Pre-Visit Lesson for Baltimore Kids on the GFT. Attached Framework C(3) Standards for 4 th grade Social Studies, maps and activity descriptions The field trip is in a Baltimore City park. Every city park is a public space, which means that it is for everyone to enjoy. The field trip starts at Carrie Murray Nature Center in Leakin Park. The address is 1901 Ridgetop Road, Baltimore 21207. The attached map of Baltimore City Parks shows all of the municipal parks and Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine. Show students where Gwynns Falls Leakin Park is. Share the fact that it s the 2 nd largest urban wilderness park east of Portland, Oregon. The park has many interesting places including Carrie Murray Nature Center. Follow the path of the Gwynns Falls Stream and its tributaries has they flow into the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River and then out to the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Begin to tell students what they will be doing on the trip--exploring the concept of habitat. Share that we are visitors in the habitat of lots of wildlife. To help make this fun and interesting, use the attached activities. Show them how to use deer ears and how to do fox walk as an interactive example of how to connect to nature. Ask them to hold their questions until the end. SURVEY Question: COUNT SHOW OF HANDS (ask assistant to help count.) How many of you feel that you are connected to Nature? Tell them it s not a test and there is no right or wrong answer. Write down the answers here. Yes No Logistics o Please check the weather forecast and advise students to dress accordingly. o Ask students to wear old clothes or at least old shoes that are okay for getting dirty. o Consider bringing lunch and eating in the pavilion after the activities o Divide the students into 4 groups before arriving. Make rules together for best behavior during the field trip (examples: staying together, being quiet so as not to frighten wildlife, etc). Write them down on chart paper and ask if everyone agrees with them. We will share them again at the field trip to remind ourselves. Share that we will do a circle time of sharing stories and expressions of gratitude at the end of the trip and demonstrate i.e., share with students a very brief story of something you saw recently in nature and say something you are grateful for. Answer questions students have about the trip. BTW--Feel free to add in a song or other brief interactive activity during the presentation. On the field trip we ll do a lot less talking and much more exploring!
Baltimore Kids on the Gwynns Falls Trail with C(3) Framework Social Studies Standards Sample of activities for exploring the concept of habitat (food, water, shelter, space) and various historic landmarks along the trail (Example: Crimea Estate). Food Students discover wildlife food in the forest by going on a seed hunt. Students then sort their seeds and predict what animals will consume them and/or carry them elsewhere. Students also visit a historic human food/root cellar and discuss how it was used. D2.Geo.5.3-5. Explain how the cultural and environmental characteristics of places change over time. Water Students build a small flutter mill from sticks and cattail leaves then visit a water wheel on the stream trail to learn about the history of mills in Baltimore and the geography of the Gwynns Falls Stream. D2.Geo.4.3-5. Explain how culture influences the way people modify and adapt to their environments. Students visit a historic waterwheel and learn how waterwheels functioned to support mills and pump water to homes. D2.Geo.7.3-5. Explain how cultural and environmental characteristics affect the distribution and movement of people, goods, and ideas. D2.His.2.3-5. Compare life in specific historical time periods to life today. At some locations students can also build miniature rafts with natural objects to test in the water. Students participate in a stick race in the Dead Run stream to measure the distance to the Patapsco River and Chesapeake Bay. Shelter Students discover where macroinvertebrate organisms find shelter in streams that gather forest leaf litter. The historic Crimea Mansion is explained in an interpretive panel and seen in the distance on a hilltop. Its history and significance to the railroads and to the Civil War period is explained. D2.His.2.3-5. Compare life in specific historical time periods to life today. Students are also challenged with building a bird s nest using found natural objects. They also participate in a blindfold activity and explore non-visual strategies to locate a tree in order to notice and locate places using all of the senses. Space Students draw maps of the trail and create a treasure hunt of hidden natural objects. D2.Geo.1.3-5. Construct maps and other graphic representations of both familiar and unfamiliar places. Students also role play as different local animals (predator and prey) to learn how much space each animal will need (Ex. a coyote needs at least one square mile of habitat to range for food and maintain a healthy life). They will also observe different soil samples (describe color, texture and even smell difference) to explore the impact soils have on the growth of plants and thus the health of the environment for animals and humans.
Site of Baltimore Kids on the Trail The Estate that Became a Park Thomas Winans, one of the early builders of railroads, was invited to Russia to construct Russia s first railroad. When he returned to America in the 1850s, he was a wealthy man. He used his fortune to buy a mansion in the city. Then he bought this land for a country estate he called the Crimea; on it he built a stone mansion house (called Orianda it s at the top of the hill and is still used; see the photo on the panel in the meadow). Winans used the meadow area for farming (you can see the old storage cellar and stone ruins of some of the farm buildings near the picnic pavilion). He was an inventor, too, and historians believe the nearby iron water wheel was used to power a pump to send water through pipes up the hill to the Orianda House (see the water wheel in the woods near the meadow). The Winans Estate was bought by the city in the 1940s to create a park. A law-yer, whose last name was Leakin, left money to help purchase it in its will, so this part of the park was named Leakin Park. Across the stream, the city already had bought the land to make Gwynns Falls Park. Today, Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park is the second largest urban wilderness park in the U.S. There are maps for the miles and miles of hiking trails that run all through the park.
Deer Ears (from Coyote s Guide to Connecting with Nature by Young, Haas, and MacGown) Ages: All How to: Show a photo of a deer (close up of head). Let your ears become the huge ears of a deer. Deer ears have huge bulging muscles that can turn about like satellite dishes to focus on different sounds. To put on deer ears, have students cup their hands behind their ears. Stand in front of students and say a sentence out loud. Do you notice that the sounds become louder? Now ask them to cup their hands and put them in front of your ears. Say another sentence out loud from behind the students. Does it make a difference? Wow, you can hear twice as much as your eyes can see because your hearing picks up a full 360 degree sphere of sound. Fox Walk (from Coyote s Guide to Connecting with Nature by Young, Haas, and MacGown) Ages: All Props: none Background: We go outside for various reasons so in order to make nature time different than regular play or sports time outdoors; we can use a nature transition to get students ready. Show students a photo of a fox. Thinking or behaving like a fox can prompt us to be in a certain frame of mind and prepare us to use all of our senses when we go outdoors. This way of being can stimulate creativity, imagination and critical thinking in all ages. How to: Explain how or show a picture of fox tracks and how their paws follow a straight line. They move along very quietly and purposefully. Let your group transition to the outdoors using fox walk, stepping one foot quietly in front of another in a single track. See Fox Tracks below