Wildlife Is Everywhere!

Wildlife is Everywhere!

Today children made observations and understood that wildlife is all around us. We discussed the differences between wild and domestic animals. Our goal was to find as much wildlife or wildlife signs as we could and record it in our Nature Journals. We split into 2 groups and we both found immediate signs of wildlife all around us. We found skunk scat, grasshoppers, a dragonfly, lots of insects, spiderwebs, claw marks and much more. 

What's this?

QUICK FACTS
Many people think of wildlife as the large animals of Africa, such as lions and elephants, or the large animals of the North American forests, such as grizzly bears and elk. However, wildlife includes any animal that has not been domesticated by people.

In contrast to domesticated animals such as farm animals and pets, which depend on people for their needs, wild animals provide for their own food, water, shelter and other needs. Although plants can also be categorized as wild or domesticated, only wild animals are called wildlife.

Wildlife includes worms, snails, insects, spiders and other invertebrates (animals without a backbone), and vertebrates including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Wildlife also includes very small animals that can be seen only through a microscope.

Wildlife is everywhere-on land, in soil, in water, and in the air. Even in the cleanest houses and buildings.

Recording the wildlife signs in our Nature Journals

Animal Signs

For today's snack we made homemade Trail Mix. Looking for wildlife often means taking along your own food and water. Trail mix is easy to carry and is also nutritious. We made ours with almonds, peanuts, chocolate chips and pretzels.

Cool off time! It's a hot week!

Float or Sink?

Sink or Float?

Backbone Bonanza

Playing the game Camoflauge

Today we learned about vertebrates and some characteristics that distinguish them. All animals with a backbone are called vertebrates. Vertebrates are classified into five groups: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. 

QUICK FACTS

Each vertebrate class can be distinguished by some easily recognized characteristics (though there are some exceptions to almost all of these).

Fish live in the water and breathe with gills. They use fins to move in the water and most are protected by a covering of scales. Most fish lay jelly-like eggs.

Amphibians lay jelly-like eggs in water, which hatch into tadpoles that usually breathe with gills. Amphibians have most skin, four legs and no claws. Salamanders, frogs and toads are common amphibians.

Reptiles have dry, scaly skin. All, except snakes have four legs with claws. They lay leathery eggs on land. Common reptiles include turtles, alligators, lizards and snakes.

Birds are easily distinguished by their feathers. They have two legs and two wings. Bird eggs have hard shells, and most care for their young until they can fly.

Mammals' bodies are at least partially covered with hair or fur. They give live birth and supply milk to their young.

Watch out for deer tics! This one was on the back of Olive's neck. Look at how tiny it is!!!

Today we finished painting our pots. Once they dry, we'll plant lettuce or flowers for children to observe. 

Today's snack was called Bones and Salsa. We trimmed tortillas into bone shapes and spread sour cream and salsa on top! 

Wiggling Worms

Well, today we managed to stay outside for most of the morning until the downpour. Around 11:00 we came inside with our worms. Yes, that's right...worms came inside for a Worm Tail Painting!

We started the morning by going on a worm hunt. Unfortunately and much to our disbelief we only found 2 worms in our yard. So we headed out to the woods. We flipped over rocks and sure enough...JACKPOT! We gathered 12 worms total-enough for everyone to observe at least 1 worm.

We brought the worms back to camp and placed them with a small drop of mud onto our Nature Journals. As we observed their bodies and movements they created trails in the mud. Most of our worms weren't moving as much as we remember from last year, but Kyleigh had the most active worm-crawling onto other's papers!

QUICK FACTS

An earthworm's body is made of rings, called segments. Each segment is surrounded by a set of muscles that helps earthworms move. The muscles enable their bodies to stretch out, thicken, stretch out, and thicken. Tiny bristles on the outside of an earthworm's body help to give it traction such as the tread on a tire or shoe. 

While an earthworm does not have an obvious head or a tail, you can identify the head by which direction the earthworm moves. Earthworms do not have eyes, but they do have special cells that respond to light. They will burrow down into the soil when they sense light. They can tell when someone is near because they can sense the ground shaking. Earthworms do not breathe the way we do, but absorb oxygen through their moist skin. If earthworms' skin dries out, they will die. 

Earthworms are helpful in many ways. They break down dead material and fertilize soil. Their castings (poop) are full of nutrients that enrich the soil and help plants grow. They also loosen the soil with their tunnels which allows water and oxygen to reach plants' roots. 

 

Today's snack was called Worms and Dirt. We put crushed oreo cookies on top of chocolate pudding and served each with gummy worms! Yum! Grace and her mom also made zucchini bread from the fresh zucchini we picked from the garden. It was a delicious snack day!

In a Grasshopper's World

QUICK FACTS

Grasshoppers are insects. They have 3 main body parts: head, thorax and abdomen. Two antennae grow from a grasshopper's head. They use antennae to feel and smell things that are near. The "skin" of a grasshopper is actually a rigid covering called an exoskeleton. They have six legs, as do all insects. The front two pair of legs are relatively short and are used for walking and moving slowly. The two hind legs are much larger and very muscular. Grasshoppers use them to generate their famous gigantic jumps.

Grasshoppers have a relatively short lifespan. Eggs are laid in late summer and fall and remain dormant until spring. When the eggs hatch, tiny nymphs emerge. Grasshopper nymphs look much like miniature wingless adults! The nymph stage lasts about a month and a half. During this time, grasshoppers molt or shed their exoskeleton five times, each time getting bigger and looking more like an adult. Once they become adults, they can live two to three months, but they do not get any bigger.

Capturing Grasshoppers

Our focus for today was to observe grasshoppers in their natural habitat and study them closely. We began our day by talking about how to handle a grasshopper. We want to use two fingers on either side of the middle section, or thorax to hold them firmly without squeezing them. We can also cup our hands around them to capture them. We do not want to pick a grasshopper up by its leg or antennae. They would probably come off. We also know that grasshoppers may not feel comfortable if they are held for long periods of time so we were sure to give them a rest in the terrariums we made. 

A terrarium is a space for creatures to feel like they're in their natural habitat and survive for a short period of time. This also allows us time to observe them without handling them. We used mason jars with secure and well ventilated lids. We lined the bottom with sand and dirt and provided the grasshoppers with moist greens (grasses and vegetables) and dry food (oatmeal). Grasshoppers do not need water because they get enough water from the plants they eat. 

We found all kinds of grasshoppers of all different sizes and colors. We found them in a field and on the side of the trail in the long grasses. We'll have time each day this week to monitor and observe these jumping insects. 

Cooling off in the heat!

TRACKS!

Our Secret Garden

Truck Tracks

QUICK FACTS
Wild animals are all around us, but most of them hide when they hear or sense danger, making it difficult to see them. Lucky for us, wild animals do leave lots of clues about who they are and what they are up to. They chew leaves, scratch bark, dig underground tunnels, build nests, lose feathers, leave scat (poop), and make footprints.

Animal footprints, or tracks, are one way to learn about an animal without actually seeing it. Since different animals leave different tracks, we can identify what animal made a particular set of tracks. Most of us would easily recognize a human footprint in mud or sand from its familiar shape and the fact that it has 5 toes. Likewise, the tracks of other animal families have distinctive shapes and characteristic numbers of toes that help identify them. For instance, deer leave heart=shapes tracks made of two long hooves, while dog tracks are round with four toes and four claws.




Today we laid out some prepared copies of animals tracks and discussed all the different characteristics. How are the tracks the same? How are they different? What might we be able to tell from looking at these tracks? Is the animals hopping, walking or running? How many toes does it have? How big is it?

Then we took our shoes off and painted our feet to make our own tracks. Then we compared our human tracks with the animals tracks. Finally we went on our track hunt. We found vehicle tracks and LOTS of deer tracks! We know that there was a large deer and a small deer walking on our trail. We thought we'd find turkey tracks, but no luck today.

We finished our day by making track crackers for snack. Even though we didn't find as many tracks as we'd like today we can keep looking. Simply being aware of tracks and noticing their differences will reveal many things to even the novice or young child. Be sure to check out your HOME CONNECTIONS and take your WILD CHILD for a Neighborhood Track hunt!

Deer Tracks

Trackers

Making Track Crackers

Ants on Parade & Spider Web Wonders

We began our day by discussing ant behavior and characteristics. We read a wonderful book called Those Amazing Ants by Patricia Brennan Demuth. In this detailed and informative picture book, the author describes the ant's colonies and various chambers they build underground-used for things like a nursery or food storage and even a place for sick and injured ants.

Did you know that all the ants you see walking around are female? These are called female workers. Some females take care of the eggs and larva. Other ants are busy finding food and others are like soldiers, capturing enemies and making them slaves.

The male ants have wings, mate with the queen and then die. They are not around for very long.

As scientists, we conducted an experiment to see which foods ants would most likely eat? We placed wild raspberries, bread, chicken and sugar water on paper plates and placed them in the garden, in the grass and out back on the trail. The 2 popular ant locations proved to be the trail and the yard and the ants seemed to be eating all food items equally!

Next, we learned about spiders and their homes. We talked about the difference between an insect and a spider. Insects have 3 main body parts (head, thorax, abdomen) with 6 legs and 2 antennae. Arachnids, or spiders, have 2 main body parts (cephalothorax and abdomen) with 8 legs and many eyes.

For a snack we ate spider crackers! We spread cream cheese, hummus or peanut butter on round crackers and placed another cracker on top. We tucked pretzel sticks into the edge of the cracker sandwich to make 8 legs. Then we used another round cracker for the abdomen.

First Day of WILD CHILD 2014

   

On Day 1 of WILD CHILD we explored our feelings about creatures and found a little relief from the heat in the cool forest. We were so excited to be together and venture out into the woods that I forgot to take pictures, but here are some moments we did capture. 

We started the morning by coloring the cover pages in our new Nature Journals! We packed them on our exploration, but our hike took most of the morning so we didn't have a chance to write in them today. We'll catch up tomorrow. 

We did an activity called First Impressions before we left for our hike. This is when we hold up a picture of a creature and stand at a place with a face (happy, frown, or not sure) that best describes how children feel about the animal. Once they were at their spot they were encouraged to discuss their feelings. Jack liked mostly all of the creatures! Some of the creatures children didn't like were spiders, ants, mosquitos and snakes because they were scary or annoying. Now we'll begin to learn more about these animals to see if our feelings change. Tomorrow's focus will be about ants and spiders!

Once we returned to the camp we cooled off in the sprinklers and made Ants on a Log for a snack. Each WILD CHILD spread cream cheese, hummus or peanut butter on a pretzel log and put a row of raisin ants on top.

Snack Time

Yummy!

Ants on a Log


What a fun first day! I'm so excited for the rest of this month. Continue to check for tics this evening. We found around 10 tics today on our clothes and bags.