Australian Nature Study | Summer/Autumn | Volume 1
Australian Nature Study | Autumn/Winter | Volume 2
Australian Nature Study | Winter/Spring | Volume 3
Do you like searching for mushrooms? This Fly Agaric is such a pretty mushroom, but it’s not one you would want to eat. Australia has some amazing fungi but some are deadly. While this Fly Agaric will probably not kill you, the Death Cap (Amanita phalloides) might. I enjoy searching for mushrooms and photographing fungi, but when I want to…
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Are you interested in finding out more about the Banksia plant? This week, we are spending time with A Handbook for A Bush Calendar: Lesson 35 is all about Banksia Flowers. I love how Amy Mack describes her arms are full of flowers and she just can’t resist stopping at a Banksia to collect some of their spectacular flowers to…
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It’s migration time again. Every year, birds that we have become accustomed to seeing, disappear. It seems that as the cooler weather comes, some birds leave our backyards and travel north, to warmer weather and plentiful food sources. Here in Victoria, where I live, we are used to seeing Pardalotes, Honeyeaters, Silvereyes and Wattlebirds. Now these nectar feeders and insectivores…
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Have you wondered how geckos are able to climb smooth surfaces and crawl upside down? How do geckos magnetize themselves to any kind of surface? What makes their feet so sticky, without leaving a print? Did you know that everything around you is made up of atoms? When God created the universe, He first made atoms and then used them…
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The exterior angles (one per vertex) of a certain convex polygon with n sides are obtuse. What is the value of n? Ummmm….. could you repeat that in English please? Does Math vocabulary bewilder you? One way we can help our kids to not be afraid of math is to teach them the language of math. When they become familiar…
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The Autumn Equinox is a time where the length of our day is equal to the length of our night. The days are becoming shorter, and at the equinox, the length of day will be 12hrs and the length of night will be 12hrs (approximately). After the equinox, the days will continue to become shorter until we get to the…
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We have noticed Jacky Winters in the shrubs and around the paddock boundaries where we often see them perching on the fence. They also love to perch and hunt from a wattle that grows next to our daily walking track. They’re mostly active at sunrise and sunset. This is when the males are singing and courting the females. They dominate…
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Ponding encourages an understanding of the relationship between plants and animals in a freshwater ecosystem. Pondlife may be observed and monitored over each season. We went summer ponding and the experience was amazing. There wasn’t much happening on the surface of the water, but we were excited to see pondlife in the algae-covered rocks, pond scum, mud, and the water…
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What do you do if your child DOES hate math, and more than that, so do you? Can you turn this around? Can you not only help your child learn math but, in the process, actually appreciate it yourself? I think you can! Larry Martinek, from Mathnasium, says it very well when he states that children ‘hate being confused and…
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Identifying eucalyptus trees is a challenge as it’s such a diverse group of hardwood trees with over 900 native species. Eucalypts form an essential ecosystem for many iconic Australian animals, and identifying them enhances our ability to understand the habitat it provides and enables us to manage and conserve this resource well. Identifying Eucalypts is a complex process and goes…
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The Kangaroo Apple is also known as the Bush Tomato. Only when it’s blushing and bursting with ripe, red fruit is it safe to eat. It’s a magnificent plant to observe over time as the fruit changes from green, yellow, orange, and red while the flowers bloom a lovely lilac. The leaves of the plant resemble the paw print of the…
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Do you know the differences between Australian black birds? Can you tell the differences between an Australian Raven and a Black Butcher Bird? What about a Chough and a Currawong? Learning to distinguish similarities and differences is a fundamental math skill called comparison. Practicing this skill, while doing your nature studies will help it not feel like a math lesson…
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