Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Outdoor Hour Challenge #3: Green Anole


Several times this past weekend the children spotted a young green anole in the bushes in our backyard. Eric was able to catch him, so on Monday we completed our third outdoor hour challenge! Unfortunately, the Handbook of Nature Study did not have much information about lizards and no information about our anole but Eric found a website of information for us.

We learned that the green anole is the only anole native to the U.S. (found in southeastern states) and is also found in Cuba, Jamaica, and other Caribbean islands. Anoles prefer to live in bushes, trees, rock walls, woods, and around houses. (We have TONS of them living around our house!) Their diet consists of grubs, crickets, cockroaches, spiders, moths, and basically any bug that they can fit in their mouths. Some people call them chameleons because they can change color, turning brown when stressed. However, they are not true chameleons.

I wasn't able to get a good pick of our green anole (named "Whiley"), so here is a few I grabbed from the web (Whiley measured about 3 inches if you included his tail, his body was only about 1.5 inches):


Notice the beautiful dulap which the anole will stick out when stressed or showing aggression (you can't even tell it is there otherwise- his neck is completely white until he puffs it out):


Here is Elizabeth's nature journal page (she is so excited to go see the Winnie-the-Pooh movie that she had to add a bit of that too!):


Jonathan made me so happy because he requested we get out our nature journals even before I said anything! Yeah! This is one of my goals of nature journaling- instilling a love for it in the children's hearts & encouraging them to grab their journals when something interesting strikes them. He did a great job:




Matthias' page was simpler this week:


We were able to watch our anole EAT A CRICKET!!! Benjamin illustrated this on his page:




Patricia was in the mood to write:


The Outdoor Hour Challenge is hosted by Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study blog. You can read about our family's other challenges by clicking on one of the labels below. Happy nature journaling!
- Heather

8 comments:

Kristine said...

This is so wonderful to read about Heather! It makes me want to start Luke's nature journal right now! I've never homeschooled really young ones -- can't wait! GREAT JOB TULLY KIDDOS!

Tully Family said...

I LOVE learning with the children! :) And seeing things through their eyes. I was so anxious to start Patricia's formal lessons when she was little.

Jeanelle said...

Glad to hear they eat cockroaches! We have a lot of anoles around our house too and David catches one almost every day. He keeps it for a day and then lets it go. Great journaling kiddos!

Auntie Jeanelle

Karen Tully said...

Looks like the Anole was a lot more interesting than plants LOL...Glad teh children had a fun and educational experience. HUGS...we are hoping to get out to Georgia sometime after the newest Tully joins the brood. Hope to see you all in a few short months, and hoping I will have pictures of the tenant cottages where my the Tully grandparents were born (although they have probably long since been torn down, fingers crossed they are there).

Anonymous said...

Love the drawing and added comments. Need to save these. Nanny

Barb said...

Excellent job and the journals are such a fabulous record of their study.

The HNS doesn't cover everything we have here in CA either but it does give us the encouragement in the introductory pages to get us started with anything that comes our way. Your children are really getting the hang of making their journals their own! I love it!

Thanks so much for sharing your link with the OHC.

Phyllis said...

Oh, I LOVE your nature journals! They are fantastic!

Jamie {See Jamie blog} said...

Wonderful nature journals!!