Oklahoma days, before it is over 100 again and the thought of being outside makes you sick!
Linking up with: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/