Field and Meadow Habitat

At first glance, the field or meadow might appear to be a simple place. However, it is actually a complex system of grasses, wild flowers, insects and birds, as well as many small snakes and mammals. It is a place of delicate beauty and frenzied activity. It literally buzzes. The most obvious group of field animals are the insects: caterpillars, butterflies, grasshoppers, lady bugs, bees, beetles, and ants. Next are the birds: finches, swallows, sparrows, blue birds, and kestrels. The dominant plant groups are grasses and wild flowers: daisies, Queen Anne's Lace, milkweed, thistle, etc. Other field-related topics are seeds, wind, and clouds.
Fields are usually easily accessible for short walks, and there are many teacher guides to maintaining insects for study in the classroom. Look for a children's field guide (such as Peterson's First Field Guides) to both insects and wild flowers. Go to the meadow on your own first and try to identify a few of the things you find. Look under leaves for butterfly eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalises. Monarchs love milkweed, and swallowtails love Queen Anne's Lace.
There are literally hundreds of resources for studying the plants and animals of the field. You can visit the meadow at different seasons to see how it changes through the year: buds and shoots in the spring, flowers and insects during the summer and fall, seeds and tracks in the winter.

For more information, see my book, Science for the Whole Classroom. A good book for beginners with little science background, it includes habitat charts, resources, and activity ideas, including setting up miniature habitats in the classroom and going on short field walks.

Studying Plants and Animals by Habitat

All plants and animals live in a habitat, a specific place where they can get what they need to survive, including food, water, and a safe place to live and reproduce. There are many types of habitats such as the field or meadow, the forest or woodland, the freshwater pond, and the marine coast. There are many more habitats in the United States, even in urban areas, and there are differences in similar habitats depending on what area of the country you live in. A habitat can be very small, and some schools are actually creating their own schoolyard habitats. The advantage of habitat study is that the children can see the entire system of interrelated flora and fauna (plants and animals). When you study a place where plants and animals live, the first thing to do is determine what are the most common groups of plants and animals in this place (for example, trees in the woodland)? Some field guides are actually organized by habitats or regions, such as the Atlantic Seashore. In the next few Blogs, I will go into detail about four different habitats, the plants and animals that live in them, and the resources available for each. You can adapt the information for any habitat to your local area. Natural Science museums are important sources of information and materials for teachers interested in habitat study.

Resources

I. http://www.nwf.org/outside/ National Wildlife Federation

II. http://eelink.net/eetap/info23.pdf Schoolyard Habitat Article