Kindergartners Track Mammals Into their Classroom

Tomorrow is Spring Equinox. The lengthening daylight hours tell a different story than the two feet of snow on the ground. It is often this way in Central Vermont - and this year I reflect on how the temperature outdoors this March is welcoming to a 6-year old tracker, unlike many of the past weeks of winter. How does ECO (Educating Children Outdoors) happen when the ambient temperature is zero degrees or lower? This winter, we faced 6 weeks in a row of this temperature reality with the kindergartners at Waitsfield Elementary. We spent snippets of our day together outdoors, but mostly, it allowed us to sink into the art of tracking comfortably right in the middle of the kindergarten classrooms! It was as though we were sitting on a sandy lakefront beach during a perfect 68 degree day. 

Students moved their bodies in the four common tracking gait patterns. Students divided into four groups and practiced either walking, waddling, hopping or bounding. We set out four yoga mats, with a template of the gait pattern drawn on it in marker. Afterwards, they created journal entries of the gait pattern different local mammals most often used to move comfortably through the forest. I was amazed to see how accurate their drawings of the four gaits were as they illustrated their understanding of the tracking lesson they had just embodied in class. 

A few frigid January weeks later, we learned about tracking animal sign in the woods from the front lines of the circle rug. Students used plaster casts they had made of mammal tracks (from rubber molds) to

create a story in a long sandbox including two animal signs. The signs we were introduced to included: bed, den, midden, scat, and browse. In these sandboxes, I saw stories that included snowshoe hare tracks hopping to a pile of scat and a browsed upon raspberry patch. I saw red fox tracks walking to his den to bring food for his young, and marking his territory just outside of the den. Students embodied the movement of the animals with the plaster casts and recognized that many different signs are left along the way by each animal. It is all a part of the science and art of tracking.

In retrospect, I am so thankful for these indoor days of “tracking”. Six year-olds learn best with play based and kinesthetic experiences. In order to have fun, their basic needs must be met. Our best bet is that if they are having fun, they are also committing what they are learning to the long term memory bank. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of need reminds us that our basic needs must be met before we can expand beyond them to higher needs on the hierarchy. Lower on the hierarchy are security of the body and of resources. These lower needs were met indoors on  frigid Vermont days. When these and other basic physiological and safety needs are met, children are able to advance up the scale to problem-solving, creativity, self-esteem and confidence, all factors in play-based learning. I’m hoping that this "Spring's" weather welcomes our students’ big curiosity, now that they have had all of that time to play with the tracks inside! 

Tracking with the Trekkers!

Nature has a way of surprising us when we least expect it, revealing mysteries and inspiring awe in everyday occurrences that often go unnoticed.  It could be a flock of robins that converge upon some late season crab apples or a beaver gnawing on a tree under a bridge in town.  At NBNC, we call these "teachable moments" and a few days ago North Branch Nature Center was blessed with something that will provide teachable moments for weeks to come.  That something is a dead white-tailed deer.

The deer was first reported this past Tuesday, near the same location as the Bald Eagle sighting last week during our winter vacation camp (perhaps the eagle was feeding on the carcass).  When first seen, the deer was already more than half eaten but was surrounded in fresh tracks.

Yesterday, the deer provided its first of many lessons when we visited it with the North Branch Trekkers after school program.  We set out with the goal of finding as many different animal tracks as we possibly could near the carcass and in the surrounding area.  We also set up the "Trekkers Cam", which is a motion sensing game camera that will take photos and video of any animal visiting the carcass in between our visits.  After the first night, we captured this footage of our first visitor.

The camera was set to take a 20 second video every time the motion sensor was triggered and then rest for 5 minutes.  This Gray Fox triggered the camera 3 times that night, all between 10:07 and 10:19 p.m.  We could tell that it was the same fox due to the oddly misshapen ears.  This fox will be easily identified if it returns due to this abnormality.  In this next video, you can see what we believe to be a burdock attached to its tail as it walks away from the camera.

 

In addition to the gray fox footage, we also captured multiple recordings of Common Ravens feeding at the carcass throughout the day.  More interesting than the actual video footage of the ravens was the wing and tail impressions that the birds left in the snow.

American Crow wing print

Primary feathers... crow or raven?

We have started a list of animal tracks found near the carcass and the surrounding area.  So far we have gray fox, coyote, bobcat, mink, ermine, otter, long-tailed weasel, red squirrel, mouse, crow, raven, chickadee, and house cat. Below are photos of both the mink and bobcat tracks.

Mink tracks

Bobcat trail

As the weeks roll on, the Trekkers will continue to monitor the carcass, checking the camera and looking for new tracks once a week.  So expect an update a week from today.  Who knows what else will show up!

P.S. -  If this sounds like something your children would enjoy, it is not too late to sign up for Trekkers!  Both boys and girls are welcome to join!

Tracking at NBNC Winter Camp

 

With a fresh dusting of powder atop the hardened snowy crust, conditions were perfect for tracking at NBNC today. Shortly after arriving at the Winter Wonders February Vacation Camp, our group headed outside to put our tracking skills to the test. A fresh set of tracks had been laid the night before, right next to our education barn. After using our newly acquired tracking skills, the group determined that these tracks came from a member of the weasel family due to their ‘bounding’ pattern. And after measuring their size (about 4.5 cm) we determined them to be Mink tracks! But where did the Mink come from and where was it going? We began to follow the trail to find out.

Studying Snowshoe Hare tracks

After following the tracks through the snowy field, we came across a junction between another set of tracks, which we learned to be fox.  But which kind of fox? A scent mark we came upon gave us a clue.  The pungent, skunk-smelling pee is a tell-tale sign of Red Fox!  We kept following, and came to some deep tracks, sunken at least a foot into the snow.   We determined them to be deer, a much heavier animal capable of sinking so deep.  We continued on.

After following the tracks into a small grove of hemlocks, we found even more tracks criss-crossing around.  Red Squirrel had been busy running from tree-to-tree.  And to our surprise, we found a nice set of Snowshoe Hare tracks!  Later, we located the hare’s path through the fields, and measured an astounding 15 feet that the hare had covered in just 2 jumps!

measuring the stride of the Snowshoe Hare

All this was seen within 100 yards of the NBNC building. We got a glimpse into all the animal movement that takes place at NBNC while we’re not looking.  After arriving back to the barn for snack, the group mapped the path of these animals as they traveled about.  It was an exciting start to our day of camp!

Our tracking map