Winter is here and it is a great time to learn about birds! Cheer, cheer, cheer! Do you remember what bird makes that sound? How many birds did you see and hear on the side yard of the Hall and on the trails? Thanks Catfish for letting us know that chickadees use a different call in the spring…Cheeseburger! Discuss with your family about the birds who make winter their home here in Harrington, Ontario. How can you help birds in winter?
Well, it was hard to focus on anything other than the snow as everyone arrived to a winter wonderland! Out came the carpets and we were off making trails down the small hill by the hall. Once everyone arrived we gathered together to start our day with the Morning Affirmation and we shared some drawings in our nature notebooks and found out how everyone was feeling this morning. There were lots of students who gave a "thumbs up" because of all the new snow.
After a quick vote, it was decided that we would walk through the deep snow past the Grist Mill to Sunrise Hill to enjoy some crazy carpeting there! Catfish reminded everyone that sharing was first priority as we only had a few carpets. Black Bear kindly gave up one of his turns so Cardinal could participate in the fun. Red Fox gave snowshoeing a try. Dragonfly tried using a tarp to help make a track down the hill both Red Fox and Monarch helped to make tracks. We heard the words “Clear the track”, over and over. The rest is history!
During library time, Grey Squirrel tested our knowledge about winter birds and which live in our area. Were you able to guess all the birds we see around Harrington? Can you name three birds that live in Harrington over the winter? One favourite bird of ours is the Pileated Woodpecker. Thanks to Grey Squirrel for providing us with the materials to make our own woodpecker. With the addition of an elastic, we could help our birds peck away for food. Did you get a chance to share your craft with your family? Don’t worry, Pileated Woodpecker and Hawk…your birds are waiting for you!
Welcome Robert, the ant expert! We were in for a real treat! It was lovely to see how Robert treated his ants like family, setting up their environment to help them thrive and be happy! Monarch looked at the ants and said, “They are so teeny!”. Ants are small but mighty as we soon learned. He taught us that ants hibernate about one metre below the ground and that colonies are called formicarium. One of his colonies were camponotus or carpenter ants and find shelter by living in trees. Did you know that acorn ants can live as a colony in one single acorn? What do ants eat when they are hungry? Do you remember what Robert feeds his ants? I wonder why there are no ants in Antarctica? Why are ants important to the environment? It sounds like the queen ant has a lot of work to keep everything running smoothly. Are you interested in having a colony of your own?
After Robert’s presentation, we were off to visit our shelter area in Mystery Forest! Some of us were excited to find some footprints on the way! Did the place we chose for our shelter look a lot different with all the snow? Cardinal found some loose branches to add to our pile and Black Bear found a big branch that was rotting on a tree nearby. With all his strength, he wiggled it off the tree and we added it to our pile! Glad you weren’t sitting on that loose branch, Black Bear!
What kind of design would you like our group shelter to be? When we were sharing our favourite nature notebooks, Water Strider showed us a strong shelter made of numerous triangles. Catfish also shared his triangular A-frame plan for a fort. Have a chat with your family about our group shelter and maybe visit our chosen space. Would you prefer an A-frame or a lean-to model? A work in progress so keep scratching your heads for ideas to make our shelter safe and comfortable for all of us! Hope we have snow next week! Thanks to Raccoon and Cardinal for taking pictures and helping out on this beautiful winter day.
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