Tracks in the snow (Winter Nature Study)
My girls look forward to winter as a magical time when the snow blankets the ground and clings to the pine trees around our house. It is so pretty and so irresistible that of course we have to spend time outside in spite of the freezing temperatures! Although most people think of nature studies at warmer times of the year, winter is still a great time to get outside and learn. Don’t let cold temperatures prevent from enjoying a winter nature study!
Winter Nature Study
We like nature studies a lot around here. The girls like to thoroughly investigate a topic of interest and I like it that we can combine activities for each age into what we’re studying. We’ve used NaturExplorers and other resources from Our Journey Westward throughout our homeschooling years.
Our favorites include:
Ice and Snow: Discover the beauty and science of snow, ice, and frost in this engaging winter nature study guide designed for 1st-8th graders. Don’t worry that it’s too cold outside. There are plenty of creative ways to learn about wintery weather indoors too! There are activities like nature walks to be done outside combined with plenty of wintry learning activities to be done inside.
Coping with the Cold: Learn how animals prepare for and survive winter! Discover fascinating adaptations, migration patterns, and hibernation strategies of many types of animals as you enjoy a rich collection of outdoor and indoor nature study activities that will captivate and educate!
Since we live in a rural area, we are fortunate to have a lot of wildlife around our yard. We decided it would be fun to look for the tracks of different animals we’d seen before. On Thanksgiving, we saw a flock of wild turkeys cross our yard. There were 23 turkeys altogether according to our count as we watched them from our window. After that big snow, the girls and I decided to look for tracks. It wasn’t long before we found these going across our side yard and into the woods:
We followed up the tracking by reading about wild turkeys — what they eat, how and where they make their nests, and other information like that. The girls then did some artwork, drawing pictures of the tracks and what the flock looked like when it crossed our yard. It was a great nature study with minimal planning on my part. We made this fun turkey life cycle lapbook.
We also found the tracks of some of our other backyard friends. I mentioned before that we have a raccoon family living behind our garage. We were able to see their tracks as well, following them straight to our garbage can that they like to knock over, even though we have it closed shut with a bungee cord. Those raccoons are resourceful! We found deer tracks nearby and even the tracks of the stray cat that we see and feed from time to time in the hopes that she’ll keep mice away from our house. I know we also have foxes and coyotes, but we didn’t see any of their tracks when we were looking. It was a fun day of tracking for us!
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| raccoon tracks |
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| deer tracks |
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| cat tracks |
Here are some of the winter books we found at the library to use with our nature study. Everything from snowflakes to tracking animals in the winter to The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder because we love all things Little House and it’s a great read-aloud for the winter!
I highly recommend the book Snowflake Bentley. It’s a close-up look at snowflakes and the life of the man who first took pictures of them with his microscope and camera.
Avoid cabin fever this winter and try a nature study! Have you ever gone looking for animal tracks in the snow?
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Tracks in snow are just such a cool thing to look out for. Glad you were able to make the most of the learning experience. There are many interesting tracks in your yard. 🙂
We have had more fall/spring weather this winter than actual winter weather. No snow just ice the other day and that wasn’t fun at all, which I think the warm temperatures have made all the bad germs survive instead of killing them out! Love seeing those tracks in the snow!
I love those tracks in the snow and Discovering Nature in Winter is a book we use too!
Love the pictures of the tracks in the snow!
Beatiful pictures! I’m featuring you at Share It Saturday!
How neat! We miss the snow! So excited to be following you!
What beautiful snow to find tracks in!
That’s a great series of photos. I think most people would just pass up the tracks. I love that you thought to capture them.
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