The Outdoor Hour Challenge this week is to learn about squirrels. During autumn, squirrels are still very active gathering their stash of food. This challenge was originally posted as Challenge #45 and we only had a dozen or so people share links. I think that means that there are a lot of you who could still complete this challenge during our Autumn Series.Please Note: If you do not have squirrels to observe, pick another mammal in your local area that you can learn about. Squirrels are rodents so you could choose a muskrat, a mouse, a woodchuck, or a chipmunk from the Handbook of Nature Study and still have a great time learning about a mammal that you have locally.
Here are the videos I shared in the original challenge to get your children interested in squirrels. The first one shows the squirrel's fantastic physical abilities. You will need to click over to my blog to actually view the videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWU0bfo-bSY
This one tries to explain how they can find the nuts they hide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5HffZbeNGk
Amazing.
Outdoor Hour Challenge
Autumn Series #6 Squirrels
(Formerly Challenge#45)
Inside Preparation Work
Read pages 233-237 in the Handbook of Nature Study. Use your highlighter to mark the sections with facts you can share with your children. There are plenty of observation suggestions in Lesson 57 on pages 236 and 237. Keep these ideas in mind as you take your nature walk this week.
“The squirrel’s legs are short because he is essentially a climber rather than a runner; the hips are very strong, which insures his power as a jumper, and his leaps are truly remarkable.”Here is an additional fact sheet on squirrels:
“The squirrel has two pairs of gnawing teeth which are very long and strong, as in all rodents, and he needs to keep busy gnawing hard things with them, or they will grow so long that he cannot use them at all and will starve to death.”
“During the winter, the red squirrel does not remain at home except in the coldest weather, when he lies cozily with his tail wrapped around him like a fur neck-piece to keep him warm.”
Handbook of Nature Study, pages 234 and 235
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/printable/squirrel.html
And here:
http://www.squirrels.org/facts.html
Outdoor Hour Time
Spend 10-15 minutes outdoors on a nature walk. As you walk, discuss where you might find a squirrel in your neighborhood. Remind your child where a squirrel lives and what it eats. If you know there is a squirrel in your yard or at your local park, take along some nuts or seeds to put out and observe the squirrel eating. Never feed a squirrel by hand. Don’t worry if you cannot observe a squirrel this week but rather enjoy your outdoor time during this season and observe any mammals that you come into contact with during your walk.
Follow-Up Activity
For your nature journal you can write out your observations from your squirrel watching. Use the observation suggestions for ideas to include in your entry: describe the color of the fur, how the eyes are placed, what do the paws look like, how does the squirrel climb up and down a tree, describe the sound the squirrel makes as he expresses himself, record the tracks that the squirrel makes in the snow.
I have created a notebook page for you to use with your study this week and it is listed in the free download section of my sidebar.
If you would like to complete a lapbook on mammals, my daughter over at Hearts and Trees has one available for the reasonable price of $3.95:
Hearts and Trees Mammals Lapbook Kit
She also has a Weather Lapbook Kit available that I forgot to mention last week for the weather study. It is also very reasonably priced at $2.95 and will take you and your children more deeply into a study of the weather.
Hearts and Trees Weather Lapbook Kit
If you order a kit, be a little patient. Amanda has just moved to a place where she does not have internet access and it might take a day or two for her to answer your email and get the PDF to you.
Do not forget that you can always catch up on the Autumn Series Challenges over on my Squidoo Lens. I periodically add additional resources and suggestions for related art and music study using the Squidoo Lens.
Please come back and share your link on Mr. Linky. The Autumn Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges is such a great community and everyone loves to see what the other families are doing for their study. Thanks for your participation.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
