Observation/Search Skills; Animals in Winter

The temperature outside was in the teens during our last meeting, so we stayed in and enjoyed our hot chocolate!  Since observation/search skills are important to anyone interested in finding and observing specific parts of nature (spotting sunning reptiles, finding bird nests, locating specific plants, observing how a chipmunk chews into an acorn, watching an insect clean its antennae, etc.), we exercised these skills with two indoor activities:

1. "Camouflage:"
What you need:

• smallish objects (we had 14) - ex: large paper clip, small model alligator, purple post-it pad
• lists of those objects (one for each participant)
• clipboard and pencil for each participant

Everyone takes a good look at all of the objects spread out on a table and then they leave the room for several minutes while one person places the objects around the room.  The idea is for the objects to be camouflaged by their colors, shapes or materials against the background where they are placed.  Important:  the objects must not be hidden - in other words, no putting them out of sight behind, under, or inside of something else; they are visible, but camouflaged.  Also, they should not be above eye level, and - we added - below our knees.

Let the searchers into the room.  Each has a list on a clipboard and a pencil.  The goal is to be the first to find all of the objects, and the winner must be able to point out all of the objects after declaring him/herself the winner.  Important:  as searchers locate objects, they do not react in any way in order not to clue in the other players; making a check mark on the list should happen well away from the object.  The winner gets to hide the objects in the next round.  This was surprisingly challenging! (We played this later in our class, and so had time for only 1 round.)

2. "What's Different?"
What you need:

• at least 3 players

One player volunteers to leave the room and change one thing about his or her appearance - ex:  untie one shoe, make a small cuff in one pant leg, remove a piece of jewelry.  Before this player has left the room to do this, everyone else has taken a good look at him/her.  On re-entering the room, the guessers carefully observe and try to identify what's different.  The first to correctly do this gets to be the next person leaving the room.  Everyone had a chance to change something about him/herself and we were very good at finding out "what's different!"

Animals in Winter

We thought about the animals that have not migrated for the winter.  We were fortunate to be able to borrow several local animals from the Needham Science Center to observe and discuss:
crayfish
spotted salamanders
toad
wood frog
painted turtle
These animals all had in common that they are cold-blooded and enter a period of dormancy to survive the winter.  We talked about how their normal food sources are hard to come by in the winter (ex: insects or worms for the toad) and how cold temperatures affect their bodies.  We are amazed that wood frogs' bodies can actually freeze in frigid temps without killing them.

We also explored how well fur, fat, and wool insulate bodies against the cold by holding these between our hands and a large block of ice (in a large ziplock baggie).