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

Studying Animals by Groups

All animals are classified in a scientific system. This is called taxonomy. Each species belongs to a genus, which belongs to a family, which belongs to an order, which belongs to a class, which belongs to a phylum (the largest grouping). Teachers often study animals in groups, most commonly by class (birds, mammals, reptiles, fish) or by family (cats, bears, ducks, snails, owls). It isn't necessary to know the Latin names for these groups, but it's fun to see how often they relate to words that we know and use, such as felidae (cats)> to feline. When you study a group of animals, you can learn about how they are the same and how they are different. What do all birds have in common? What is the smallest bird? The largest? Do all fish have scales? How is a house cat like a tiger? You and the children can generate many interesting questions to look into. Field guides are excellent resources for studying groups of animals, and there are several series for children in particular. There are also hundreds of websites. Here are a few resources to check out:

1. Peterson Field Guides, such as The Young Birders Guide to Birds of Eastern North America, 2008.

2. National Audubon Society First Field Guides, such as Insects. 1998

3. National Geographic Society kids site:

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/

This site has video clips, stories, games, photographs, etc. about hundreds of animals.

Studying Individual Animal Species

Children often become very interested and engaged in the study of one particular animal, such as the horseshoe crab project pictured here. The study can be inspired by seeing the animal in the schoolyard, reading about it in a book, seeing a photograph that someone brings in, or a visit to a nature museum or zoo. There are literally thousands of resources available for teachers to implement a them or project about one specific type of animal. Here are a few examples:

1. Getting to Know Nature's Children series by Scholastic. This is a great set of 30 different volumes, each focusing on one animal. Most libraries have these in the children's non-fiction section.

2. Google Images. Search on an animal and click on images. You will be able to find hundreds of images for each animal.

3. Live webcams and YouTube videos. There are dozens of live webcams and hundreds of You Tube videos for many animals. Here are two examples:

http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/exploreTheAquarium/webcam-beluga.aspx

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SRAfjvws13E

Try these and then search for more that go along with the animal you are studying.

Approaches to Teaching Nature Science to Young Children

There are many, many approaches to teaching nature science to young children, from micro to macro:

1. Individual species, such as gray squirrels, polar bears, monarch butterflies, or emperor penguins.

2. Groups by classification, such as insects, birds, or bears.

3. Groups by habitats, such as pond, woodland, meadow, or marine coast.

In my next few Blogs, I will focus on each one of these approaches, including strategies, resources, and photographs, as well as ideas for invitations to learning for each topic. Whether you use the thematic or the project approach, you can introduce children to nature science using approaches that will engage them, and engage you as well.

There are literally hundreds of books and web site resources for teachers and children. Here is one to consider.

Sharing Nature with Children, 20th Anniversary Edition, by Joseph Bharat Cornell, Dawn Publications, 1998.

State Nature Symbols

Did you know that every state has an official state bird and flower? Most states also have several other state animals and plants: insects, trees, reptiles, mammals, etc. These symbols often represent a beautiful and common example of the state's wildlife, and it's fun to find out what your state symbols are. Here is a photograph of me feeding my state bird, the Black-capped Chickadee.

There are many online sources for information about state plants and animals. Wikipedia has photographs of all state birds and flowers. For a complete list of all state animals and plants, go to http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/ Have you seen your state bird in the school yard? Is the state tree or flower growing anywhere nearby? I live in Massachusetts. Here are my state animals and plants:

Bird: Black-capped Chickadee

Flower: Mayflower

Tree: American Elm

Insect: Ladybug

Fish: Cod

Marine Mammal: Atlantic Right Whale

Mammal: White-Tailed Deer

Reptile: Garter Snake

Lady Bug, Lady Bug!

Here I am outside with the children letting our Lady Bugs go. Get them at your local garden center.

Lady Bugs are another fascinating insect to study. Here are some Lady Bug facts:

• Lady Bugs are actually beetles, and, like all insects, have six legs
• There are almost 5,000 different kinds of Lady Bugs around the world; 400 species live in North America
• Lady Bugs taste so terrible that birds will not eat them
• Lady Bugs favorite food is aphids
• You can tell Lady Bugs apart by their color and number of spots
• Lady Bugs are the state insect in Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Tennessee (my next blog will be about state animals: birds, insects, etc)

Lady Bug Resources:

1. http://www.insectlore.com/ Insect Lore sells a variety of Lady Bug materials.
2. http://www.google.com/ Search on Lady Bugs, then click Images.
3. www.geocities.com/sseagraves/ladybugteachersguide.htm For Lady Bug information and activity ideas.