Last Friday we had a visit with Natasha from West Coast Environmental Education Society. She taught us how to use our animal senses when we are out in the forest.
We learned about different animals and the senses they use to survive. The mole uses his big claws to dig. The deer has great ears for hearing. The eagle has sharp eyes for seeing. A butterfly uses it’s feet for tasting. And the bear uses his nose to smell.
With that bit of instruction we were ready to head into the forest behind
our school.
The first sense we used was smell.
Just like a bear we sniffed the sap seeping out of this tree.
We used our eagle eyes to find cones lying on the ground.
Natasha introduced us to deciduous and coniferous trees.
A coniferous tree has cones and we found lots on the ground.
We used our mole hands when we found some fungus on a log.
We dug into the log where it was rotting and changing into dirt.
We used our butterfly touch to explore orange jelly fungus. It felt squishy.
Using our deer ears we heard a frog. One child spotted this frog under a leaf.
The children’s eagle eyes spotted some little bones.
What animal were they from? What happened to the animal?
Lots of questions to explore.
We found a banana slug. He traveled with us for the rest of the walk.
It was a little wet that morning but Natasha was prepared. She had covered our outdoor classroom with a tarp. We played a guessing game. The children put their hand in a container that they couldn’t see into then they had to try to guess what they touched.
The containers had cones in them. Natasha showed us how each were different
and what tree they came from. Each of these trees grow in our forest.
We were able to find others to match.
We finally said goodbye to the banana slug and headed back to the school. Thanks to Natasha for another wonderful Nature & Science lesson.
