Today, on a 60 degree November day, we learned about how animals can prepare for winter,. However, if November continues to be as beautiful as it has been, I am not sure how many of our animal friends will even need to do what we are studying.
After reading Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows, we went on a search for potential spots animals might visit in winter. We found a few tree cavities that intrigued us and even found a friendly (though lifeless) mouse nearby. Then, after researching for natural homes for our winter friends and talking about how some animals hibernate and other stay active through winter, we migrated to the wooded area to check on the "mouse houses" we created last week. Many friends found that there houses were definitely visited by an animal friend or two!
We used our brand new Mouse House journals to describe our mouse house setting through illustrations before sharing our artwork with our regular writing partners.
Then it was off to potentially relocate or mouse house, add corn and/or seed to it, and have a snack of our own before we went snowshoeing. . . . .in grass and leaves.
Winter and the snow it brings can arrive anytime now so we have spent a few minutes here and there practicing putting on our snowshoes. Today, with the grass long and a little bit harder than usual due to an overnight freeze, it was time to put that practice to test.
We went on a nice "leafshoe" hike in our snowshoes. We had a few fall off on the way and some loosen up, but overall, it was a great success.
In the afternoon, we practiced our math directional words in the hidden forest by standing next to trees,
running and walking through the leaves,
jumping over fallen branches,
and standing under sticks. We also worked on across and behind.
We also reviewed big, bigger, and biggest and small, smaller, and smallest with natural items.
Wrapping up, we decided to review our preparation for winter activities by c a new acronym chant "Hibernate, Activate, Migrate, HAM!" Hibernate, Activate, Migrate, HAM!" Hibernate, Activate, Migrate, HAM!" Then, we went back to the woods to search fr new potential places our animals might sleep or store food for winter. We found many wonderful spots, including one of our soon to be hibernators, the woolly bear.
By this time, the temperatures had warmed up so many students found interesting places to hang their coats.
And, as is the routine, we checked ourselves over for ticks before heading in and wrapping up another awesome day of outdoor learning.
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