December 2021: Farm Detectives
Over the past few months, Developmental Kindergarten classes from Lone Pine and Eastover have been alternating visits between Bowers School Farm and Johnson Nature Center. During their field trips, students have been learning what it means to be and think like a detective by stepping into the role themselves, using investigative skills to solve a new set of mysteries each visit. For their most recent trip in December, students learned and wondered about the predators and prey of a farm. As they explored the farm, students studied and observed various animals for clues to help them to solve the mysteries: Is this animal a predator or prey? Who is their predator? How do they protect themselves against predators?
Nature Names
To kick off the field trip, students had the opportunity to choose their “nature names”. These would become the names they go by when they are visiting either the farm or nature center. These nature names will also be used back at school whenever the class has outdoor learning time. Some of the names that were chosen include Red Fox, Coyote, White Tailed Deer, Bald Eagle and many more!
Chickens
“Eyes on front: likes to hunt…
Eyes on the side: run and hide”
Where are the chickens eyes? On the side of their head! This means that chickens are the prey, because their eyes are on the sides of their heads so they can better see their surroundings and run/hide when they need to!
Student wonders:
“Why do some chickens have missing feathers?”
-Hunter (a.k.a. Coyote)
Sheep (and Llama!)
Sheep are another animal on the farm that has to be aware of predictors. Students were able to watch how two different flocks of sheep responded to a threat (Ms. Leigh entering the pen). As Ms. Leigh attempted to get close to the sheep, she was quickly confronted by Kronk the llama, who put himself between Ms. Leigh and the sheep. The students observed this behavior and decided that those sheep do not have to do much to protect themselves because they have Kronk there to guard them. But what if Kronk wasn’t there? The second flock of sheep did not have a llama to protect them, so students made predictions on what they thought would happen when Ms. Leigh entered the pen. Doing exactly what the students predicted, the immediately ran away from Ms. Leigh. Some students even noticed that when the sheep run away, they still stay together which is one of the ways they protect themselves from predators. They are stronger in numbers!
Student wonders:
“Why was the llama coming up close to us?”
- Vivian
Sensory Lab
To end the day, students explored multiple sensory stations that included various furs, feathers, antlers, eggs, and animal food. Students also took this time as an opportunity to document their findings from today in their nature journals which will be used for each upcoming field trip.
The Animal Challenge
At the start of the field trip, the students were presented with a challenge: they were going to create and design brand new animals. As they explored the farm and gathered knowledge about how various animals protect themselves against predators, students were also collecting ideas on characteristics that would best help their animal survive. Once back in their classrooms, they began the first step of drawing their ideas. The next step will be using various materials to build their animals and comparing likeliness to survive with their classmate’s creations.
Student Thoughts and Wonders:
Being a detective means asking big questions and wondering about so many things! These are some of the thoughts that students shared about the field trip:
“I liked the part where we got our nature names, and when we were in the hayloft and got to look at all the stuff.” - Alex
“What is that big guy's name again?” (Kronk) “haha oh I liked him!” - John
Some great wonderings from Ben- “I wonder why there was a bunch of hay in that place?” (at sensory tables) “When I put the feather from the chicken into the hay, it turned orange. I don’t know why it did that, and I looked closely with a magnifying glass?” “I also noticed there was an eye on the turkey feather.”
“Why does the peacock have that thing that goes up high?” -Noah
“Why was the llama coming up close to us?” - Vivian
“Why do cats eat rats?” -Lily
“Why was there a cat there?” - Emmet
“OooooooooOoo”- Ben, aka Wolf
“Why is the chicken missing some of its feathers?”- Hunter
“I liked it when we were watching the chickens get their drink.” -Isaac
“The barn was fun because it was really big.” -River
“I liked collecting feathers and catching chickens.” -Noah
Teacher Narratives:
Ms. LaCourt: This was an awesome trip to the farm. The kids built up their excitement all week and then the field trip definitely didn’t disappoint when the day came. My students asked great questions and had wonderings from a lot of stuff they saw. They were able to learn about predators and prey, and think about what animals may be predators to certain animals on the farm. They also identified features on the animals, like the chickens and the sheep, that would protect them from a predator. They pointed out right away that the sheep got close and ran away when Ms. Leigh came into their pen. This was a way they defended themselves. During our time at the farm, the students were thinking about a new animal they would make and the features they would add to it as we saw them on the farm. The kids were able to draw their new animal when we got back to the classroom, and in the future, they will be using different materials to make that animal come to life! Overall, the kids learned so much at the farm and they already can’t wait to go back! Plus, each kid getting a cool “nature name” during our trip was so fun for them! We will use these nature names for every field trip.
Ms. Conniff: Our students had a blast at the farm. They were so excited to come back to class and start creating their own animals. We put the rest of our learning for that day aside so we could get started. It is great to see them get creative! Some wanted their animals to have long claws and sharp teeth, while others preferred round, snuggly animals. The students are proud of their nature names and can’t wait to be able to wear their names with pride again.
