Art and nature- Learning about ferns

Like I shared on my last post, this summer we are taking some time to explore the beautiful natural world around us! Learning through art and nature. We are using this amazing book called Nature Anatomy. There is a whole post about it here.

For this week, we chose to study ferns. There is a lot of vegetation around us and ferns are everywhere! So it was fun to be able to get out there and look for them. We found two different species! How cool is that?

Since it has been raining a lot, the plants are growing like crazy! We brought a few of the ferns home to study with our book.

Discovering ferns-

Ferns are green plants without flowers, their beautiful leafs look kind of like big feathers and their texture is super fun for kids to touch and compare to other plants.

Ferns reproduce by spores, not by seeds, that was a very interesting talking point for the boys and I. They are so strong and keep growing and expanding everywhere without much help. Ferns are said to be one of the oldest species of plants! So they are like the Dinosaurs of plants, only they have survived.

With our book, we learned about the anatomy of a fern, what each part of the plant is called and how it grows. we also learned about a few different kinds of ferns and it was super exciting for the boys to be able to recognize them from the book and in their own hands.

Art and nature

Art and nature go hand to hand. To try and remember all that we talked about, the boys each drew some ferns and painted them using water colors. I love to see each of them draw in a different style and level. I prefer that they draw them themselves because I know that will be a fun memory that will help them remember each detail of their favorite fern.

The littles drew and painted only, but the older boys also copied the scientific names and each part of the anatomy of a fern, to help them remember.

After that was done, we used some finger paint to gently apply it on the back of the ferns and then they got to press them onto a blank piece of paper, creating some interesting abstract art and some very festive ferns to hang on their board.

At the end of our study, we were able to learn so much by exploring outside, and combining our research with art.

Our activities were super simple but very helpful in the study of ferns.

Where will your summer take you? I want to encourage you to grab a fun book and go outside to explore! Learning doesn’t have to stop in the summer! it only turns more fun! We can explore this beautiful nature around us, from our back yards and beyond!

If you want to learn more about why we chose this book for our summer learning adventures, check out this post.

My wish for you is that your summer is magical! Filled with adventures and a lot of learning fun. Can’t wait to hear all about it! Do not forget to follow us on Instagram and share your summer learning love with us!

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