Category: Structure and Function

Daunting Defenses – Activities

FOCUS:  Plants and animals have traits that help them avoid being eaten. Defenses like sharp spines, noxious odors, hard shells, and poisons are common in both plant and animal worlds. These last lines of defense help animals to fend off attackers at close quarters. Defensive adaptations help plants protect essential parts needed to produce and ripen seeds for the next generation.

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

Give small groups of children a variety of items that are examples of natural defenses, and ask what they notice and wonder about them. Or give each pair a copy of the Photos of Plant and Animal Defenses in a plastic sleeve. Have children generate a list of plant and animal defenses. List these on a whiteboard.

Materials: Defenses Set: examples of thorny stems, prickly shells, stinging insects, hard shelled nuts, quills, sharp antlers, etc., magnifying lenses, whiteboard, marker; optional: Photos of Plant and Animal Defenses.

PUZZLING OUT PATTERNS
Objective: To use observations to describe patterns of similarities in plant and animal defenses.

Ahead of time, mount each Defense Puzzle on a different colored backing. Place at least two different puzzles at each station. Have the children work in small groups with an adult, each group starting at a different station. Now hand out a puzzle piece to each child and have them find the other pieces that complete their puzzles.
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Daunting Defenses – Puppet Show

The Rascally Bandit Strikes Again

 

Characters: Rocky Raccoon, Patty Porcupine, Toby Turtle, Emmy Eft, Wally Worm, Renee Raspberry, Benjy Bear.

Raccoon Here is the Rascally Bandit, prowling in the dark, striking fear in the hearts of all defenseless creatures! And here comes some prey. Maybe he can catch it!

Patty Porcupine  Hello, Rocky Raccoon.

Raccoon  Oh, it’s you Patty Porcupine. Don’t worry. I won’t eat you.

Porcupine  Eat me? I guess not. With these quills, I’d be a prickly mouthful! Continue reading Daunting Defenses – Puppet Show

Daunting Defenses – Standards

DAUNTING DEFENSES 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 Daunting Defenses – Standards

Beavers and Muskrats – Background

Beavers and muskrats, both rodents with round, furry bodies, twinkling eyes, and dexterous front feet, have a certain charm that endears them to us, even though they can be a nuisance. Both animals live in wetland habitats, and, though they are only distantly related, they have many similarities in their behavior and physical adaptations. Muskrats are beneficial to other wetland animals because they keep waterways open and clear of vegetation. But beavers far outshine muskrats in their skill as engineers and in the profound effect they have on their environment. Continue reading Beavers and Muskrats – Background

Beavers and Muskrats – Activities

FOCUS: Muskrats and beavers are furry mammals that spend much of their lives in and around the water of streams, ponds, and wetlands. Both animals modify their habitat to suit their needs, and beavers in particular have a significant impact on their environment. Beavers and muskrats have many special adaptations for their largely aquatic lives.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about beavers and muskrats.

Give small groups of children several photographs of beavers and muskrats to examine and sort.

Materials an assortment of photographs of beavers and muskrats.

BEAVERS AND MUSKRATS UP CLOSE
Objective: To examine and compare beaver and muskrat skulls and pelts and to consider how their special adaptations function in their lives.

In small groups, give children a chance to hold and study different beaver and muskrat skulls and pelts. Use the Beaver Kit Study Guide questions to help children think about each part and how it relates to a beaver’s or muskrat’s life. Continue reading Beavers and Muskrats – Activities

Beavers and Muskrats – Puppet Show

The Tales of Two Rodents

Characters: Beaver, Blue Jay, Fox, Muskrat

Props: three or four small sticks; two wooden blocks to bang together to make loud clap, cattail prop.

Cattail prop attached to stage

Beaver  (places a stick on stage) Five, six, pick up sticks, seven, eight, lay them straight.

Blue Jay  Hold it, wait a minute, hold on right there. What are you up to, Bernie Beaver? Continue reading Beavers and Muskrats – Puppet Show

Beavers and Muskrats – Standards

BEAVERS AND MUSKRATS 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 Beavers and Muskrats – Standards

The Buzz on Bees – Background

The hum of honeybees as they flit from flower to flower from spring through fall carries the promise of summer fruits and autumn harvest. ­­­ Many flowers depend on bees and other insects to transport their pollen, and that pollen is needed to fertilize the flower’s eggs so they can mature into seeds. The relationship also benefits the bees because they depend on nectar from flowers to make honey and to mix with pollen to feed to their young. When we look at the amazing adaptations of honeybees, both physical and behavioral, we learn much about the life and work of these busy, buzzy insects.

Honeybees are an introduced species brought to North America by settlers from Europe in the 1600’s for honey and to pollinate crops. They are highly efficient pollinators and so come into competition with the native bees that live here. While most native bees are solitary, honeybees are social insects, living in colonies of many thousands of bees. Each colony is a single family comprised of the queen and her offspring. Working together in a highly organized way, honeybees accomplish remarkable feats of construction, navigation, decision making, defense, and honey making – far beyond what an individual insect could do on its own. Native bees (some 400 species in the Northeast) are important pollinators too and we can help them all by having native flowering plants in our yards and gardens. As we watch for insects, we will likely see both honeybees and native bees, and other insect pollinators, visiting the flowers.

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