Category: Cycles in Nature

Winter Ways – Activities

FOCUS: Of the four seasons in the year, winter is the most difficult for living things.  Temperatures are often cold, days are shorter, the ground is frozen and covered with snow, and there is a dearth of food for many creatures. Each animal species has evolved a survival strategy, and plants overwinter in different ways as well. The dried seed heads of winter weeds provide a welcome source of food for many animals.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about winter compared to other seasons.

Gather the children outdoors and ask them to use their senses to notice and wonder about challenges animals and plants face in the winter. What are some ways that animals overcome these challenges?

WINTER SURVEY
Objective: To observe conditions outdoors, noticing plants in their winter stages and looking for evidence of animal activity.

What can we find outside in winter? While the migrants are gone, the hibernators and dormant animals are hidden, and plants are in their winter survival modes, we can still look for active animals and signs of the season. Continue reading Winter Ways – Activities

Winter Ways – Puppet Show

It’s Snow Picnic

Characters: Matthew Mouse, Woody Woodchuck, Simone Skunk, Ferdy Fir Tree, Goldy Goldfinch, Heidi Hare.

Props: Sign saying “January 1st,” piece of white fabric to cover stage, dried weed stalk with seed head, cotton balls.

Matthew Mouse  Oh boy! A snowflake in October! Winter’s coming! I should have a party to celebrate winter. I’ll have it in January when there’s plenty of snow. Why, here’s Woody Woodchuck. Hi, Woody.

Woodchuck  Hi, Matthew Mouse. Brrr, it’s cold today! I’m going back in my den!

Mouse  Wait, Woody!  I’m going to have a winter party, in January, and you’re invited. Continue reading Winter Ways – Puppet Show

Winter Ways – Standards

WINTER WAYS ALIGNMENT WITH
NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS
The activities in this unit help children understand the basic concepts in the Disciplinary Core Ideas listed here. You can use the following list as a guide for lesson planning. These Disciplinary Core Ideas are taken from Grade Band Endpoints in A Framework for K-12 Science Education. Additionally, our activities give children opportunities to engage in many of the Science and Engineering Practices and reflect on the Crosscutting Concepts as identified in the Next Generation Science Standards. Continue reading Winter Ways – Standards

Sugar Maples – Background

The much-loved sugar maple tree provides food and shelter for wild animals, leafy shade in the summer, spectacular colors in the fall, firewood in winter, and the finest syrup in early spring. Learning to know sugar maples better and understanding how they produce the sap for the syrup we love so well can only increase our appreciation of these delightful trees.

Maples are easy to identify if you take a closer look at their growth habit. Continue reading Sugar Maples – Background

Sugar Maples – Activities

FOCUS:  The combination of warm days and cold nights in early spring reawakens maple trees and starts the sap flowing. This yearly event in the life cycle of a maple tree provides sugar makers with the sap needed to produce maple syrup. Even without leaves, sugar maples can be recognized by their bark, twigs, and buds, so we know we are tapping the right trees.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about maple sugaring.

Pass out a sugar maple twig to each child, and ask children to observe and describe their twigs.

Materials: sugar maple twigs, one for each child; magnifying lenses.

SUGAR MAPLE TWIG ID
Objective: To observe patterns of similarities and differences among a variety of winter twigs, and learn the special characteristics of sugar maple twigs.

Ahead of time, cut fresh twigs from sugar maple and three or four other opposite-branching trees (e.g. ash, red maple, silver maple, Norway maple, ash-leaf maple/box elder), enough so that there is one for each child. In addition, cut a fresh twig from an alternate-branching tree (e.g. elm, beech, poplar). Continue reading Sugar Maples – Activities

Sugar Maples – Puppet Show

The Sweetest Sap

Characters: Sammy Squirrel, Grandpa Squirrel, Fir Tree, Beech Tree, Red Maple, Sugar Maple

Sammy Squirrel  Ya know, these acorns are filling, but I’m getting bored with them. All winter long, nothing but nuts and seeds.

Grandpa Squirrel  Well, Sammy, when I was a youngun, I didn’t sit around complainin’. Warm days in the spring, I’d run up a maple tree and drink the sweep sap. Fills ya full o’ energy, sap does. Puts a real frisk in yer tail.

Sammy  A sweet energy drink? Gee, I gotta try that. See ya, Gramps! (exits) Continue reading Sugar Maples – Puppet Show

Sugar Maples – Standards

SUGAR MAPLES ALIGNMENT WITH
NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS
The activities in this unit help children understand the basic concepts in the Disciplinary Core Ideas listed here. You can use the following list as a guide for lesson planning. These Disciplinary Core Ideas are taken from Grade Band Endpoints in A Framework for K-12 Science Education. Additionally, our activities give children opportunities to engage in many of the Science and Engineering Practices and reflect on the Crosscutting Concepts as identified in the Next Generation Science Standards. Continue reading Sugar Maples – Standards

Trees in Winter – Background

Mysteries abound in the winter woods. Besides animal tracks in the snow, we might find nipped-off twigs, gnawed branches, debarked trunks – signs made by animals feeding on trees in winter. To figure out which animal has been doing the eating, we often need to identify the tree species. But, without their leaves at this time of year, trees can be mysteries to us as well. Animals that feed on woody plants have no trouble recognizing which twigs, buds, and bark make the best meals, but for us identifying trees in winter requires a close look and attention to detail, the skills of a good detective.

At the tips of branches, twigs offer many clues to a tree’s identity. Take a closer Continue reading Trees in Winter – Background