Classroom Improvements

As we wait for our environmental center to be renovated, I use a kitchen and back room at the community center to run my programs. The spaces I have (and don't have)  make it challenging, especially because some kids do not come to the after school program necessarily because they want to do environmental activities. I've been trying to build up the self-directed education options in the back room so that kids who aren't interested in taking part in a full lesson (usually in the kitchen) can always wander back here with something new and engaging to see....

That being said, I'm trying to develop a touch table that changes weekly with the theme, or possibly displays items from the week before in order to give the kids that don't come everyday a chance to see some of the things they missed.

Second thing I started is a nature observations bulletin board. The kids are allowed to play outside after snack, depending on weather. For the last few days I've had kids running inside to bring me bird feathers they've found outside. This gave me the motivation to think of a way to acknowledge their discoveries. 

I had already created a general observation sheet when we were doing our bird week. My hope is kids will follow my lead (I already had one child do so) especially as we enter spring and see regrowth of nature!!

Life Cycles and Intro to Amphibians

To continue with Reptile and Amphibian week, today I had a few activities to introduce amphibians and talk about animal life cycles.

I set up two sensory bins. A bowl of water to represent a pond and a tray of sand to represent a beach or dirt. I placed tiny frog and turtle figurines in eggs and placed them in the appropriate location that each animal lays their eggs.




The kids had a blast with this, but its definitely important to have a backup activity to switch to right after otherwise they will just want to make a mess with the sand and water. Also, a tip on sand, we happened to have something on handed called therapeutic sand, if you're worried about sand being too messy, definitely look into this. It was firmer and didn't stick to the kids hands as much as normal sand.

This activity helped transition well into talking about the differences and similarities between amphibians like frogs and reptiles like turtles. We did a frog life cycle craft to learn about the process of metamorphosis.

We also spent some time learning the names of common turtle/tortoise species, sea turtles, and salamanders. I laminated some great guides from the NYSDEC which open up to show a picture on one side and descriptions on the other side. We played guessing games where I (and sometimes they) would describe a particular species and we had to look at the pictures guess which one it was.

Turtle Talk

Today started a new week and thus a new theme: Amphibians and Reptiles. Our nature classroom currently has two animals, a greek tortoise and a bearded dragon. We will be getting more as we finish renovating our new Hudson River themed environmental center right next door.

We spent a short time after snack talking about common NY turtles and our turtle, Mateo, who was given a rare opportunity to spend some time outside his tank. Each child was given a chance to hold the turtle (after proper handling directions). I was very impressed with my kindergarten and first graders who were quick to explain to me the difference between a turtle and tortoise (water vs land dwelling). After a week of animal in winter activities, the kids were also very inquisitive about where turtles go in winter ( in mud or dig burrows). We spent time discussing other interesting facts about turtles

• They are reptiles, although commonly thought to be amphibians
• The shell is called a carapace
• Babies hatch from eggs
• Water dwelling turtles have webbed feet

Observations as we fed Mateo:

• A turtle/tortoise can reach their neck out far when reaching for food
• Turtles do not have teeth, instead they have a beak to help break up food

Live animals can either be a big hit or really boring to kids, it all depends on the animals behavior and the kids'moods that day. Today turned out not to be quite a homerun, however some other show and tell pieces such as a turtle skeleton, carapace of two tortoises, and a jaw bone of a snapping turtle really helped keep them engaged.

In my experience with EE, visuals and physical things kids can experience and hold is always more effective than making them sit and listen to a teacher talk.

Hibernation

To end our animals in winter week, we did a fun arts and craft project to test our memory on different animals in winter we've learned about so far.
I really like this activity sheet (found HERE ) because it highlights some animals that are true hibernators, migrators, and some that we can occasionally see or see tracks of in winter. We used cotton balls to add snow to our pictures too. This activity gave me a chance to reinforce and quiz kids on what they've been learning all week. Even though I had a sample project made, I left it up to the kids to figure out where all the parts belong in the picture.


I ran out of time to read both of these to all the students, but the books "The Mitten" and "The Hat" by Jan Brett were one of my favorite books growing up and it's easy to find ways to relate this book to topics of animals in winter and hibernation.

     

Animals in Winter: Part 2

The additional foot of snow we received on Wednesday meant no after school program, but the following day was jam packed with activities to continue our lessons on animals in winter and animal tracks.
One of the struggles with this after-school program has been finding a way to draw kids away from the computers, wii and board games and instead engage in hands-on science education. I set up a trail of different animals tracks from the front door all the way to the room I usually set up my activities in. This DEFINITELY worked as an attention-grabber, even for older kids and the interns that are rarely interested in my stuff were inquisitive and trying to "guess the animal".

Our plaster of paris animal prints were dry today and the kids had the chance to paint them... the idea is just to paint the track, in order to see it better... but most of the kids wanted to go all out on the paint.... (as you'll see below) I made sure I wrote with a sharpie their name, date, and animal print on the back. The plastic take-out containers we poured them in worked really well, the molds easily slid out. Styrofoam containers worked alright too.

Since only a handful of kids made the animal plasters the day before, I also had a matching game set up for other kids to test their animal track identification skills. One table had a series laminated animal tracks, the other table had cards with animals sketches an info about the animal. The goal: find the matches. This was a good ELS activity because the the animal cards had a lot of text on them. Reading the text sometimes helped provide hints on the appropriate match.

After snack, we went snowshoeing! First, we learned a little about the history of snowshoeing. After, we all went outside and tried it out for ourselves. While outside we also saw some animal tracks (likely squirrel) and some bird feathers scattered on the floor. Later the educators realized the feathers were from a bird that was snatched up by a hawk. We could see the hawk was feeding on the top of our building. (we only pointed this out to one or two of the older children... the blood and such made it a little too disturbing for Kindergarten/1st Graders) The kids had fun making their own tracks and getting an opportunity to "float" on the snow instead of sinking in nearly to their hips and thighs. After practicing walking, turning, and looking for animal tracks, we finished up with a race.... lots of wipe outs and snow flying everywhere, but everyone eventually made it to the other side of the courtyard!!

Animals in Winter: Part 1

We made animal tracks today with plaster of paris. (2 parts plaster to one part water) Using recyclable plastic food containers (take out containers) works well and gives kids each their own space to work in. It will probably take about 30-40 minutes for the plaster to dry. I recommend leaving the molds in there as it hardens, but it really depends on the type of molds you have and your experience with plaster of paris. When I did my trial runs, the shape of the prints were not holding well at all unless I left the mold in during the most of the drying time. The molds we had were rubber, they were very easy to pull out even once completely dry.

We discussed different animal tracks and what these animals tend to do to prepare for winter

1. Hibernate

2. Adapt- forage, grow a second coat

3. Migrate

We also read a book about bear hibernation called "Bear Snores On" by Karma Wilson

Tomorrow we will do step 2 of the animals prints- painting them like I did in the sample below, and some more activities to test our recognition of animals tracks.

Groundhog Day

To celebrate Groundhog Day (last Sunday, February 2nd). We learned a bit about groundhogs and did some easy arts and crafts. 

Discussion Points:

• The legend of Groundhog Day and Punxsutawney Phil
• Did the groundhog see his shadow? what does that mean?
• Where does a groundhog live?
• What does he do all winter?
• Features of a groundhog's body 
• New vocab: mammal, hibernate, forage

The color by number can be found HERE

The other activity is a groundhog pop-up. You cover a cup with construction paper and slice the bottom of the cup so that your stick with the groundhog can move up and down. I recommend making the cup right side up (meaning the bottom of the cup is closer to the bottom). Kids will tend to glue the grass on upside down, however you won't get the full effect of the groundhog "hiding"if you do that. 

Directions can be found HERE
Template for just the groundhog cut outs: HERE

This also helped lead well into the theme for the rest of the week: Animals in Winter