Sci Fri: Hibernation & Migration

 

Extending our Autumn studies to animal life and habitat-we learned about hibernation through a three dimensional diorama.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/15/04/15/150415dbaccc46a64a196fda80ee1403.jpg 

Day one of the diorama work, we simply prepared the background and included land, sky and water in our local environment. This tied in with the last segments of the online Telling Tales festival :Land & Water, Earth & Sky. https://tellingtales.org/presentations/land-and-water/

https://tellingtales.org/presentations/earth-and-sky/ 

Afterwards we cut cardboard strips and rolled them for pliability. Using hot glue guns, we formed a bead of glue around the edges of land, water and tree as a ledge for our animals. Then the kids had to determine which local animals winter where and what they require (such as nesting materials, or storerooms for food).

What about the animals that do not hibernate?

They migrate!

 

Sandhill cranes are abundant in the fields these Fall days. Farmers have freshly plowed, leaving an abundance of seed behind, not to mention unearthing many insects that will fill up these birds before their migration South. 

Jean Craighead George, known for her nature novels for youth, has written a picture book based on the Sandhill Crane migration; 'Luck'

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We expanded hibernation studies with stories from Clara Dillinham Pierson and Thornton Burgess, that bring animals to life and lend a plethora of facts about nature and biology in forest, farm and field.