A field trip before the break

Dear Parents, 

Thank you so much for the cards and gifts some of you sent in this past week. It always means a lot to know that you appreciate the work I do. I'm especially excited to try some of the treats kids have made...I like to think about the next generation of bakers. 

Yesterday's trip was a smashing success. I cannot recommend the High Park Nature Centre enough to you all. We had a lovely exploratory session in the morning, looking at different signs animals leave in the wild and then taking a hike to see what we could find. Because we had so many excellent parent volunteers, my job was mostly to take photos. 

Students did some centre based work: making pinecone feeders, molding clay to look like different types of animal scat, matching animal shelters, and connecting parts of animals to their wholes. 

Put the lard over the pinecone, then roll it in sunflower seeds

 

Match the animal to its tracks

The faces from this centre are really the best. I had a hard time winnowing them down:

The Moose

What kind of feather?

In the afternoon, we talked about different kinds of owls and the special features these kinds of birds have. For example:

Sharp beaks

Binocular vision

 And then we got to take apart some owl pellets. Owl pellets are kind of like hairballs from owls: they cough up all the things they can't digest in these little balls of fur and bone. When you pick them apart, you can tell the kinds of animals owls may have been eating. All the germs were gone thanks to irradiation with UV light, but it was still a little gruesome (for some of the parents more than the kids). You can see from the pictures below how enthralled and engaged they were.

After that, we played an owl trivia race game and role played as hunters seeking food in the forest--half the class hid the prey in one area, then the other half hunted for the tags (and vice versa). 

All in all it was a fantastic day. Thanks to all the parents who slogged through the snow with us. And a very special thanks to Jackson D's mom, Jenny, who showed up with hot chocolate at lunch (and coffee for the grown ups).