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MaryM
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| Posted: March 22 2007 at 2:40am | IP Logged
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Matilda is doing a wildflower unit study and asked for ideas. So since it is such a lovely and timely (spring) rabbit trail I wanted to start a thread of ideas so others can go along as well.
Miss Lady Bird’s Wildflowers: How a First Lady Changed America is a picture book story of Lady Bird Johnson's beautification of America in the 1960-70s. She was instrumental in the passage of the Highway Beautification Act of 1965 part of which was the promotion of wildflower growth. My dad worked for the Department of Interior during that timeframe and they were heavily involved in projects related to this beautification and litter cleanup campaign. I remember my dad talking about Lady Bird and wondering just what this female bird was (then again I thought Mississippi was some groovy married lady - Mrs. Hippie).
So I think a very interesting aspect of a unit on wildflowers is to learn more about Lady Bird Johnson and her wildflowers and American beautification work. There is info at this PBS site. They have a movie about her as well.
And Matilda is lucky because she is close enough to visit the The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center. Does anyone have any other great wildflower centers or sites to visit?
Wildflowers Across America is a coffee table book written by Lady Bird Johnson.
Another lovely wildflower picturebook is Wildflower ABC. The illustrations in this book are made with potato prints and are just beautiful. You could make your own potato prints of wildflowers as well.
This US Forest Service site Celebrating Wildflowers is a wealth of information and has great activities for kids, coloring pages, local resource and viewing area listings and much more!
So what would you do for a wildflower unit?
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Matilda
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| Posted: March 22 2007 at 8:48am | IP Logged
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Here are some of my ideas so far---
We started by planting some wildflower seeds in a front flower bed. While we wait for those to come up:
We have already watched a little video from the library on Texas Wildflowers and how the department of transportation assists in keeping our roadsides in full bloom every spring. We also talked about how the wildflowers, especially the bluebonnet, help fertilize the soil (it was once thought that they devoured the soil's nutrients since they only grew where nothing else would grow) and are actually beneficial.
Sunflowers:
March 30th - Vincent Van Gogh's birthday
Look at his painting and make a sunflower of our own. Also, sunflowers are the state flower of Kansas so I thought I would let my oldest do this worksheet on the Kansas state flag if he didn't want to make a flower. He is kind of into flags right now!
Bluebonnets:
Texas state flag
April 24th Texas State Wildflower day
Find information on the history of the bluebonnet including all it's different names (buffalo clover, wolf flower, the rabbit) and legends.
Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaola
A popcorn bluebonnet craft.
Indian Paintbrush:
Wyoming state flag (at Enchanted Learning)
Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie DePaola.
Coloring page.
Indian Blanket/ Firewheel:
Oklahoma state flag (also at Enchanted Learning)
Craft idea with felt, small fuzzies and a sewn note card that I am working on.
Of course, lots of nature walks, picture taking and identifying.
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Mary G
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| Posted: March 22 2007 at 9:26am | IP Logged
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This is great stuff, MaryM and Matilda! I love wildflowers -- they're about the only thing I can grow! And these sites are wonderful for rabbit trails ...
I was going to read The Secret Garden as the next read-aloud and this dovetails nicely with a wildflower unit!
THANKS!
ETA: And this looks like a great book for further rabbit trails: The Secret Garden Activity Book
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lapazfarm
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I would recommend doing a flower dissection to learn the parts of a flower. It will really help in your identifications.
When ds and I did this we used this great resource,Backyard Nature. The page on the "standard blossom" is especially helpful for learning flower structure. We picked a bunch of flowers and identified their parts, then chose a really large one to dissect, draw and label the parts. There is tons of great stuff on that site for learning about all the interesting variations on flower structure.
It turned out to be one of our very favorite nature study sessions. Here is a link to my blog post when we did it last year:Flower Power
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anniemm
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I'm sure you have seen the book Nature Crafts for Kids, but they have a neat craft that I'm going to do along with our small unit on wildflowers (mine are MUCH younger than Matilda's). They suggest using pressed flowers to decorate fat white candles of all shapes and sizes. You get parafin wax, melt it over a double boiler, and then paint it over the flowers on the candles. I'm not sure if you can find any wild flowers around there that are legal to pick, but I have a ton pressed here that we're going to do along with with the learning!
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Matilda
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Andrea,
A friend of mine who is a preschool teacher did the popcorn bluebonnets with her class. She drew the stem for them and then drew circles for them to glue the popcorn on to make the shape of the bluebonnet.
Oh, and it is actually an urban legend that it is illegal to pick them. The TXDoT had this to say about it a few years ago.
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joann10
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Thank-you for all the wonderful information. You have all inspired me to prepare a North-eastern wildflower study.
We will need to wait for the snow to melt though. 
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teachingmom
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Not really wildflowers, but I might read Miss Rumphius, which is one of my all-time favorite picture books.
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ami*
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| Posted: March 23 2007 at 9:49pm | IP Logged
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teachingmom wrote:
| Not really wildflowers, but I might read Miss Rumphius, which is one of my all-time favorite picture books. |
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I just added resources to Miss Rumphius at HSS. You can check to see if there's anything you can use if you include that book in your study. 
FIAR Resources
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JSchaaf
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| Posted: March 28 2007 at 9:56pm | IP Logged
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Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I just spent 60 minutes googling Texas Wildflowers and trying to put some things together when I had the great idea to search the 4Real boards-jackpot!!
We are in San Antonio, so will head up to Austin and the wildflower center mid-April.
Jennifer
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MaryM
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| Posted: March 28 2007 at 10:03pm | IP Logged
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Lisa just shared this in "The Great Outdoors" thread - How to Make Plantable Paper. This would be a very fitting activity for this unit - using wildflower seeds!
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Mary M. in Denver
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Marjorie
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We picked up Flower Watching with Alice Eastwood by Michael Elsohn Ross today at the library. We haven't read this yet, but he have read Bug Watching with Charles Henry Turner in the same Naturalist's Apprentice series. We very much liked that book. This series is a mix of biography and nature observation/notebooking guide. It has ideas for botanical journaling, plant basics, choosing a field guide, how to use a nagnifying lens, using keys, information on various flowers and interesting facts interspersed through the story of her life. It looks good so far and might complement your study.
PS - Check out the positive comments on Amazon. One reader says it is, "is perfect for Charlotte Mason, any other home school curriculum or for those interested in the study of plants." On verra . . . we'll see.
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SuzanneG
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I found Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers book by accident at the library the other day and just read it. It's wonderful! Great thread with lots of resources. Thanks!
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Meredith
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Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney is a natural for this as well!! Wonderful links here, thanks!
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MaryM
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| Posted: July 12 2007 at 7:44pm | IP Logged
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When I saw this thread revived I thought maybe it was in regards to the passing of Ladybird Johnson yesterday. I have to say that it choked me up this morning when I heard. I do think of her associated with the lovely wildflowers which she did so much to protect and preserve. I also remember her husband's death and televised funeral in the early 70's - some of my first memories of being aware of the bigger politcal world beyond my local area. And I remember her - a very gracious and noble lady.
Go out and enjoy some wildflowers in her memory.
Eternal rest grant unto her, 0 Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace
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Matilda
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Oh Mary, thank you for remembering. It slipped my mind completely. Husband told me about her passing when he came home yesterday. I was so sad. I have so many fond memories of traveling around this big ole' state and looking at all of the beautiful flowers alongside the road.
We are still continuing our wildflower observations. She certainly deserves our prayers and remembrances!
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Carole N.
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I grew up in Texas with all the wonderful bluebonnets (some of which were woven into my wedding bouquet). My mother told me that she died yesterday--94 years old. I have to thank her for bringing the wildflowers for all of us to enjoy!
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SuzanneG
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We are getting ready to have some fun with Wildflowers now that it's stopped raining a bit and we can hopefully put away our winter jackets  . Thought I'd bump and add this resource: Wildflowers, Weeds and Garden Flowers Notebooking Pages.
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AtHomeScience
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Wow, that was weird, not realizing only the last post was from today and the rest were from 2007.
We're studying wildflowers this summer. You can download a coloring sheet with the parts of a flower here. I'm looking for some middle school lesson plans based around flowers; some more books would be helpful, too.
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We're starting up a nature club for our homeschool group, and thought we'd squeeze in wildflowers before all of the summer/early fall flowers are gone. I'm leading this one.
I have been spending quite a bit of time searching online, and all my favorite hits are already here.
The Ladybird Johnson Teacher Resources seem to be the best I can find for general identification. The Mini field guide fans and hike observation sheets seem like they would be very good.
The Celebrating Wildflowers kids pages, especially their coloring pages are really nice. But I was hoping for something a little more specialized to my Mid-Atlantic/Virginia region, and/or some sheets that contain some general wildflowers for the region, specific to summer or fall (like goldenrod?).
Favorite field guides? for my area? Anyone?
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Wildflowers!
