LIFE IN WINTER Teacher s Guide February 2011

Transcription

1 LIFE IN WINTER Teacher s Guide February 2011 Grades 3 & 4 Time: 2 ½ hours Examine animal tracks and other signs to discover the relationship between animals and their habitats. Wisconsin Standards: Students discover how organisms meet their needs to survive. They make observations, ask questions, collect information, make predictions and offer explanations about questions asked. They use critical thinking strategies to interpret and analyze gathered information. Focus Concept: The physical characteristics and behavior of animals in the winter can be analyzed indirectly by carefully observing the signs they leave behind. Essential Understandings, Processes and Skills: Understandings: 1. A habitat is the place where an animal or plant lives and grows. 2. Animals adapt to living in their habitat. 3. Animal signs include tracks, scat, evidence of eating, shelters, etc. 4. Animals can be identified by their browse, scat, tracks and homes. 5. Animals have evolved strategies that enable them to survive during the winter; i.e. migration, insulation, hibernation, food storage, etc. 6. Animals make tracks in four major patterns: diagonal walkers, bounders, gallopers, and waddlers. 7. Herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores can be identified by their teeth. Processes and Skills: 1. Make inferences based on observations. 2. Identify different types of animal signs (scat, tracks, browse, etc.) 3. Accurately identify animal behaviors through tracks, scat, browse, etc. 4. Find and identify the tracks of several different animals. 5. Use animal signs to interpret events. Background: 1 Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.

2 Winter in Wisconsin is a time of short days and long cold nights. Temperatures drop below freezing, wind and snow blow, and food is in short supply. Some animals move to warmer climates during the blustery months of winter. Many songbirds spend the spring and summer in northern breeding grounds, then migrate south to warmer climates where food is still available. Other animals, like chipmunks, have the ability to lower their heart rates, respiration, and body temperatures in a state of partial hibernation. This allows them to get through the winter using up very little of their energy supply. Insects have to survive the cold as well. Some do this by spending the winter as larvae, while others overwinter as adults in large colonies keeping each other warm. Some insects simply die off after leaving behind their eggs. A few insects have evolved the ability to produce glycerol in their blood that acts as an antifreeze to allow them to survive the cold. Those animals that stay active throughout the winter have also evolved ways to make it through until spring. Birds and mammals have feathers and fur that are good insulators, trapping warm air close to their bodies. Squirrels, for instance, will use their large, fluffy tails as windbreaks to protect their backs and heads. Foxes wrap their long, furry tails around their faces to keep them warm while they sleep. And birds fluff up their feathers to allow for a larger area of warm air around their bodies. Whether they stay or move on to warmer climates, hibernate through the cold winter, or scratch out a meager existence in our winter wonderland, most animals fare better with the return of spring s warmth and bounty. Preparation Activities at School: Riveredge is a partner with you, the teacher, in creating a high quality educational experience. We depend on you to prepare your students for their hands-on activities at Riveredge. Please do at least the starred activities before your field trip. This preparation is essential to meet curriculum goals. We are committed to excellence, so if you are unable to meet the minimum expectations in this guide or have any questions, please contact a Riveredge educator for help at 262/ (local) or 262/ (metro). *Denotes important activities that should be done before the field trip. *1. To familiarize your students with the vocabulary words (defined at the end of this guide) ask them to use the words to create a mind map showing how these words and concepts are connected. *2. Acquaint your students with the Animal Tracks handout attached. Note the differences between the patterns each of these types of animals makes. 3. Mysteries in the Snow is a newly revised winter slide program that has been developed by Riveredge staff. It is also available on a disk or on our website at The purpose of the program is to prepare students for their Life in Winter experience at Riveredge. The slide program consists of a carousel of over fifty slides and an accompanying script for you to read as you show the slides to your students. The script includes interactive questioning. It will help your students acquire the skills needed to be successful during their exploration of Life in Winter at Riveredge. If you are interested in using the slide program, please contact the Center in advance of your scheduled program. Mysteries in the Snow is free, however, there will be shipping charge for the slides or disk if they need to be sent. We anticipate that the program will be in high demand, therefore, a $5.00 fee will be assessed if the slides or disk are not returned promptly (within two weeks of your rental). 4. Ask your students to prepare a report or design a poster about a Wisconsin animal. Assign the students an animal or let them choose one that interests them. Require that they include the animal s winter activities. All of the following animals can be found at Riveredge during winter: deer mouse, meadow vole, shrew, squirrel (red or grey), fox (red or grey), weasel (least), mink, raccoon, skunk, opossum, deer (white tail), chickadee (blackcapped), cardinal, owl (great horned, screech, or barred), coyote, muskrat, rabbit (cottontail), and woodchuck. We suggest that students study an animal that they are likely to see some sign of during their visit to Riveredge. Please remind your students that they might not see their animal (esp. if they are nocturnal) during the program but they may see some sign that it has been active here lately. 2 Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.

3 At Riveredge: Please be sure that your students are well dressed. This is an outdoor program. All the discoveries awaiting your students are outdoors. If your students do not have boots, mittens, hats, etc., they will be very uncomfortable! We strongly urge you to be firm with your students and leave at school those students who do not come adequately dressed. 1. Please meet the Riveredge Teacher Naturalists in the main parking lot in front of the Visitor Center. Classes will be divided into smaller groups, each with their own Teacher Naturalist. This is best done upon arrival at Riveredge when the number of students and Teacher Naturalists have been finalized. Please have your students wear name tags. All necessary equipment will be provided by Riveredge. The individual groups, led by the teacher naturalists, will explore signs left by animals in winter at Riveredge. 2. The students participate in a series of activities that require them to observe signs and infer what happened at a particular site. They will be finding places were animals have eaten, left tracks, used the bathroom, and sought shelter. 3. At the discretion of the educational staff, and if there are at least six inches of snow, snowshoes will be used. The students will have a chance to see how snowshoes help them adapt to walking in the snow. The snowshoe portion of the program is simply for the experience of using snowshoes and is not done within the structured discovery part of the program. Follow-up Activities at School: 1. Winter Walk. Take a walk around your schoolyard to see what animals have been active there. Most schools are in an urban area and this investigation will provide a good comparison to the rural area at Riveredge. Note what you see and compare that to your findings from Riveredge. You can even take this activity a step further by brainstorming or even investigating the reason for the similarities or differences. 2. Snow A Stories. Have students create a mystery in the snow. Using tracks and other forms of evidence, have groups of 3 or 4 students create a scene in the snow depicting life in winter. Allow other students to try to interpret the event. 3. Wildlife Feeder. Have the students put out food for wildlife such as bird seed, fruit or corn. Ask them to make observations about the animals visiting the feeding area. Study the T.E.L.S. signs left behind by the diners. Vocabulary: bounder An animal whose track pattern is paired, front or hind feet. browse (noun) Plant matter that has been eaten by deer and other animals; (verb) to consume the tender parts of plants. habitat The place where an animal or plant lives or grows. hibernate To survive the winter cold by entering a deep sleep and surviving on food stored as fat in the animal s body during the summer. inference To deduce what has happened from observable details; an educated guess. migrate The seasonal movement of animals, usually to more southern areas in the fall and back to more northern breeding areas in the spring. observation What you notice as a result of paying close attention to something. scat Animal feces tracks A trail of marks left behind by something, such as a foot, tail, or wheel. waddler An animal whose track pattern alternates between front and hind feet. walker An animal whose track pattern resembles a straight line. Resources: Docekal, Eileen. Nature Detective: How to Solve Outdoor Mysteries. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., N.Y Headstrom, Richard. Identifying Animal Tracks. Dover Publications, New York Miller, Dorcas S., Track Finder A Guide to Mammal Tracks of Eastern North America. Nature Study Guild, Rochester, New York Renzendes, Paul. Tracking and the Art of Seeing: How to Read Animal Tracks and Sign. Camden House Publishing, Inc., Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.

4 Stokes, Donald and Lillian. A Guide to Animal Tracking and Behavior. Little, Brown, and Company, Canada 1986 Stokes, Donald. A Guide to Nature in Winter. Little, Brown, and Company, Canada 1976 Barasch, Lynne. A Winter Walk. Ticknor and Fields 1993 Brett, Jan. The Mitten. G.P. Putman s Sons, N.Y George Barrett, Lindsay. In the Snow: Who s Been Here? Greenwillow Books, N.Y Nail, Jim. Whose Tracks Are These? A Clue Book of Familiar Forest Animals. Roberts Rhinehart Publications, Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.

5 5 Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.

6 6 Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.

7 7 Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.

8 8 Copyright Riveredge Nature Center, This curriculum is for educational purposes only. Copy and/or distribution is not permitted.